Patent ID: 7593356

Claim:
In a wireless local area network system with a limited number of fixed physical channels, a plurality of access elements and at least one central control element, a method for dynamically assigning the physical channels comprising: causing one or more access elements to probe for neighboring access elements and to observe and detect signal strength of signals transmitted by the neighboring access elements; collecting physical layer information at said access elements and converting said physical layer information into reportable data about signal strength observed during probing between access elements and about access element load, wherein the reportable data about access element load includes data regarding the percentage of time each of said access elements has been transmitting and receiving data over a specified period of time; for each of a plurality of possible physical channel assignments, constructing a noise and interference matrix from said reportable data, wherein the matrix describes the interference observed at each of the access elements due to interference associated with concurrent signal transmissions of the other access elements based on a possible assignment of the physical channels for the access elements and at least one of the physical channels adjacent to the physical channels selected in the possible assignment; and assigning the physical channels for concurrent, respective use by said access elements based on choosing a channel assignment in the plurality of possible physical channel assignments with an optimal performance metric calculated using said noise and interference matrix.