Hidden Node Problem Aware Routing Metric for Wireless LAN Mesh Networks

In this paper, we propose a hidden node problem aware routing metric for wireless LAN (WLAN) mesh networks. To counter the hidden node problem, we utilize the packet collision ratio. This packet collision ratio is estimated from neighbor information, including the transmission time ratio and the neighbor list, as gathered by state announcement packets periodically. Simulation results for a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) communication show that with the acceptable increased control overhead in network due to neighbor information, our proposed routing metric improves the average latency and the packet loss rate performance, and thus allows more concurrent VoIP calls, compared to conventional routing metrics which do not take account of the hidden node problem.