Congestion-aware channel assignment for multi-channel wireless mesh networks

Abstract

a b s t r a c tIn this paper, we propose a distributed congestion-aware channel assignment (DCACA) algorithm for multi-channel wireless mesh networks (MC-WMNs). The frequency channels are assigned according to the congestion measures which indicate the congestion status at each link. Depending on the selected congestion measure (e.g., queueing delay, packet loss probability, and differential backlog), various design objectives can be achieved. Our proposed distributed algorithm is simple to implement as it only requires each node to perform a local search. Unlike most of the previous channel assignment schemes, our proposed algorithm assigns not only the non-overlapped (i.e., orthogonal) frequency channels, but also the partially-overlapped channels. In this regard, we introduce the channel overlapping and mutual interference matrices which model the frequency overlapping among different channels. Simulation results show that in the presence of elastic traffic (e.g., TCP Vegas or TCP Reno) sources, our proposed DCACA algorithm increases the aggregate throughput and also decreases the average packet round-trip compared with the previously proposed Load-Aware channel assignment algorithm. Furthermore, in a congested IEEE 802.11b network setting, compared with the use of three non-overlapped channels, the aggregate network throughput can further be increased by 25% and the average round-trip time can be reduced by more than one half when all the 11 partially-overlapped channels are used.

Review of channel assignment approaches in multi-radio multi-channel wireless mesh network

“…In [37,38], traffic-aware channel interference has been proposed based on the channel load where a channel with least traffic load is selected to resolve the congested links. In [37], each node monitors the traffic load of ongoing links.…”

Joint QoS-Aware Node Clustering and Tax-Based Subcarrier Allocation for Wireless Mesh Networks

“…In the literature, there exists a wide range of channel assignment schemes for wireless networks [7]- [10]. However, most of the existing approaches are not QoS-aware.…”

“…Combining topology control with channel assignment is vital for better network management. TiMesh is proposed to avoid a ripple effect [10], but hampers the notion of frequency reuse, underutilizing the scarce radio resources. Therefore, a novel distributed channel allocation strategy tailored for a clustered mesh backbone is crucial.…”

Cross-Layer Fair Bandwidth Sharing for Multi-Channel Wireless Mesh Networks

“…Some recent work include joint channel assignment and routing [9], joint routing and interface assignment [22], joint topology control and interface assignment [11], and joint channel assignment and congestion control [17]. In the early version of this work, we also studied the joint channel allocation, interface assignment, and media access control design problem [23].…”

“…Das et al [7] proposed an algorithm that maximizes the number of logical links that can be active simultaneously, subject to interference constraints. The algorithm in [7] and those in [9]- [11] are static algorithms and assign channels and interfaces permanently. There are some dynamic algorithms that update the channels and interfaces either in a short-term (e.g., packet-by-packet [12]- [14]) or a long-term basis (e.g., every several minutes [15]- [18]).…”