Channel Allocation and Routing in Hybrid Multichannel Multiradio Wireless Mesh Networks

Many efforts have been devoted to maximizing network throughput in a multichannel multiradio wireless mesh network. Most current solutions are based on either purely static or purely dynamic channel allocation approaches. In this paper, we propose a hybrid multichannel multiradio wireless mesh networking architecture, where each mesh node has both static and dynamic interfaces. We first present an Adaptive Dynamic Channel Allocation protocol (ADCA), which considers optimization for both throughput and delay in the channel assignment. In addition, we also propose an Interference and Congestion Aware Routing protocol (ICAR) in the hybrid network with both static and dynamic links, which balances the channel usage in the network. Our simulation results show that compared to previous works, ADCA reduces the packet delay considerably without degrading the network throughput. The hybrid architecture shows much better adaptivity to changing traffic than purely static architecture without dramatic increase in overhead, and achieves lower delay than existing approaches for hybrid networks.