Partially overlapped channels- and flow-based end-to-end channel assignment for multi-radio multi-channel wireless mesh networks

Capacity reduction is a major problem faced by wireless mesh networks. An efficient way to alleviate this problem is proper channel assignment. Current end-toend channel assignment schemes usually focus on the case where channels in distinct frequency bands are assigned to mesh access and backbone, but actually backbone network and access network can use the same IEEE 802.11 technology. Besides, these channel assignment schemes only utilize orthogonal channels to perform channel assignment, and the resulting network interference dramatically degrades network performance. Moreover, Internet-oriented traffic is considered only, and peer-to-peer traffic is omitted, or vice versa. The traffic type does not match the practical network. In this paper, we explore how to exploit partially overlapped channels to perform end-to-end channel assignment in order to achieve effective end-to-end flow transmissions. The proposed flow-based end-to-end channel assignment schemes can conquer the limitations aforementioned. Simulations reveal that loadaware channel assignment can be applied to networks with stable traffic load, and it can achieve near-optimal performance; Traffic-irrelevant channel assignment is suitable for networks with frequent change of traffic load, and it can achieve good balance between performance and overhead. Also, partially overlapped channels' capability of improving network performance is situation-dependent, they should be used carefully.