On joint optimization of link rate assignment and transmission scheduling in wireless mesh networks

We consider an optimization problem of joint link rate assignment and transmission scheduling in wireless mesh networks. We assume that each radio link uses (when active) one selected link-dependent modulation and coding scheme. For finding an exact optimum, the problem requires a complicated branch-and-price algorithm that becomes excessively time consuming for networks of practical size. Therefore, we introduce an original simulated annealing-based heuristic - the main novelty and purpose of the paper. The heuristic utilizes intrinsic problem characteristics and proves to work efficiently in practice, resolving the trade-off between sub-optimality of the obtained solutions and the running time. Moreover, the heuristic can be effectively used as a lower bound in the branch-and-price process, improving its efficiency. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by means of a numerical study.