The cross-layer cognitive routing with load balance in heterogeneous wireless mesh networks

The wireless mesh network (WMN) has recently emerged as a promising technology for distributed wireless networking. In multi-radio multi-channel heterogeneous WMNs, load balancing can avoid congestion thus to improve the overall performance. A cross-layer cognitive routing protocol with load balance which using RACIM, a new metric, to choose qualified routing paths is presented. RACIM can evaluate the link quality and load status by incorporating the cross-layer cognitive information, such as channel bandwidth, the rate of transmission bit error (BER) and the frequency of channel etc. In order to share cognitive information between layers, we add a new type of ICMP message. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed protocol.