Channel plans for wireless local area networks

A non-transitory machine readable medium comprising instructions which are executable by a processor to:

• obtain data relating to a plurality of access points (APs) in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the data including a current allocation of channels to radios of the APs;
• calculate a new channel plan which assigns a different channel to at least one of the radios;
• and
• apply the new channel plan to the radios of the plurality of APs in response to determining at least one of:
• (a) a difference between a predicted quality metric for the new channel plan and a quality metric for the current allocation of channels to radios exceeds a first predetermined threshold;
• (b) a first proportion of radios which have a channel on which noise exceeds a noise threshold in the current allocation of channels to radios is above a second predetermined threshold;
• (c) a second proportion of radios with a modified channel-related parameter in the new channel plan is above a third predetermined threshold;
• (d) a first change in a metric of network usage exceeds a fourth predetermined threshold;
• and
• (e) a second change in the radio frequency environment as measured by the plurality of APs exceeds a fifth predetermined threshold.

A method of allocating channels to radios in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the method comprising:

• obtaining, by a processor, data from a plurality of access points (APs) in the WLAN, the data including a current allocation of channels to radios of the APs and data relating to a radio frequency environment of the plurality of APs;
• calculating, by the processor, a new channel plan which assigns a different channel to at least one of the radios;
• and
• implementing, by the processor, the new channel plan in response to at least one of:
• determining, by the processor, that a predetermined condition for application of the new channel plan is met, and
• determining, by the processor, that a first metric, which predicts a difference in network performance between the new channel plan and the current allocation of channels, exceeds a first predetermined threshold.