Scheduling performance enhancement by network coding in wireless mesh networks

When a wireless mesh network accommodates interactive applications with quality of service requirements, schedulebased protocols are more suitable than contention-based protocols. In this paper, the problem of determining an appropriate schedule assignment for multiple group transmissions within a spatial time division multiple access link scheduling network is referred to as an integrated multiple-group communication and link scheduling problem. A polynomial-time scheduling algorithm, designated as a source-parallel-aware assignment (SPAA), is proposed to increase the spatial utilisation within each time slot in order to enhance the network throughput. Furthermore, an advanced version of SPAA, designated as joint sourceparallel- aware assignment with network coding (JSANC), is proposed to reduce the effects of bottleneck paths on the schedule frame length by flexibly applying conventional or opportunistic network coding approaches. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms achieve a better network throughput than existing flow-based or particular order-based scheduling schemes.