Optimal link scheduling for real-time traffic in wireless mesh networks in both per-flow and per-path frameworks

In this paper we investigate link scheduling for Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) carrying real-time (i.e., delay-constrained) traffic. We show that the problem of computing a conflict-free link schedule with end-to-end delay constraints can be formulated as a mixed-integer non linear problem that can be optimally solved in reasonable time (i.e., minutes) for relatively large WMNs (up to 20-30 nodes). We use the above result to explore the schedulability region of a WMN with a given routing and input traffic, assessing whether and when aggregating flows which traverse the same path makes a given input flow set schedulable. Furthermore, we devise a heuristic solution strategy, which computes good suboptimal solutions within up to few seconds, thus being amenable for online admission control.