Estimating a relative difference between signal strengths of wireless signals received by a device

A network device in a wireless local area network (WLAN) comprising:

• a memory;
• a processor executing instructions from the memory to:
• determine a first difference between (1) a first transmit power used by a first access point in the WLAN for transmitting a first wireless signal to a client device, and (2) a second transmit power used by a second access point in the WLAN for transmitting a second wireless signal to the client device;
• determine a second difference between (1) a first received signal strength corresponding to a third wireless signal received by the first access point from the client device, and (2) a second received signal strength corresponding to a fourth wireless signal received by the second access point from the client device;
• estimate a third difference between (1) a first received signal strength corresponding to the first wireless signal as received by the client device, and (2) a second received signal strength corresponding to the second wireless signal as received by the client device, based on the first difference and the second difference;
• and
• select one of the first access point and the second access point to provide network access to the client device based on the third difference.

A system comprising:

• a first access point including a hardware processor and a second access point including a hardware processor;
• the system being configured to perform operations comprising:
• determining a first difference between (1) a first transmit power used by a first access point in the WLAN for transmitting a first wireless signal to a client device, and (2) a second transmit power used by a second access point n the WLAN for transmitting a second wireless signal to the client device;
• determining a second difference between (1) a first received signal strength corresponding to a third wireless signal received by the first access point from the client device, and (2) a second received signal strength corresponding to a fourth wireless signal received by the second access point from the client device;
• estimating a third difference between (1) a first received signal strength corresponding to the first wireless signal as received by the client device, and (2) a second received signal strength corresponding to the second wireless signal as received by the client device, based on the first difference and the second difference;
• and
• selecting one of the first access point and the second access point to provide network access to the client device based on the third difference.