In high-density network environments with multiple access points (APs) and stations, individual uplink scheduling by each AP can severely interfere with the uplink transmissions of neighboring APs and their associated stations. In congested areas where concurrent uplink transmissions may lead to significant interference, it would be beneficial to deploy a cooperative scheduler or a central coordinating entity responsible for orchestrating cooperative uplink scheduling by assigning several neighboring APs to support the uplink transmission of a single station within a proximate service area to alleviate the excessive interference. Cooperative uplink scheduling facilitated by cooperative information sharing and management is poised to improve the likelihood of successful uplink transmissions in areas with a high concentration of APs and stations. Nonetheless, it is crucial to account for the queue stability of the stations and the potential delays arising from information exchange and the decision-making process in uplink scheduling to maintain the overall effectiveness of the cooperative approach. In this paper, we propose a Lyapunov drift-plus-penalty framework-based cooperative uplink scheduling method for densely populated Wi-Fi networks. The cooperative scheduler aggregates information, such as signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and queue status. During the aggregation procedure, propagation delays are also estimated and utilized as a value of expected cooperation delays in scheduling decisions. Upon aggregating the information, the cooperative scheduler calculates the Lyapunov drift-plus-penalty value, incorporating a predefined model parameter to adjust the system accordingly. Among the possible scheduling candidates, the proposed method proceeds to make uplink decisions that aim to reduce the upper bound of the Lyapunov drift-plus-penalty value, thereby improving the network performance and stability without a severe increase in cooperation delay in highly congested areas. Through comprehensive performance evaluations, the proposed method effectively enhances network performance with an appropriate model parameter. The performance improvement is particularly notable in highly congested areas and is achieved without a severe increase in cooperation delays.
Keywords: Lyapunov drift-plus-penalty; Wi-Fi networks; cooperative uplink scheduling; trade-off modeling.