A Novel Topology Control Scheme for Future Wireless Mesh Networks

In this paper, we address the topology control issue for future wireless mesh networks (WMNs). In particular, we propose a novel topology control scheme that attempts to maximize the overall throughput in the network with random unicast traffic demands. The main idea of the scheme is to establish multiple semi-permanent wireless highways, each of which can convey the traffic for nodes along the highways. To evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme, we conduct theoretical analysis, which demonstrates that viable solutions for highways do exist with high probability. The theoretical analysis also proves the optimality. Within the new topology control framework, we demonstrate that advanced technologies, including network coding and physical-layer network coding (PLNC), can be applied to substantially improve the throughput capacity of the network.