Channel assignment and routing for multi-radio wireless mesh networks

Abstract

In this study, we analyze the channel assignment and routing problem for multi-radio wireless mesh networks. We assume that each router has more than one radio, the system operates in a time-slotted mode, and channel assignments are static. In particular, within a time slot the channel assignments for radio connections have to obey the interference constraint. The union of all the connections established throughout the time horizon should result in a strongly connected network where each node can communicate with every other node within the given maximum hop-distance or the diameter value. The objective is to minimize the number of time slots used while respecting the interference and diameter restriction. An integer linear program is proposed as an exact methodology to solve the problem for small scale networks. For larger network sizes, three type of heuristic approaches are developed. In order to evaluate the quality of the heuristic solutions, the lower bound of the model is strengthened through the use of valid inequalities and lagrangian relaxation. The subgradient algorithm is used in lagrangian relaxation models to find optimal solutions or lower bounds. The heuristics are tested on a large set of varying network topology instances. The computational experiments illustrate that improvement heuristic based on local search is the most suitable approximation technique.