vWLAN TM : An Innovative Approach for WLAN
Sachin K Garg · 2012
Most laptops and many desktop PCs include a provision for wireless connectivity (commonly called “Wi-Fi”). However, computers rarely have a provision for more than one WiFi connection at a time, because its own card must serve each connection. Some laptops allow for two WiFi cards, but even that may be problematic because of the physical size and shape of the cards, and because of their need for power. We propose a software-based approach, called vWLAN TM. This software solution virtualizes multiple Wi-Fi cards within the same computer. That is, it creates two or more software WiFi cards in computer memory so that multiple Wi-Fi connections can take place essentially at the same time. This means that the same computer simultaneously can be connected to multiple access points, to different WiFi networks, to multiple nodes in an ad hoc network, or to multiple Wi-Fi channels on the same network. The expanded functionality opens up new applications that previously have been unaddressable by computers equipped with only a single Wi-Fi connection. cards solve a number of important problems with existing wireless network. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II, presents some application that motivated us towards building vWLAN. Section III, provides the background needed for the rest of the paper and Section IV, presents our proposed virtual WiFi approach. Section V, illustrates the impact of Virtualization.