LEAP: Location Estimation and Predictive Handover with Consumer-Grade mmWave Devices

Future millimeter-wave networks will support very high densities of devices and access points. This vastly increases the overhead required for access point selection and beam training. Fortunately, the quasi-optical properties of millimeterwave channels make location-based network optimization a highly promising technique to reduce control overhead in such millimeter-wave WLANs. In this paper, we extract channel state information from off-the-shelf routers, we use it to design a high accuracy location system, and then show how location information enables the optimization of network operations. The resulting scheme, named LEAP, can predict blockage, optimize access point association, and select the most suitable antenna beam patterns while significantly reducing the beam training overhead. We show that compared to standard state-of-the-art 802.11ad systems, LEAP’s location driven management greatly improves network performance and link stability.