Adaptive scheduling algorithm for link recovery in smart metering mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks are widely considered for interconnecting large number of smart metering devices in a locality. For efficient link scheduling, Spatial Time Division Multiple Access (STDMA) is considered over the conservative CSMA/CA scheme where the spectral efficiency improvement primarily comes from spatial reuse and concurrent transmissions. The link scheduling algorithm finely balances the spatial reuse and interference among concurrent transmissions. Nevertheless, the link quality may still get affected due to various sources of noises and changes in the interference environment. As a result, link breakage events are very likely to happen when the SINR level is below the communication threshold. This paper presents an adaptive rescheduling algorithm that reschedules some of the concurrent transmissions in order to reduce the aggregate interference in the precinct of the affected link and thereby improving the chances of link revival. The proposed STDMA link rescheduling algorithm is neck-node centric that is aiming to exploit sector localisation of a large mesh network. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated in terms of schedule length and link revival success rate. The performance results illustrate that with minimal tradeoff in schedule length, a higher success rate of link revival can be achieved. It also shows that the algorithm is potentially scalable for larger number of nodes in the network.