Cross‐layer scheduling for multi‐users in cognitive multi‐radio mesh networks

A wireless mesh network has been popularly researched as a wireless backbone for Internet access. However, the deployment of wireless mesh networks in unlicensed bands of urban areas is challenging because of interference from external users such as residential access points. We have proposed Urban‐X, which is a first attempt towards multi‐radio cognitive mesh networks in industrial, scientific, and medical bands. Urban‐X first controls network topology with a distributed channel assignment to avoid interference in large timescale. In such a topology, we develop a new link‐layer transmission‐scheduling algorithm together with source rate control as a small‐timescale approach, which exploits receiver diversity when receivers of multi‐flows can have different channel conditions because of varying interference. For this purpose, mesh nodes probe the channel condition of received mesh nodes using group Request to Send and group Clear to Send. In this study, we establish a mathematical Urban‐X model in a cross‐layer architecture, adopting a well‐known network utility maximization framework. We demonstrate the feasibility of our idea using a simulation on the model. Simulation results show improved network throughput from exploiting receiver diversity and distributed channel assignment under varying external user interference. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fixed channel assignment algorithm for multi‐radio multi‐channel MESH networks

Recently, multi‐radio mesh technology in wireless networks has been under extensive research. This is because of its potential of overcoming the inherent wireless multi‐hop throughput, scalability and latency problems caused by the half‐duplex nature of the IEEE 802.11. The concept of deploying multiple radios in wireless network access points (APs) has shown a promising way to enhance the channel selection and the route formation while the MESH topology allows more fine‐grained interference management and topology control. Within this realm, given a set of end‐to‐end objectives, there are multiple issues that need to be identified when we consider the optimization problem for fixed multi‐channel multi‐hop wireless networks with multiple radios. This paper addresses the static channel assignment problem for multichannel multi‐radio static wireless mesh networks. We first discuss its similarities and differences with the channel assignment problem in cellular networks (WMN). Next, we present four metrics based on which mesh channel assignments can be obtained. Three of these metrics attempt to maximize simultaneous transmissions in a mesh network, either directly or indirectly. The fourth metric quantifies the ‘diversity’ of a particular assignment and can be used as a secondary criterion to the other three metrics. Related optimization models have also been developed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tree‐based channel assignment schemes for multi‐channel wireless sensor networks

Many sensor node platforms used for establishing wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can support multiple radio channels for wireless communication. Therefore, rather than using a single radio channel for whole network, multiple channels can be utilized in a sensor network simultaneously to decrease overall network interference, which may help increase the aggregate network throughput and decrease packet collisions and delays. This method, however, requires appropriate schemes to be used for assigning channels to nodes for multi‐channel communication in the network. Because data generated by sensor nodes are usually delivered to the sink node using routing trees, a tree‐based channel assignment scheme is a natural approach for assigning channels in a WSN. We present two fast tree‐based channel assignment schemes (called bottom up channel assignment and neighbor count‐based channel assignment) for multi‐channel WSNs. We also propose a new interference metric that is used by our algorithms in making decisions. We validated and evaluated our proposed schemes via extensive simulation experiments. Our simulation results show that our algorithms can decrease interference in a network, thereby increasing performance, and that our algorithms are good alternatives for static channel assignment in WSNs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distributed spectrum assignment for cognitive networks with heterogeneous spectrum opportunities

This paper presents a distributed and localized interference‐aware channel assignment framework for multi‐radio wireless mesh networks in a cognitive network environment. The availability of multiple interfaces and channels in wireless devices is expected to enhance network throughput in wireless mesh networks. A notable design issue in such networks is how to dynamically assign available channels to multiple radio interfaces for maximizing effective network throughput by minimizing interference. The proposed framework uses a novel interference estimation method by utilizing distributed conflict graphs on a per‐interface basis. Presented results obtained via simulation studies in 802.11 based multi‐radio mesh networks indicate that for both homogeneous and heterogeneous primary networks, the proposed protocol can facilitate a large increase in network throughput in comparison with a Common Channel Assignment mechanism that is used as a benchmark in the literature. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A topology preserving cluster‐based channel assignment for wireless mesh networks

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) with multiple radios and multiple channels are expected to resolve the capacity limitation problem of simpler wireless networks. However, optimal WMN channel assignment (CA) is NP complete, and it requires an optimal mapping of available channels to interfaces mounted over mesh routers. Acceptable solutions to CA must minimize network interference and maximize available network throughput. In this paper, we propose a CA solution called as cluster‐based channel assignment (CBCA). CBCA aims at minimizing co‐channel interference yet retaining topology through non‐default CA. Topology preservation is important because it avoids network partitions and is compatible with single‐interface routers in the network. A ‘non‐default’ CA solution is desired because it uses interfaces over different channels and reduces medium contention among neighbors. To the best of our knowledge, CBCA is a unique cluster‐based CA algorithm that addresses topology preservation using a non‐default channel approach. The main advantage of CBCA is it runs in a distributed manner by allowing cluster heads to perform CA independently. CBCA runs in three stages, where first the WMN nodes are partitioned into clusters. The second stage performs binding of interfaces to neighbors and third stage performs CA. The proposed algorithm improves over previous work because it retains network topology and minimizes network interference, which in turn improves available network throughput. Further, when compared with two other CBCA algorithms, CBCA provides better performance in terms of improved network interference, throughput, delay, and packet delivery ratios when tested upon network topologies with various network densities and traffic loads. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Channel Assignment Strategies for Multiradio Wireless Mesh Networks: Issues and Solutions

Next-generation wireless mobile communications will be driven by converged networks that integrate disparate technologies and services. The wireless mesh network is envisaged to be one of the key components in the converged networks of the future, providing flexible high- bandwidth wireless backhaul over large geographical areas. While single radio mesh nodes operating on a single channel suffer from capacity constraints, equipping mesh routers with multiple radios using multiple nonoverlap- ping channels can significantly alleviate the capacity problem and increase the aggregate bandwidth available to the network. However, the assignment of channels to the radio interfaces poses significant challenges. The goal of channel assignment algorithms in multiradio mesh networks is to minimize interference while improving the aggregate network capacity and maintaining the connectivity of the network. In this article we examine the unique constraints of channel assignment in wireless mesh networks and identify the key factors governing assignment schemes, with particular reference to interference, traffic patterns, and multipath connectivity. After presenting a taxonomy of existing channel assignment algorithms for WMNs, we describe a new channel assignment scheme called MesTiC, which incorporates the mesh traffic pattern together with connectivity issues in order to minimize interference in multi- radio mesh networks.     

Nodes organization for channel assignment with topology preservation in multi-radio wireless mesh networks

The wireless mesh network is a new emerging broadband technology providing the last-mile Internet access for mobile users by exploiting the advantage of multiple radios and multiple channels. The throughput improvement of the network relies heavily on the utilizing the orthogonal channels. However, an improper channel assignment scheme may lead to network partition or links failure. In this paper we consider the assignment strategy with topology preservation by organizing the mesh nodes with available channels, and aim at minimizing the co-channel interference in the network. The channel assignment with the topology preservation is proved to be NP-hard and to find the optimized solution in polynomial time is impossible. We have formulated a channel assignment algorithm named as DPSO-CA which is based on the discrete particle swarm optimization and can be used to find the approximate optimized solution. We have shown that our algorithm can be easily extended to the case with uneven traffic load in the network. The impact of radio utilization during the channel assignment process is discussed too. Extensive simulation results have demonstrated that our algorithm has good performance in both dense and sparse networks compared with related works.     

Graph coloring based channel assignment framework for rural wireless mesh networks

IEEE 802.11 based wireless mesh networks with directional antennas are expected to be a new promising technology and an economic approach for providing wireless broadband services in rural areas. In this paper, we discuss interference models and address how they can affect the design of channel assignment in rural mesh networks. We present a new channel assignment framework based on graph coloring for rural wireless mesh networks. The goal of the framework is to allow synchronously transmitting or receiving data from multiple neighbor links at the same time, and continuously doing full-duplex data transfer on every link, creating an efficient rural mesh network without interference. Channel assignment is shown to be NP-hard. We frame this channel allocation problem in terms of Adjacent Vertex Distinguishing Edge Coloring （AVDEC）. Detailed assignment results on grid topology are presented and discussed. Furthermore, we design an algorithm. Finally, we evaluate the perform- ance of the proposed algorithm through extensive simulations and show the algorithm is effective to the regular grid topologies, and the number of colors used by the algorithm is upper bounded by A ~ 1. Hence the algorithm guarantees that the number of channels available in standards such as IEEE 802.11a is sufficient to have a valid AVDEC for many grid topologies. We also evaluate the proposed algorithm for arbitrary graphs. The algorithm provides a lower upper bound on the minimum number of channels to the AVDEC index channel assignment problem.     

Adaptive frequency‐hopping schemes for CR‐based multi‐link satellite networks

In this paper, we study two dynamic frequency hopping (DFH)–based interference mitigation approaches for satellite communications. These techniques exploit the sensing capabilities of a cognitive radio to predict future interference on the upcoming frequency hops. We consider a topology where multiple low Earth orbit satellites transmit packets to a common geostationary equatorial orbit satellite. The FH sequence of each low Earth orbit–geostationary equatorial orbit link is adjusted according to the outcome of out‐of‐band proactive sensing scheme, performed by a cognitive radio module in the geostationary equatorial orbit satellite. On the basis of sensing results, new frequency assignments are made for the upcoming slots, taking into account the transmit powers, achievable rates, and overhead of modifying the FH sequences. In addition, we ensure that all satellite links are assigned channels such that their minimum signal‐to‐interference‐plus‐noise ratio requirements are met, if such an assignment is possible. We formulate two multi‐objective optimization problems: DFH‐Power and DFH‐Rate. Discrete‐time Markov chain analysis is used to predict future channel conditions, where the number of states are inferred using k‐means clustering, and the state transition probabilities are computed using maximum likelihood estimation. Finally, simulation results are presented to evaluate the effects of different system parameters on the performance of the proposed designs.     

Channel‐switching and power control mechanisms for improving network connectivity in wireless mesh networks

A Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) consists of fixed wireless routers, each of which provides service for mobile clients within its coverage area and inter‐connects mesh routers to form a connected mesh backbone. Wireless mesh routers are assigned with a channel or a code to prevent collisions in transmission. With a power control mechanism, each router could be assigned with a power level to control connectivity, interference, spectrum spatial reuse, and topology. Assigning high transmitting power level to a router can enhance the network connectivity but may increase the number of neighbors and worsen the collision problem. How to assign an appropriate power level to each router to improve the network connectivity with a constraint of limited channels is one of the most important issues in WMNs. Given a network topology and a set of channels that has been assigned to mesh routers, the proposed channel‐switching mechanism further reassigns each router with a power level and switches channels of routers to optimize both power efficiency and connectivity. A matrix‐based presentation and operations are proposed to respectively identify and resolve the channel switching problems. Simulation study reveals that the proposed mechanisms increase network throughput and provides a variety of route selection, and thus improves the performance of a given WMN. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An energy efficient channel assignment and routing algorithm for multi-radio wireless mesh networks

Endowing mesh routers with multiple radios is a recent solution to improve the performance of wireless mesh networks. Solving the problem how to assign channels to radios has attracted a lot of attention in the recent years, partly because of the hardness of solving the channel assignment problem jointly with the routing problem. However, the approaches proposed in the literature so far have mainly focused on reducing interference or maximizing the throughput. Little attention has been paid to the energy consumption of wireless mesh networks, given that mesh nodes are usually connected to a power source. However, with the rising concerns about the energy consumed by communication infrastructures, it makes sense to consider the minimization of the energy consumption as an objective of the channel assignment and routing problem. Our work stems from the observation that an idle radio simply overhearing a frame consumes nearly the same power as the radio actually receiving the frame. Hence, energy may be saved by turning off a number of radios, if the performance of the network is not impaired. In this paper, we define the energy efficient channel assignment and routing problem, show that it is NP-hard and propose a heuristic algorithm. For the purpose of comparing the solution found by the proposed algorithm to the optimal solution, we also present two Mixed Integer Linear Programs (MILPs) that optimally solve the problem we address. Finally, we show the results of extensive simulation studies we conducted to assess the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

A weighted interference estimation scheme for interface‐switching wireless mesh networks

The co‐channel interference problem in wireless mesh networks (WMN) is extremely serious due to the heavy aggregated traffic loads and limited available channels. It is preferable for mesh routers to dynamically switch channels according to the accurate estimation of co‐channel interference level in the neighborhood. Most developed interference estimation schemes, however, do not consider the impact of interface switching. Furthermore, the interference in wireless networks has been extensively considered as an all‐or‐nothing event. In this paper, we develop a weighted interference estimation scheme (WIES) for interface‐switching WMN. WIES takes a new version of multi‐interface conflict graph that considers the impacts of frequent interface switching as the interference relationship estimation scheme. Besides, WIES uses a weight to estimate the interference level between links. The weight utilizes two empirical functions to denote the impacts of the relative distance and characteristics of traffic loads in WMN. Extensive NS2 simulations show that WIES achieves significant performance improvements, especially when the interference level of the network is high. We also validate that the interference level of networks is affected by several system parameters such as the number of available channels and the ratio between interference range and transmission range. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interference and traffic aware channel assignment in WiFi-based wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMN) typically employ mesh routers that are equipped with multiple radio interfaces to improve network capacity. The key aspect is to cleverly assign different channels (i.e., frequency bands) to each radio interface to form a WMN with minimum interference. The channel assignment must obey the constraints that the number of different channels assigned to a mesh router is at most the number of interfaces on the router, and the resultant mesh network is connected. This problem is known to be NP-hard. In this paper we propose a hybrid, interference and traffic aware channel assignment (ITACA) scheme that achieves good multi-hop path performance between every node and the designated gateway nodes in a multi-radio WMN network. ITACA addresses the scalability issue by routing traffic over low-interference, high-capacity links and by assigning operating channels in such a way to reduce both intra-flow and inter-flow interference. The proposed solution has been evaluated by means of both simulations and by implementing it over a real-world WMN testbed. Results demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach with performance increase as high as 111%.     

Joint load balanced stable routing and communication segment assignment in mobile cognitive radio ad‐hoc networks

The fundamental issues in mobile cognitive radio ad‐hoc networks are the selection of the optimal stable paths between nodes and proper assignment of the frequency channels/time slots (communication segments) to the links. In this paper, a joint load balanced stable routing and communication segment assignment algorithm is proposed that considers jointly the mobility prediction, mitigating the co‐channel interference and energy consumption. The novelty of the proposed algorithm lies in the increasing of the path stability, which benefits from the maximum link lifetime parameter and introduced weighting function to keep routes away from the PU's region. This avoids the negative impacts on the PUs' operations and decreases the conflict of the cognitive nodes. In the proposed algorithm, the concept of load balancing is considered that yields in the balancing energy consumption in the network, improving the network performance and distributing traffic loads on all available channels. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by evaluating the aggregate interference energy, average end‐to‐end delay, goodput, and the energy usage per packet under 6 scenarios. The results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is significantly better than the recently proposed joint stable routing and channel assignment protocol.     

Minimum Interference Channel Assignment in Multiradio Wireless Mesh Networks

In this paper, we consider multi-hop wireless mesh networks, where each router node is equipped with multiple radio interfaces and multiple channels are available for communication. We address the problem of assigning channels to communication links in the network with the objective of minimizing overall network interference. Since the number of radios on any node can be less than the number of available channels, the channel assignment must obey the constraint that the number of different channels assigned to the links incident on any node is atmost the number of radio interfaces on that node. The above optimization problem is known to be NP-hard. We design centralized and distributed algorithms for the above channel assignment problem. To evaluate the quality of the solutions obtained by our algorithms, we develop a semidefinite program and a linear program formulation of our optimization problem to obtain lower bounds on overall network interference. Empirical evaluations on randomly generated network graphs show that our algorithms perform close to the above established lower bounds, with the difference diminishing rapidly with increase in number of radios. Also, ns-2 simulations as well as experimental studies on testbed demonstrate the performance potential of our channel assignment algorithms in 802.11-based multi-radio mesh networks.     

Joint Channel Assignment and Routing for Throughput Optimization in Multiradio Wireless Mesh Networks

Multihop infrastructure wireless mesh networks offer increased reliability, coverage, and reduced equipment costs over their single-hop counterpart, wireless local area networks. Equipping wireless routers with multiple radios further improves the capacity by transmitting over multiple radios simultaneously using orthogonal channels. Efficient channel assignment and routing is essential for throughput optimization of mesh clients. Efficient channel assignment schemes can greatly relieve the interference effect of close-by transmissions; effective routing schemes can alleviate potential congestion on any gateways to the Internet, thereby improving per-client throughput. Unlike previous heuristic approaches, we mathematically formulate the joint channel assignment and routing problem, taking into account the interference constraints, the number of channels in the network, and the number of radios available at each mesh router. We then use this formulation to develop a solution for our problem that optimizes the overall network throughput subject to fairness constraints on allocation of scarce wireless capacity among mobile clients. We show that the performance of our algorithms is within a constant factor of that of any optimal algorithm for the joint channel assignment and routing problem. Our evaluation demonstrates that our algorithm can effectively exploit the increased number of channels and radios, and it performs much better than the theoretical worst case bounds     

无线Mesh网络集中式信道分配算法设计

以集中式无线Mesh网络(WMN)为基础,分析和研究了传统多信道分配算法,并在此基础上提出了以节点优先级和分组为特点的多接口多信道分配算法(Channel Assignment based on Rank of Node and Link group,CAR-NL),该算法结合节点分级和链路负载预期评估机制,通过节点链路分组按级分配信道。通过仿真实验表明,该算法能有效提高无线Mesh网络多业务流并发执行时系统整体吞吐量,并实现较低的丢包率。     

Interference Mitigation Based on Radio Aware Channel Assignment for Wireless Mesh Networks

An intricate network deployment for high demand users leads to simultaneous transmission in wireless mesh networks. Multiple radios are adapted to individual nodes for improving network performance and Quality of Service (QoS). However, whenever multiple radios are assigned to the same channel, co-located radio interference occurs, which poses a major drawback. This paper proposes a Radio aware Channel Assignment (Ra-CA) mechanism based on a direct graphical model for mitigation of interference in multi-radio multi-channel networks. Initially, the co-located radio interference is identified by classifying non-interfering links for simultaneous transmission in the network. Proposed channel assignment mechanism helps in allocating the minimal number of channels to the network that mitigate co-located radio interference. Performance analysis of the proposed Ra-CA strategy is carried out compared with other existing techniques, like Breadth First Search-Channel Assignment (BFS-CA) and Maximal Independent Set Channel Assignment (MaIS-CA), in multi-radio networks. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed channel assignment scheme is more efficient compared to the existing ones, in terms of QoS parameters like, packet drop rate, packet delivery ratio, transmission delay and throughput.     

On energy‐efficient performance‐guaranteed channel assignment in cognitive radio‐based wireless mesh networks

In recent years, in order to make efficient use of spectrum resources, much attention has been given to solving the problem of channel assignment in cognitive radio‐based wireless mesh networks (CR‐WMNs). Current approaches focus mainly on avoiding interference in order to enhance performance in terms of throughput. WMNs are intended to provide low‐cost multimedia communication. Therefore, in order to provide low‐cost real‐time communication, channel assignment in CR‐WMNs should take into consideration not only the issue of throughput, but also energy consumption and delays. In this paper, we first define an optimization problem to maximize the end‐to‐end throughput per unit of energy consumption while minimizing, as well as guaranteeing, the delay constraint specified for a data stream. Based on this, we then propose a novel distributive heuristic channel assignment approach to solve the optimization problem in a self‐organized manner. Finally, we present the simulation results to evaluate the performance of the proposed solution in terms of end‐to‐end throughput per unit of energy consumption and delays. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extending P2PMesh: topology‐aware schemes for efficient peer‐to‐peer data sharing in wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have emerged as a promising technology that provides low‐cost broadband access to the Internet for fixed and mobile wireless end users. An orthogonal evolution in computer networking has been the rise of peer‐to‐peer (P2P) applications such as P2P data sharing. It is of interest to enable effective P2P data sharing in this type of networks. Conventional P2P data sharing systems are not cognizant of the underlying network topology and therefore suffer from inefficiency. We argue for dual‐layer mesh network architecture with support from wireless mesh routers for P2P applications. The main contribution of this paper is P2PMesh: a topology‐aware system that provides combined architecture and efficient schemes for enabling efficient P2P data sharing in WMNs. The P2PMesh architecture utilizes three schemes: (i) an efficient content lookup that mitigates traffic load imbalance at mesh routers; (ii) an efficient establishment of download paths; and (iii) a data transfer protocol for multi‐hop wireless networks with limited capacity. We note here that the path establishment and data transfer schemes are specific to P2P traffic and that other traffic would use routes determined by the default routing protocol in the WMN. Simulation results suggest that P2PMesh has the potential to improve the performance of P2P applications in a wireless multi‐hop setting; specifically, we focused on data sharing, but other P2P applications can also be supported by this approach. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.