Cooperative channel allocation and scheduling in multi-interface wireless mesh networks

Cooperative channel allocation and scheduling are key issues in wireless mesh networks with multiple interfaces and multiple channels. In this paper, we propose a load balance link layer protocol (LBLP) aiming to cooperatively manage the interfaces and channels to improve network throughput. In LBLP, an interface can work in a sending or receiving mode. For the receiving interfaces, the channel assignment is proposed considering the number, position and status of the interfaces, and a task allocation algorithm based on the Huffman tree is developed to minimize the mutual interference. A dynamic link scheduling algorithm is designed for the sending interfaces, making the tradeoff between the end-to-end delay and the interface utilization. A portion of the interfaces can adjust their modes for load balancing according to the link status and the interface load. Simulation results show that the proposed LBLP can work with the existing routing protocols to improve the network throughput substantially and balance the load even when the switching delay is large.