Assignment of Roles and Channels for a Multichannel MAC in Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract

A multichannel MAC improves throughput in wireless mesh networks by multiplexing transmissions across orthogonal channels. In this paper, we propose an efficient way for constructing the wireless mesh structure associated with Molecular MAC, a multichannel MAC layer for efficient packet forwarding. Molecular MAC outperforms other classical approaches, but requires a specific structure for efficient operation. First, we propose a centralized protocol that provides an upper bound for constructing such a molecular structure through a MILP (Mixed Integer Linear Programming) formulation that maximizes network capacity. Then, we present two distributed self-stabilizing heuristic protocols derived from the protocols for constructing respectively a Maximum Independent Set and a Spanning Tree. We compare the performance of the proposed protocols in terms of network capacity and route length.

A Restricted-Weakly Connected Dominating Set for Role Assignment in a Multichannel MAC for Wireless Mesh Network

“…In particular, we have evaluated the performance of the proposed Molecular MAC and shown its efficiency for multi-hop packet forwarding. Then, we have considered the problem of constructing a suitable mesh structure and proposed a centralized optimal algorithm through MILP (Mixed Integer Linear Programming) formulation and two heuristic protocols [13]. In this paper, we extend the last work by proposing a protocol that achieves 2-approximation: in any case, it guarantees at least 50% performance of the optimal centralized algorithm, the performance objective being the sum of link capacities in the constructed molecular mesh network.…”

An overview of topology control mechanisms in multi-radio multi-channel wireless mesh networks

“…In WMNs, due to its distributed essence, distributed MAC is preferred. The MAC protocols for WMNs can be classified into two categories: single-channel and multi-channel MAC protocols [12,13]. Designing an efficient distributed multi-channel MAC protocol for MR-MC WMNs is a much more challenging task.…”

Interference Aware Channel Assignment Scheme in Multichannel Wireless Mesh Networks

“…An interesting problem in WMNs is how to efficiently utilize multiple channels. Several MAC protocols for handling multiple channels have been proposed in the literature [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

“…In [7], both centralized and distributed algorithms are presented, which aim to minimize the number of pairs of links that are interfering. Molecular MAC protocol was proposed to organize the mesh network according to the molecular analogy [8][9][10][11][12]. It divides the network into atoms with nucleus nodes operating on fixed channels and electrons that dynamically switch channels between neighbor nuclei.…”