A Load Balance Link Layer Protocol for Multi-channel Multi-interface Wireless Mesh Networks

Channel assignment and link scheduling are the key issues in wireless mesh networks with multiple interfaces and multiple channels. In this paper, we proposed a load balance link layer protocol, LBLP, which focuses on these issues aiming to improve the network capacity. The protocol, LBLP, classifies interfaces into three categories: static ones, dynamic ones and adaptive ones, with the following three main contributions. First, to minimize the interference among interfaces, a channel assignment for static interfaces is proposed by considering not only the number and positions of the channels but also the active status of the interfaces, Second, the link scheduler seeks a mechanism to map channel queues with the dynamic interfaces aiming to reduce the negative impacts of the interface switching delay, Third, according to the load, we adjust the status of the adaptive interfaces to avoid bottleneck so as to balance the load among interfaces. Simulation results show that LBLP improve the network throughput significantly despite the large switching delay and limited interfaces.