A Design Method to Select Optimal Routes and Balance Load in Wireless Communication Networks

Wireless networks will play a very important role in the future of military communication networks to support a diverse range of applications such as voice, data, video, broadcast, imagery, and multicast services for users. Recently, Multi-Topology Routing (MTR) was proposed to address the optimal route selection problem by configuring routes tuned to best support different QoS classes. However, based on the static predefined network/link characteristics to create topologies, MTR may fail to adapt to frequent and fast changes of the topology in the wireless network because it does not consider dynamics such as entry/exit of wireless devices, network/link load and channel quality in the topology calculation. To resolve this limitation, we propose a requirement-driven scheme that facilitates multiple active cost functions, one cost function for each traffic class, running on the network simultaneously without predefined multiple topologies. A test bed was constructed to prove this concept. Test results also demonstrate that the router is able to select optimal routes for multiple traffic classes by using multiple routing tables in a modified OLSR (Open Link State Routing) implementation. Thus, this scheme simplifies the network planning, design, and provisioning process. Moreover, it provides a new direction for router architecture in military communication networks.