Routing metric for Wireless Mesh Networks

The Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is a highly capable technology that can offer low-cost and easy-deployable network connectivity to both small-size community networks and large-scale metropolitan networks. As a key emerging technology to provide the next generation broadband networking, WMN combines the advantages of both mobile ad hoc network (MANET) and traditional fixed network, attracting significant industrial and academic attentions. We present a new metric for routing in multi-radio, multihop wireless networks. We focus on wireless networks with stationary nodes, such as community wireless networks. The goal of the metric is to choose a high-throughput path between a source and a destination. Our metric assigns weights to individual links based on the Expected Transmission Time (ETT) of a packet over the link. The ETT is a function of the loss rate and the bandwidth of the link.