An experimental study on multi-channel multi-radio multi-hop wireless networks

In this paper, we present experimental studies on Multi-channel Multi-radio Multi-hop (M3) wireless networks. The interference of multiple channels and multiple radios is studied. The result may help to understand effect of multi-channel and multi-radio in real system and is useful as reference for network performance optimization. We evaluate the coexistence of real-time traffic and best-effort traffic in multi-hop wireless networks. Our experiments show that coordination among wireless nodes is critical for optimal network performance, especially in the scenarios with quality of service (QoS) requirements. To perform the experiments, an M3 testbed with 32 nodes is built. The testbed is based on Windows operating system and provides convenient programming interface and management tools. The architecture and key modules of the testbed design are described.