Channel assignment for throughput improvement in multi-radio wireless mesh networks

Abstract

Wireless mesh networks offer many advantages in terms of connectivity and reliability. They provide multiple paths between nodes and are self healing. Traditionally, wireless mesh networks were typically used with nodes equipped with a single radio. There are however, limitations in single radio wireless mesh network, such as lower throughput and its limited use of the available wireless channels. This thesis focuses on the Hybrid Channel Allocation scheme which efficiently utilizes multiple wireless interfaces to achieve better throughput thereby increasing the network capacity. In this thesis we introduce and evaluate different methods to improve the network throughput of a multi radio wireless mesh network. We present the Random and Greedy channel assignment protocols which utilize multiple radio interfaces to improve the throughput and minimize the radio interference of the wireless network.

We also implement the Superimposed Code based channel assignment proposed in [5], to evaluate and compare its performance with the Random and Greedy protocols. These channel assignment protocols allow different nodes in the same network to communicate with each other without causing too much interference to their neighbors. Network scenarios have been designed using the discrete event simulator Opnet Modeler 11.5TM. These network scenarios have been created to compare and evaluate the performance of the channel assignment protocols under different conditions. Simulation results are presented and discussed.