ATAS: A Software-Defined Multicast Aware Framework for Improving IEEE 802.11 Network Efficiency and Performance

Enterprise IEEE 802.11 networks often face performance degradation due to static, client-driven association policies that overlook overall network conditions. Clients tend to remain connected to overloaded Access Points (APs), resulting in congestion, reduced throughput, and poor quality of service. This paper introduces ATAS, an Adaptive Traffic-Aware Association Scheme grounded in Software-Defined Networking (SDN), to address these limitations. ATAS enables centralized, real-time decision-making using global network insights such as AP load, Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), channel occupancy, and individual traffic demands. A key feature of ATAS is its multicast-driven resource distribution strategy, which selectively switches between unicast and multicast transmission modes to maximize simultaneous data delivery efficiency. The scheme also incorporates lightweight mechanisms for dynamic load balancing and signal strength evaluation, thereby improving fairness and reducing retransmissions. We evaluate ATAS through simulation and real-world experimental testbeds in enterprise scenarios. Results show that ATAS improves aggregate throughput by up to 58%, enhances fairness (Jain’s Index) by approximately 25%, and significantly reduces packet retransmissions compared to traditional client-driven approaches. These findings confirm that ATAS offers a practical, scalable, and SDN-compatible solution for next-generation enterprise WLANs, delivering superior performance and flexible resource management aligned with the demands of modern IoT and sensor-rich environments.