Performance of a Novel Adaptive Traffic Aggregation Scheme for Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless Mesh Networks are the most promising application of the IEEE 802.11 to the multi-hop wireless domain. The lack of scalability of WMNs installations represents anyhow a major obstacle to their success: in order to overcome such limitation and increase the number of potential users per installation, suitable techniques should be introduced. In this paper we describe a cross-layer scheme that improves the scalability of WMNs using aggregation of MAC layer frames. The scheme couples the routing metrics to the channel state. A closed formula for online computing the optimal burst length based on measurable routing metrics and the number of stations in range is proposed. We tested the scheme on a testbed in the specific case of VoIP flows, and showed a very large gain in the voice capacity attained, even in case of background traffic.