Impacts of Channel Switching Overhead on the Performance of Multicast in Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have emerged as a promising technology for next generation wireless networking. A WMN extends network coverage using wireless mesh routers that communicate with each other via multi-hop wireless communications. One technique to increase the network capacity of WMNs is to use routers equipped with multiple radios capable of transmitting and receiving on multiple channels. In a Multi-Channel Multi-Radio wireless mesh network (MCMR WMN), nodes are capable of transmitting and receiving data simultaneously through different radios and at least theoretically doubling the average throughput. On the other hand, the use of multi-radio and multi-channel technology in many cases requires routers to switch channels for each transmission and/or reception. Channel switching incurs additional costs and delay. In this thesis, we present a simulation-based study of the impacts of channel switching overheads on the performance of multicast in MCMR WMNs. We study how channel switching overheads affect the performance metrics such as packet delivery ratio, throughput, end-to-end delay, and delay jitter of a multicast session. In particular, we examine: 1. the performance of multicast in MCMR WMNs with three orthogonal channels versus eleven overlapping channels defined in IEEE 802.11b. 2. the performance of the Minimum-interference Multi-channel Multi-radio Multicast (M4) algorithm with and without channel switching. 3. the performance of the Multi-Channel Minimum Number of Transmissions (MCMNT) algorithm (which does not do channel switching) in comparison with the M4 algorithm (which performs channel switching)

Joint Channel Assignment and Opportunistic Routing for Maximizing Throughput in Cognitive Radio Networks

In this paper, we consider the joint opportunistic routing and channel assignment problem in multi-channel multi-radio (MCMR) cognitive radio networks (CRNs) for improving aggregate throughput of the secondary users. We first present the nonlinear programming optimization model for this joint problem, taking into account the feature of CRNs-channel uncertainty. Then considering the queue state of a node, we propose a new scheme to select proper forwarding candidates for opportunistic routing. Furthermore, a new algorithm for calculating the forwarding probability of any packet at a node is proposed, which is used to calculate how many packets a forwarder should send, so that the duplicate transmission can be reduced compared with MAC-independent opportunistic routing & encoding (MORE) [11]. Our numerical results show that the proposed scheme performs significantly better that traditional routing and opportunistic routing in which channel assignment strategy is employed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Proc. of IEEE GlobeCom 201

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Towards Optimal Distributed Node Scheduling in a Multihop Wireless Network through Local Voting

In a multihop wireless network, it is crucial but challenging to schedule transmissions in an efficient and fair manner. In this paper, a novel distributed node scheduling algorithm, called Local Voting, is proposed. This algorithm tries to semi-equalize the load (defined as the ratio of the queue length over the number of allocated slots) through slot reallocation based on local information exchange. The algorithm stems from the finding that the shortest delivery time or delay is obtained when the load is semi-equalized throughout the network. In addition, we prove that, with Local Voting, the network system converges asymptotically towards the optimal scheduling. Moreover, through extensive simulations, the performance of Local Voting is further investigated in comparison with several representative scheduling algorithms from the literature. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves better performance than the other distributed algorithms in terms of average delay, maximum delay, and fairness. Despite being distributed, the performance of Local Voting is also found to be very close to a centralized algorithm that is deemed to have the optimal performance

Maximizing multicast call acceptance rate in multi-channel multi-interface wireless mesh networks

In this paper, we consider the problem of constructing bandwidth-guaranteed multicast tree in multi-channel multi-interface wireless mesh networks. We focus on the scenario of dynamic multicast call arrival, where each call has a specific bandwidth requirement. A call is accepted if a multicast tree with sufficient bandwidth on each link can be constructed. Intuitively, if the carried load on both the most-heavily loaded channel and the most-heavily loaded node is minimized, the traffic load in the network will be balanced. If the network load is balanced, more room will be available for accommodating future calls. This would maximize the call acceptance rate in the network. With the above notion of load balancing in mind, an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation is formulated for constructing bandwidth-guaranteed tree. We show that the above problem is NP-hard, and an efficient heuristic algorithm called Largest Coverage Shortest-Path First (LC-SPF) is devised. Simulation results show that LC-SPF yields comparable call acceptance rate as the ILP formulation, but with much shorter running time. © 2010 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Bandwidth-guaranteed multicast in multi-channel multi-interface wireless mesh networks

Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications, 2009, p. 1-5We consider multi-channel multi-interface wireless mesh networks with a schedule-based MAC protocol, where conflict-free transmission is ensured by requiring links assigned with the same channel and within the mutual interference range of each other to be active at different time slots. When a (point-to-multipoint) multicast call arrives, the call is accepted if a multicast distribution tree can be established for connecting the source node with all the receiving nodes, and with sufficient bandwidth reserved on each link. Otherwise, the call is rejected. To maximize the call acceptance rate, the multicast tree must be constructed judiciously upon each call arrival. Aiming at minimizing the carried load on the most-heavily loaded channel, and maximizing the residual capacity of the most heavily loaded node, an integer linear program (ILP) is formulated for multicast tree construction. Since solving ILP can be time-consuming, an efficient heuristic algorithm is then proposed. We compare the two tree construction algorithms by simulations. We found that both algorithms give comparable call acceptance rate, but the heuristic algorithm requires much shorter running time. ©2009 IEEE.published_or_final_versio