A Tree-based Channel Assignment Scheme for Wireless Mesh Networks

Unlike ad hoc networks where traffic is randomly distributed among every pair of nodes, the traffic in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) is predominantly toward or from the Internet Gateways (IGWs)for Internet services. Due to this, interference and collision are more serious in the Mesh Router (MRs) closer to the IGWs and the Internet throughput of the network is limited by the number of orthogonal channels and radios of the IGW. In this paper, we propose a channel assignment scheme which exploits a tree-based topology in WMNs and implements a heuristic channel assignment algorithm, aiming to achieve the maximal Internet throughput. The channels are sequentially assigned level by level in the tree, starting from the IGW. The simulation results show that the network using this scheme achieve the Internet throughput close to the maximal capacity of IGW.