Wireless Systems and Mobility in Next Generation Internet

Abstract

The emerging IEEE 802.11-based Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) suffer of poor performance in terms of throughput. The use of multi-hop paths to relay the traffic raises the problems of intra-flow and inter-flow interference in the wireless backbone. A possible solution to this problem is exploiting a multi-channel framework. In this context, we develop an innovative interfere-ence model that permits to take into account the actual signal power received from each interference source, the interference produced by sources external to the WMN, the link utilization factor and directive antennas. Starting from this new model, we propose a channel assignment algorithm for multi-radio WMNs which is based on graph theory. Its performance is evaluated through simulations, which show a great improvement over existing channel assignment algorithms.