Automatically configured, optimised and QoS aware wireless mesh networks

Abstract

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are comprised of nodes with multiple radio interfaces and provide broadband residential internet access or connectivity to temporal events. Our goal is to simplify the network deployment of such a mesh network, and towards that we are presenting procedures for automatic configuration and optimisation of the network.We first present an architecture framework that supports the integration of key mechanisms to ensure the optimisation of the performance of a wireless mesh network. Secondly, we present three key mechanisms, namely autoconfiguration, channel assignment and quality of service (QoS) enforcement based on QoS routing. We provide a method for automatic mesh start-up, joining a node into an existing mesh network and automatic repair of temporary connectivity outage, targeting at simplifying the node configuration as much as possible. The second mechanism supports an efficient algorithm for joint channel selection and topology control, supporting different target objective expressed as utility functions. The third mechanism supports QoS, by allowing routing and admission control decisions, in order to ensure that all flows are handled with the demanded QoS. Finally, we give some simulation results that show the increased performance of our framework. ©2010 IEEE.