Realistic interference-free channel assignment for dynamic wireless mesh networks using beamforming

In classical channel assignment (CA) in Multi-Radio Multi-Channel (MRMC) Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs), the number of available frequency channels is assumed to be fixed. Two links that are within the interference range of each other could be assigned the same frequency channel, causing co-channel interference that degrades the network throughput. The objective of this research is to develop a realistic CA method that finds the smallest number of frequency channels required for interferencefree communication among the mesh nodes (MNs) in order to achieve the maximum network throughput while maintaining fairness among the multiple network flows in a dynamic MRMC WMN.

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have emerged as a scalable, reliable, and agile wireless network that supports many types of innovative technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), and Internet of Vehicles (IoV). Due to the limited number of orthogonal channels, interference between channels adversely affects the fair distribution of bandwidth among mesh clients, causing node starvation in terms of insufficient bandwidth distribution, which impedes the adoption of WMN as an efficient access technology. Therefore, a fair channel assignment is crucial for the mesh clients to utilize the available resources. However, the node starvation problem due to unfair channel distribution has been vastly overlooked during channel assignment by the extant research. Instead, existing channel assignment algorithms equally distribute the interference reduction on the links to achieve fairness which neither guarantees a fair distribution of the network bandwidth nor eliminates node starvation. In addition, the metaheuristic-based solutions such as genetic algorithm, which is commonly used for WMN, use randomness in creating initial population and selecting the new generation usually leading the search to local minima. To this end, this study proposes a Fairness-Oriented Semichaotic Genetic Algorithm-Based Channel Assignment Technique (FA-SCGA-CAA) to solve node starvation problem in wireless mesh networks. FA-SCGA-CAA maximizes link fairness while minimizing link interference using a genetic algorithm (GA) with a novel nonlinear fairness-oriented fitness function. The primary chromosome with powerful genes is created based on multicriterion links ranking channel assignment algorithm. Such a chromosome was used with a proposed semichaotic technique to create a strong population that directs the search towards the global minima effectively and efficiently. The proposed semichaotic technique was also used during the mutation and parent selection of the new genes. Extensive experiments were conducted to evaluate the proposed algorithm. A comparison with related work shows that the proposed FA-SCGA-CAA reduced the potential node starvation by 22% and improved network capacity utilization by 23%. It can be concluded that the proposed FA-SCGA-CAA is reliable to maintain high node-level fairness while maximizing the utilization of the network resources, which is the ultimate goal of many wireless networks.

Multi-channel communication in a Wireless Mesh Network with routers having multiple radio interfaces significantly enhances the network capacity. Efficient channel assignment is critical for realization of optimal throughput in such networks. In this paper, we investigate the problem of finding the largest number of links that can be connected with the overall network interference is minimized. Since the number of radios on any node can be less than the number of available channels, the channel assignment must obey the constraint that the number of different channels assigned to the links incident on any node is at most the number of radio interfaces on that node. The above optimization problem is known to be NP-hard. By presenting the theoretical model, the above task is formulated as a multi-objective problem, and then a novel channel assignment based on improved NSGA-II is proposed. Extensive empirical evaluations represent that the novel algorithm proposed in this paper can implement network connectivity with little interference rapidly and efficiently. To meet the actual demand in wireless mesh network, ns-2 simulations are used to demonstrate the performance potential of our channel assignment algorithms in 802.11-based multi-radio mesh networks.

The performance of Multi-Channel Multi-Radio (MC-MR) Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) can be improved significantly with the increase in number of channels and radios. Despite the availability of multiple channels in several of the current wireless standards, only a few of them are non-overlapping and many channels are partially overlapped. In this paper, we formulate the joint channel assignment and flow allocation problem for MC-MR WMNs as a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP). Unlike most of the previous studies, we consider the case of using both non-overlapped and partially overlapped channels. We consider an objective of maximizing aggregate end-to-end throughput and minimizing queueing delay in the network, instead of the sum of link capacities, since the traffic characteristics of a multihop WMN are quite different from a single hop wireless network. Our formulation takes into consideration several important network parameters such as the transmission power of each node, path loss information, signal to interference plus noise ratio at a node, and frequency response of the filters used in the transmitter and receiver. We show by simulations that our MILP formulation makes efficient use of the spectrum, by providing superior channel assignments and flow allocations with the addition of partially overlapped channels, without the use of any additional spectrum.

We consider the channel assignment problem in wireless mesh networks. Due to the limited number of radio interfaces that each node is equipped with, channel assignment must ensure that the interface constraint is obeyed, i.e., the number of different channels assigned to the links incident on a node must be no greater than the number of interfaces the node is equipped with. However, interface constraint may be one of the causes that hinder the performance of some of the existing heuristics. In this paper, we use simulated annealing to solve the channel assignment problem in wireless mesh networks. We propose two neighbor generating approaches that handle the interface constraint in different ways. The first approach starts with an infeasible random solution, and by using the penalty function technique the solution finally converges to a feasible one. The second approach, on the contrary, allows only feasible solutions to be generated during the simulated annealing process. Simulations are conducted that compare our proposed simulated annealing algorithms together with a tabu-based algorithm under different network traffic scenarios. The results show that our algorithms exhibit lower network interference than the tabu-based algorithm.

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have emerged as a promising technology for providing ubiquitous access to mobile users, and quick and easy extension of local area networks into a wide area. Channel assignment problem is proven to be an NP-complete problem in WMNs. This paper aims proposing a new method to solve channel assignment problem in multi-radio, multichannel wireless mesh networks for improving the quality of communications in the network. Here, a new hybrid state channel assignment method is employed. This paper proposes a Link-Layard Protocol and Learning Automata (LLLA) to achieve a smart method for suitable assignment. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has better results compared to AODV method. E.g., it reduces the packet drop considerably without degrading.

In this paper, we consider the problem of channel assignment in multi-radio, multi-channel wireless mesh networks. We assume a binary interference model and represent the set of interfering links in a network topology as a conflict graph. We then develop a new centralised stochastic local search algorithm to find a channel assignment that minimises the network interference. Our algorithm assigns channels to communication links rather than radio interfaces. By doing so, our algorithm not only does preserve the network topology, but is also independent of the network routing layer. We compare the performance of our algorithm with that of a well-known Tabu-based approach by Subramanian et al. on randomly generated sparse and dense network topologies. Using graph-theoretic evaluation and ns2 simulations a widely used discrete event network simulator, we show that our algorithm consistently outperforms the Tabu-based approach in terms of both the network interference and the throughput obtained under various offered loads. In particular, for a practical setting of 3 radio interfaces per mesh node in a dense network topology with 12 channels available, our approach achieves 70% lower network interference and thus 15 times higher average throughput than those achieved by the Tabu-based approach.

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are gaining significant momentum as a promising technology for the next-coming state-of-the-art wireless networking. Among many factors, the performance of WMNs would be largely affected by the properness of the deployed routing protocols and the efficient usage of wireless resources. Routing protocols are required to well capture WMNs' features while wireless channels should be used efficiently in order to accommodate high amount of traffics over the mesh backbone. Recently, a Tree-based Routing (TBR) protocol become a popular state-of-the-art proactive routing protocol and its tree-based broadcasting become an often used technique. Though TBR protocol is well-suited for WMNs' architecture and the skewed nature of traffic toward the root, the protocol in its current form faces issues which has to be addressed. Specifically, when some or all nodes are equipped with multiple radios, to reduce collision and co-channel interference, not only the parent-child relationship but also the sibling relationship need to be constructed by the TBR protocol in the multi-channel WMNs. In this paper, we propose a hybrid tree-based protocol for concurrent routing and channel assignment over WMNs. The protocol makes use of sibling links to mitigate the aforementioned shortcomings of TBR protocol. Moreover, in order to address high backbone traffic, the protocol integrates a receiver-based channel assignment scheme. The protocol efficiently deploys the parent-child topological relationships of nodes to enhance efficiency of broadcast transmissions over receiver-based multi-channel WMNs. Simulation results over NS-2 network simulator reveal that our proposed hybrid tree-based protocol achieves much higher performance than the utilization of the original receiver-based CA and TBR protocol.

Opportunistic routing (OR) involves multiple forwarding candidates to relay packets by taking advantage of the broadcast nature and multi-user diversity of the wireless medium. Compared with Traditional Routing (TR), OR can evidently improve the end to end throughput of Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). At present, there are many achievements concerning OR in the single radio wireless network. However, the study of OR in multi-radio wireless network stays the beginning stage. In this paper, we focus on OR in multi-radio multi-channel WMNs. Directly using the existing channel assignment leads to decreasing the number of candidate forwarder and the performance of OR. According to OR with one-to-more transmission mode, the Candidate Forwarder Set based Channel Assignment (CFSCA) for OR is proposed. Firstly, according to the candidate forwarder selected by routing, we bound the sender node and its candidate forwarders as a Candidate Forwarder Set(CFS). Then we calculate the interference among all the CFSs. Then the channel assignment for OR is described as a minimum CFS interference optimization problem, which must obey the constraints of the channel number of CFS and the number of radio interfaces. The evaluation results show that CFSCA improves 25.2%, 10%, 19% of the aggregative throughput than random, uniform and tradition channel assignment, respectively.Keywordswireless mesh networksmulti-radio and multi-channelopportunistic routingchannel assignment

By exploiting multi-radio multi-channel technology, wireless mesh networks can effectively provide wireless broadband access to the Internet for mobile users. Due to the limited number of orthogonal channels, overlapping channel assignment is one of the main factors that greatly affect the network capacity. However, current results in this area are not so satisfying. In this paper, we first propose a model for measuring achieved network capacity in MR-WMNs. Then we prove that finding an optimal overlapping channel assignment in a given MR-WMN with odd number of channels, is equivalent to finding an optimal assignment by only using its orthogonal channels. This theory allows us to use fewer channels to solve complicated channel assignment problems. Third, we prove that in 802.11b/g MR-WMN the simplified optimization problem is a Max-3-Cut problem. Although this problem is NP-hard, it has an efficient approximation algorithm that achieves approximation ratio of 1.19616 probabilistically by using the algorithm for Max-Cut whose approximation ratio is 1.1383 probabilistically. Based on the algorithm for Max-Cut, this paper proposes Max-Cut based channel assignment (MCCA) which uses a heuristic method to adjust the result produced by the Max-Cut algorithm to achieve an even better result. Finally, we perform extensive simulations to compare the MCCA with a state-of-the-art Tabu-Search based algorithm. The results show that the Max-Cut based overlapping channel assignment algorithm effectively and efficiently improves on the network capacity compared with existing algorithms.

Multi-radio wireless mesh networks (MR-WMN) with a smart channel assignment scheme can be used as a viable cost-effective alternative for a last mile broadband access. The channel assignment algorithm should be such that it reduces the overall interference and increases the aggregate capacity of the network. In this paper, we have concisely presented the key results of our work in progress, which pertain to the evaluation of self-organization algorithm for multi-radio mesh networks. Specifically, the study focuses on the impact of initialization process on the self-organization algorithm performance as it involves mesh node selection for channel assignment. The initialization process results in a topology control of MR-WMN by way of spatial distribution of connectivity between the mesh nodes. The process for initiating the topology of self-organized mesh networks is also described. In order to conclusively show the merits of our initialization process, we have carried out this study for realistic densities of the mesh nodes and their topologies varying from completely random to being ordered in a grid.

Resource allocation and admission control algorithm based on non-cooperation game in wireless mesh networks

Seamless handoff support is an essential issue to ensure continuous communications in wireless mesh networks (WMNs). Due to the existence of multi-hop wireless links, traditional handoff schemes designed for single-hop wireless access networks can hardly guarantee the low handoff latency requirement in WMNs. Existing solutions on reducing the handoff delay in WMNs ignore one important factor for the long handoff delay: the channel access delay of handoff signaling packets over the multi-hop wireless mesh backbone network. Various WMN channel assignment algorithms are designed to optimize the performance of data packets, but they do not address how to resolve the contentions between data packets and handoff signaling packets. In this paper, we propose a novel channel assignment algorithm in WMNs to reduce the channel access delay of handoff signaling packets over multihop wireless links. In addition, handoff solutions under the new channel assignment scheme are proposed. OPNET simulation results show that handoff performance can be improved by our proposed handoff schemes, as compared to existing solutions.

In multi-channel wireless mesh networks (WMNs), it is significantly important to achieve efficient channel utilization. The channel assignment problem, which investigates how to seek a proper mapping between available channels and network interface cards (NICs) on mesh routers (MRs), is attracting more and more attention from the research community. However, most proposed channel assignment approaches assume that NICs are evenly placed on the MRs, and its amount is also pre-determined. Due to the non-uniform distribution of WMN traffic, the equal interface placement will inevitably cause that the bottleneck MRs suffer from NIC shortage, and MRs with less load only have a low utilization of NICs. Hence, in order to improve network performance and reduce network cost, interface placement should be considered carefully in the process of planning a WMN. In this paper, we investigate the joint interface placement and channel assignment problem, i.e., how to appropriately place NICs on MRs and assign channels to them. We first formulate the problem as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model, which aims to minimize the total number of NICs while satisfying logical link, link bandwidth, link interference and traffic demand constraints. Then, we propose an MILP-based heuristic algorithm, using iterated local search to obtain sub-optimal solutions efficiently. Finally, we conduct simulation experiments to compare the heuristic solutions with the optimal solutions, and the results show that our proposed heuristic algorithm can achieve good sub-optimal solutions. Moreover, the simulation results also demonstrate that the algorithm can be well applied in large-scale WMNs where the optimal solutions cannot be obtained, and can perform well under different traffic demands.

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) integrate the advantages of WLANs and mobile Ad Hoc networks, which have become the key techniques of next-generation wireless networks in the context of emergency recovery. Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are multi-hop wireless networks with instant deployment, self-healing, self-organization and self-configuration features. These capabilities make WMNs a promising technology for incident and emergency communication. An incident area network (IAN) needs a reliable and lively routing path during disaster recovery and emergency response operations when infrastructure-based communications and power resources have been destroyed and no routes are available. Power aware routing plays a significant role in WMNs, in order to provide continuous efficient emergency services. The existing power aware routing algorithms used in wireless networks cannot fully fit the characteristics of WMNs, to be used for emergency recovery. This paper proposes a power aware routing algorithm (PARA) for WMNs, which selects optimal paths to send packets, mainly based on the power level of next node along the path. This algorithm was implemented and tested in a proven simulator. The analytic results show that the proposed power node-type aware routing algorithm metric can clearly improve the network performance by reducing the network overheads and maintaining a high delivery ratio with low latency.