Fuzzy Logic-Based Multicast Routing in Multiradio Multichannel Wireless Mesh Networks

The availability of bandwidth in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) introduces it as a prominent choice for implementing bandwidth sensitive services. Multicast services such as teleconferencing, push-based systems, multiplayer games, etc., can be implemented in an efficient way in such networks. Moreover, the severe performance degradations that can result from the interference generated by concurrent data transmissions and environmental noises call for the development of interference-aware routing mechanisms. This paper investigates the impact of wireless interference on network performance for multicast transmission in WMNs. We show that by taking wireless interference into consideration in the design of routing mechanisms, better resource usage can be achieved. Hence, a fuzzy logic–based approach is proposed to choose optimal routes from source to the multicast group in multichannel case. Three fuzzy variables are considered in route selection phase, which are interference, available bandwidth, and hop count. Extensive simulations are conducted aiming at verifying the high performance of the proposed algorithm. Simulation results demonstrated that our proposed algorithm outperforms Link-Controlled Multi-Rate Multi-Channel (LC-MRMC) and Channel Assignment with Multiple Factor (CAMF) algorithms in terms of throughput, packet delivery ratio, and end-to-end delay.