A Coral Reefs Optimization algorithm with substrate layer for robust Wi-Fi channel assignment

In this paper, we tackle a problem of frequency assignment in Wi-Fi networks with a novel evolutionary-type algorithm. In this version of the problem, we consider the interferences originated by the access points, and also by the clients and all the 11 available channels in the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi frequency band. The proposed evolutionary-type algorithm is the Coral Reefs Optimization approach with substrate layer (CRO-SL). It is a recently proposed algorithm, which simulates the processes which occur in real coral reefs, including the reproduction and fight for the space of living corals. This version of the algorithm includes a layer of “substrates” which allows using different search patterns jointly in the algorithm. This way, the CRO-SL is able to apply search patterns such as harmony search, differential evolution, Gaussian-based mutations and other traditional and novel search procedures, including local search algorithms, within a single population of solutions. We show the good performance of the proposed approach in a real case study of Wi-Fi frequency assignment, in the Polytechnic School building of the Universidad de Alcalá (Spain), where different realistic scenarios of the problem have been simulated and successfully solved with the CRO-SL algorithm.