GLBM: A new QoS aware multicast scheme for wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have been attracting significant attention due to their promising technology. The WMN technology is becoming a major avenue for the fourth generation of wireless mobility. Communication in large-scale wireless networks can create bottlenecks for scalable implementations of computationally intensive applications. A class of crucially important communication patterns that have already received considerable attention in this regard are group communication operations, since these inevitably place a high demand on network bandwidth and have a consequent impact on algorithm execution times. Multicast communication has been among the most primitive group capabilities of any message passing in networks. It is central to many important distributed applications in science and engineering and fundamental to the implementation of higher-level communication operations such as gossip, gather, and barrier synchronisation. Existing solutions offered for providing multicast communications in WMN have severe restriction in terms of almost all performance characteristics. Consequently, there is a need for the design and analysis of new efficient multicast communication schemes for this promising network technology. Hence, the aim of this study is to tackle the challenges posed by the continuously growing need for delivering efficient multicast communication over WMN. In particular, this study presents a new load balancing aware multicast algorithm with the aim of enhancing the QoS in the multicast communication over WMNs. Our simulations experiments show that our proposed multicast algorithm exhibits superior performance in terms of delay, jitter and throughput, compared to the most well known multicast algorithms.     

An effective scheduling scheme for multi-hop multicast in wireless mesh networks

With the utilization of concurrent transmission strategy, a throughput-enhanced scheduling scheme is devised for multicast service in wireless multi-hop mesh networks. Since the performance of a multicast mechanism is constrained in a wireless setting due to the interference among local wireless transmissions, the interference relationships are first characterized by introducing a graph transformation method. Based on the graph transformation, the multicast scheduling problem is converted to the graph coloring problem, and then a capacity greedy algorithm is designed to provide concurrent transmission scheduling so that the demanded multicast transmission rate can be achieved. Moreover, the necessary and sufficient conditions of multicast schedulable feasibility are derived. Through corresponding simulations, it is shown that the proposed strategy can enhance the throughput of wireless multi-hop multicast systems significantly.     

Channel allocation in multi-channel wireless mesh networks

In this article, we survey the latest progress in multi-channel wireless mesh networks, focusing on wireless interference models and channel allocation algorithms with the goal of maximizing the network performance. We present the studies of different interference models and illustrate how they could affect the design of channel assignment. We also summarize channel allocation algorithms with different strategies in both omni-directional and directional antenna networks. We conclude that both static and dynamic channel allocation strategies have advantages and disadvantages, and the design of channel allocation algorithms strongly depends on the interference model and the assumption of network traffic.     

Approximate dynamic programming for link scheduling in wireless mesh networks

In this paper a novel interference-based formulation and solution methodology for the problem of link scheduling in wireless mesh networks is proposed. Traditionally, this problem has been formulated as a deterministic integer program, which has been shown to be -hard. The proposed formulation is based on dynamic programming and allows greater flexibility since dynamic and stochastic components of the problem can be embedded into the optimization framework. By temporal decomposition we reduce the size of the integer program and using approximate dynamic programming (ADP) methods we tackle the curse of dimensionality. The numerical results reveal that the proposed algorithm outperforms well-known heuristics under different network topologies. Finally, the proposed ADP methodology can be used not only as an upper bound but also as a generic framework where different heuristics can be integrated.     

Hierarchical agent-based secure and reliable multicast in wireless mesh networks

We propose and analyze a hierarchical agent-based secure and reliable multicast (HASRM) algorithm for efficiently supporting secure and reliable mobile multicast in wireless mesh networks, with design considerations given to minimize the overall network cost incurred by reliable multicast packet delivery, mobility management, security key management, and group membership maintenance. HASRM dynamically maintains a group of multicast agents running on mesh routers for integrated mobility and multicast service management and leverages a hierarchical multicast structure for secure and reliable multicast data delivery. The regional service size of each multicast agent is a key design parameter. We show via model-based performance analysis and simulation validation that there exists an optimal regional service size that minimizes the overall communication cost and the optimal regional service size can be dynamically determined. We demonstrate that HASRM under optimal settings significantly outperforms traditional algorithms based on shortest-path multicast trees extended with user mobility, security, and reliability support. We also show that a variant of HASRM is superior to a recently proposed multicast algorithm for secure group communication in wireless mesh networks.     

A hierarchical architecture for detecting selfish behaviour in community wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) consist of dedicated nodes called mesh routers which relay the traffic generated by mesh clients over multi-hop paths. In a community WMN, all mesh routers may not be managed by an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Limited capacity of wireless channels and lack of a single trusted authority in such networks can motivate mesh routers to behave selfishly by dropping relay traffic in order to provide a higher throughput to their own users. Existing solutions for stimulating cooperation in multi-hop networks use promiscuous monitoring or exchange probe packets to detect selfish nodes and apply virtual currency mechanism to compensate the cooperating nodes. These schemes fail to operate well when applied to WMNs which have a multi-radio environment with a relatively static topology. In this paper we, propose architecture for a community WMN which can detect selfish behaviour in the network and enforce cooperation among mesh routers. The architecture adopts a decentralized detection scheme by dividing the mesh routers into manageable clusters. Monitoring agents hosted on managed mesh routers monitor the behaviour of mesh routers in their cluster by collecting periodic reports and sending them to the sink agents hosted at the mesh gateways. To make the detection more accurate we consider the quality of wireless links. We present experimental results that evaluate the performance of our scheme.     

Multi-hop multicast path construction in modern wireless relay networks

In recent years, multicast over wireless access networks has become a popular research topic. However, if relay nodes are supported in such a network, forming an efficient multicast topology becomes a challenging task. Since existing works fail to solve this problem satisfyingly, we in this paper propose a multi-hop multicast routing scheme for modern wireless relay networks. First, we formulate this important problem as Multi-Hop Multicast Maximization (MHMM), which involves forming a resource allocation of the base-station and relay stations in order to maximize the number of recipients with the given resource budget and channel conditions. To solve MHMM, we propose a heuristic called Multi-Hop Path Selection (MHPS). We prove that MHMM is NP-complete, and also analyze MHPS’s computational complexity and its worst-case performance. The results of simulations conducted to evaluate the heuristic’s performance demonstrate that, under variant conditions, MHPS utilizes bandwidth resources and relay nodes effectively such that it significantly outperforms all existing approaches. Moreover, its performance difference to the optimum is bounded. To the best of our knowledge, MHPS is the only scheme that focuses on this important issue and achieves such a satisfactory performance.     

A weight-aware channel assignment algorithm for mobile multicast in wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are one of key technologies for next generation wireless networks. In this paper, we propose a heuristic channel assignment algorithm with weight awareness to support mobile multicast in WMNs. To enhance network throughput, our algorithm is based on the path forwarding weight to perform channel assignment. In addition to non-overlapping channels, partially-overlapping channels are also used in channel assignment. To fully exploit all available channels in channel assignment, we devise a new channel selection metric to consider the channel separation and the distance between nodes. In mobile multicast, the multicast tree structure cannot be fixed due to receiver (multicast member) mobility. The change of the multicast tree structure will result in channel re-assignment. The proposed algorithm is based on a critical-event driven manner to reduce the times of channel re-assignment as much as possible. Finally, we perform simulation experiments to show the effectiveness of the proposed channel assignment algorithm.     

Large-scale access scheduling in wireless mesh networks using social centrality

Wireless mesh networking is an economic and convenient way to provide last mile Internet access through ad hoc peer-to-peer communication links. However, without systematic network configuration and channel resource management, these networks suffer from scalability, performance degradation and service disruption issues due to overwhelming co-channel interference, unscrupulous channel utilization and inherent network mobility. The IEEE 802.11 DCF and EDCA mechanisms based on CSMA/CA are the most widely used random channel access mechanisms, but unfortunately these cannot effectively eliminate hidden terminal and exposed terminal problems in multi-hop scenarios. Social network analysis techniques proposed for economic and social studies have recently been shown to be a successful approach for characterizing information propagation in multi-hop wireless networks. We propose a set of efficient resource allocation algorithms and channel access scheduling protocols based on Latin squares and social centrality metrics for wireless mesh networks (WMNs) with multi-radio multi-channel (MRMC) communication capabilities, called LaSo$LaSo$, which can coexist with IEEE 802.11 DCF and be effectively applied in large scale WMNs. Based on interference information provided by the interference graph, LaSo$LaSo$ uses nodal degree centrality to form cliques for intra-cluster communication, and betweenness centrality to choose bridge nodes to form cliques for inter-cluster communication in WMNs, and then applies Latin squares to map the clique-based clustering structure to radios and channels for wireless communication purposes. Afterwards, LaSo$LaSo$ again applies Latin squares to schedule the channel access amongst nodes within each cluster in a collision-free manner. We evaluate LaSo$LaSo$ using simulations, and results show that LaSo$LaSo$ achieves much better performance than existing IEEE 802.11 standards and other multi-channel access control protocols.     

Routing protocols in wireless mesh networks: challenges and design considerations

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are an emerging technology that could revolutionize the way wireless network access is provided. The interconnection of access points using wireless links exhibits great potential in addressing the “last mile” connectivity issue. To realize this vision, it is imperative to provide efficient resource management. Resource management encompasses a number of different issues, including routing. Although a profusion of routing mechanisms has been proposed for other wireless networks, the unique characteristics of WMNs (e.g., wireless backbone) suggest that WMNs demand a specific solution. To have a clear and precise focus on future research in WMN routing, the characteristics of WMNs that have a strong impact on routing must be identified. Then a set of criteria is defined against which the existing routing protocols from ad hoc, sensor, and WMNs can be evaluated and performance metrics identified. This will serve as the basis for deriving the key design features for routing in wireless mesh networks. Thus, this paper will help to guide and refocus future works in this area.

无线网状网络的多路径路由与调度算法

提出了一种保障服务质量的多路径路由算法,数据分组可通过多条不同的路径进行传输,以提升网络总吞吐量性能.进一步提出了一种多路径调度策略.通过使用调度策略,基于当前可用带宽信息和路径所引入的时延信息,数据分组在传输前可被分成多段并通过不同的路径发送,根据路径时延调整优化调度策略,从而使得数据可通过在不同的路径上进行更高效地传输.仿真实验进一步验证了本文提出的路由机制和调度策略在不同网络负载下的优越性.     

A mathematical formulation for joint channel assignment and multicast routing in multi-channel multi-radio wireless mesh networks

Multicast routing is generally an efficient mechanism for delivering identical content to a group of receivers. Multicast is also deemed a key enabling service for a wealth of audio and video applications as well as data dissemination protocols over the last-mile backhaul Internet connectivity provided by multi-channel multi-radio wireless mesh networks (MCMR WMNs). Major prior art multicast protocols in these networks center around heuristic or meta-heuristic initiatives in which channel assignment and multicast routing are considered as two separate sub-problems to be solved in sequence. It might even be the cast that the solution for either of these two sub-problems is assumed to be preparatively calculated and given as input to the other. Within this perspective, however, the interplay between the two sub-problems would essentially be ruled out from the computations, resulting in sub-optimal solutions for network configuration. The work in this article is targeted at promoting the adoption of cross-layer design for joint channel assignment and multicast tree construction problem in MCMR WMNs. In the proposed scheme, contrary to the existing methods, these two sub-problems will be solved conjointly and an optimal solution is provided. In particular, a comprehensive cross-optimization framework based on the binary integer programming (BIP) formulation of the problem is presented which also addresses the hidden channel problem in MCMR WMNs. We have, as well, conducted an extensive series of simulation experiments to verify the efficacy of the proposed method. Also, experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the genetic algorithm and the simulated annealing based methods proposed by Cheng and Yang (2011) in terms of interference.     

Load-balanced mesh router migration for wireless mesh networks

Load-balancing among domains in a wireless mesh network (WMN) is normally achieved by changing the Internet attachment of mesh routers (MRs) that carry the traffic from mobile stations (MSs). The greediness of load-balancing algorithms may force MRs to frequently change their Internet attachments, and thus degrade network performance due to inter-domain mobility of the associated MSs. In this paper, we discuss the negative impact on the performance of MSs’ mobility, due to inter-domain reassignment of MR. A MR migration scheme is proposed to achieve a tradeoff between load-balancing and inter-domain reassignment of MR. The proposed load-balancing scheme for WMNs includes: an initialization procedure to divide a WMN into domains, and a load adjustment procedure to rebalance the traffic load among the neighboring domains when required. We also provide a framework for handling inter-domain mobility in support of multi-hop communication using the Multi-hop cellular IP. Our simulation results show that the proposed protocol effectively controls MR’s change in connectivity as well as MS’s mobility.     

Coding- and interference-aware routing protocol in wireless networks

Network coding is considered as a promising technique to increase the bandwidth available in a wireless network. Many studies show that network coding can improve flow throughput only if an appropriate routing algorithm is used to identify paths with coding opportunities. Nevertheless, a good routing mechanism is very difficult to develop. Existing solutions either do not estimate the path bandwidth precisely enough or cannot identify the best path in some situations. In this paper, we describe our coding-aware routing protocol that provides a better path bandwidth estimate and is able to identify high throughput paths. Extensive NS2 simulations show that our protocol outperforms existing mechanisms.     

A quality based routing protocol for wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks can provide low-cost solutions for extending the reach of wireless access points by using multi-hop routing over a set of stationary wireless routers. The routing protocol for these networks may need to address quality considerations to meet the requirements of the user. In this paper, we present a quality based routing protocol for wireless mesh networks that tries to maximize the probability of successful transmissions while minimizing the end-to-end delay. The proposed routing protocol uses reactive route discoveries to collect key parameters from candidate routes to estimate the probability of success and delay of data packets transmitted over them. To achieve accurate route quality assessments, a new route quality metric is proposed that uses performance models of data packet transmissions as opposed to estimating route quality from the transmission of control packets, which have different transmission characteristics. These models are developed after careful evaluations of multi-hop wireless transmissions and validated by computer simulations. Relevant parameters that can be used to assess the route quality metric using these models are explained. Extensive performance evaluations of the proposed quality based routing protocol are presented and its benefits in comparison to some other known routing protocols are discussed.     

An effective scheduling scheme for multi-hop multicast in wireless mesh networks

With the utilization of concurrent transmission strategy, a throughput-enhanced scheduling scheme is devised for multicast service in wireless multi-hop mesh networks. Since the performance of a multicast mechanism is constrained in a wireless setting due to the interference among local wireless transmissions, the interference relationships are first characterized by introducing a graph transformation method. Based on the graph transformation, the multicast scheduling problem is converted to the graph coloring problem, and then a capacity greedy algorithm is designed to provide concurrent transmission scheduling so that the demanded multicast transmission rate can be achieved. Moreover, the necessary and sufficient conditions of multicast schedulable feasibility are derived. Through corresponding simulations, it is shown that the proposed strategy can enhance the throughput of wireless multi-hop multicast systems significantly.     

An optimal scheduling algorithm for an agent-based multicast strategy on irregular networks

This paper describes an agent-based approach for scheduling multiple multicast on wormhole switch-based networks with irregular topologies. Multicast/broadcast is an important communication pattern, with applications in collective communication operations such as barrier synchronization and global combining. Our approach assigns an agent to each subtree of switches such that the agents can exchange information efficiently and independently. The entire multicast problem is then recursively solved with each agent sending message to those switches that it is responsible for. In this way, communication is localized by the assignment of agents to subtrees. This idea can be easily generalized to multiple multicast since the order of message passing among agents can be interleaved for different multicasts. The key to the performance of this agent-based approach is the message-passing scheduling between agents and the destination processors. We propose an optimal scheduling algorithm, called ForwardInSwitch to solve this problem. We conduct extensive experiments to demonstrate the efficiency of our approach by comparing our results with SPCCO, a highly efficient multicast algorithm reported in literature. We found that SPCCO suffers link contention when the number of simultaneous multiple multicast becomes large. On the other hand, our agent-based approach achieves better performance in large cases.     

An overview of Channel Assignment methods for multi-radio multi-channel wireless mesh networks

Channel Assignment (CA) is an active research area due to the proliferating deployments of multi-radio multi-channel wireless mesh networks. This paper presents an in-depth survey of some of the CA approaches in the literature. First, the key design issues for these approaches are identified, laying down the basis for discussion. Second, a classification that captures their essentials is proposed. Third, the different CA approaches are examined individually, with their advantages and limitations highlighted; furthermore, categorical and overall comparisons for them are given in detail, clarifying their sameness and differences. Finally, the future research directions for CA are discussed at length.