Autonomous load balancing anycast routing for wireless mesh networks: VoIP call support

Voice over IP (VoIP) over a wireless mesh network (WMN) is a killer application candidate of the next generation services over wireless and mobile network infrastructure. Yet, the routing and transport efficiencies in consideration of specific attributes of WMNs have been little emphasized. Distinctively from conventional networks, the major traffic pattern of WMNs is anycast (one-to-one-of-many). To fully utilize the service aspects of WMNs, load balancing and scalability should simultaneously be supported. For VoIP, one challenge is to maintain the perceived quality depending on both loss and delay. In this paper, we assess autonomous load balancing anycast routing regarding VoIP supportability. The protocol is based on physics analogy and a distributed algorithm. We compare the protocol with shortest-path routing and back-pressure routing via simulations. Simulation results exhibit that autonomous load balancing of the protocol efficiently supports voice calls to guarantee the certain level of quality.