A Load Aware Hybrid Channel

Assignment for Multi-Radio

Wireless Mesh Network
Tran Minh Trung
trungtm@etri.re.kr
 Multi-channel, Multi radio
Mesh router
• Mesh router: IF1
Mesh
– Multiple interfaces IF1
IF2
router

Mesh
– Each interface can work router
IF2
IF1
on multiple channels Mesh
router
IF2

• Challenges
– How to assign channel for each interface?
– How to decide when to transmit packets
and which interface will be used?
 Existing approaches
Can utilize the
• Channel assignment advantage of both
– Dynamic dynamic and static
mechanisms
– Static
– Hybrid
• Scheduling algorithm
– CSMA/CD
– TDMA
 Hybrid mechanism
• Hybrid mechanism
– Some interfaces “fixed” on a channel
• Different nodes use different fixed channels
– Other interfaces “switch” as needed
• Dynamic assignment
IF2
Mesh
c1
router
IF2
IF1 c3
Mesh
router c2
IF2
IF2
Mesh
c4 router
IF2
Fixed interface contention problem
8

2 6 C(6)=1

4 5
1
C(4)=1

3 7 C(7)=1

9 links contending on a single channel 9

 Solution approaches
• Net-X:
– Equalize the # of fixed interfaces on each channel
• Problem:
– Each node have different traffic load and
contention degree
• Proposed solution:
– Load aware channel assignment
 Load aware channel assignment
8
C(6) = 1 Channel ID # Fixed Contention
2 Interface Deg.

2 6 1 2 2
2 1 4
C(5) = ?
4 5
1
C(4) = 2 Net-X: FC(5)= 2
C(7) = 1
3 7
Proposed solution: FC(5)=1

9
 Channel selection procedures
• Step 1: Initializing
– Nodes choose the same common channel
– Broadcast hello message including channel status table
• Step 2: Selecting channel
– Select channel basing on contention degree information
• If contention degrees are equal -> select channel basing on the
number of fixed interface on each channel
• Step 3: Finalizing
– Update channel status basing on new selected channel
– Broadcast new channel status on common channel
– Switch channel from common channel to selected channel
 Simulation parameters (1)

Simulation parameters • Random Connection:

– Sources = [rand(1:35)]
– Dest = [rand(^Sources)]
 Simulation parameters (2)
• param.mac
• param.topo
–
• Slotted base
maxx: 1000(m) – framesize: 10 (~20ms)
– maxy: 1000(m) – slotsize: 1 (~2ms)
– nnodes: 36 • allocatetype: [1 2 3]
– 1: Hop based
– type: [1:random 2:manual] – 2: Load based
• param.conn – 3: Hybrid
– method: [1 2]
– 1: Random
– type: [1 2]
– 1: CBR • param.phy
• param.route – txrange: 250 (m)
• Type: [1] – nchannel: 1-5
• 1: Min-hops – linkrate: 2 Mbps
– swtime: 0.0500 (~0.1ms)
– Pktsize = 512bytes
 Simulation result

The throughput of three different channel

assignment algorithms
 Conclusions
• Utilize both advantage of dynamic and static
mechanisms
– Avoids co-ordination issues, deafness problems
– Retain flexibility of dynamic assignment
• Easy for implementation (more realistic)
– Modify existing 802.11 protocol
– Can be implemented in user space daemon
 References
1. Akyildiz, I.F., Wang, X. and Wang, W., ``Wireless Mesh Networks: A Survey,'' Computer
Networks Journal (Elsevier), March 2005
2. Pradeep Kyasanur and Nitin H. Vaidya, Routing and Interface Assignment in Multi-Channel
Multi-Interface Wireless Networks,” in WCNC, 2005.
3. Richard Draves, Jitendra Padhye, and Brian Zill, “Routing in Multi-Radio, Multi-Hop Wireless
Mesh Networks,” in ACM Mobicom, 2004.
4. Ashish Raniwala, Kartik Gopalan, and Tzi-cker Chiueh, “Centralized Channel Assignment and
Routing Algorithms for Multi-Channel Wireless Mesh Networks,” Mobile Computing and
Communications Review, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 50–65, April 2004.
5. Jungmin So and Nitin H. Vaidya, “Multi-channel MAC for Ad Hoc Networks: Handling Multi-
Channel Hidden Terminals using a Single Transceiver,” in Mobihoc, 2004.
6. P. Bahl, R. Chandra, and J. Dunagan, “SSCH: Slotted Seeded Channel Hopping for Capacity
Improvement in IEEE 802.11 Ad-Hoc Wireless Networks,” in ACM Mobicom, 2004.
7. Shih-Lin Wu, Chih-Yu Lin, Yu-Chee Tseng, and Jang-Ping Sheu, “A New Multi-Channe MAC
Protocol with On-Demand Channel Assignment for Multi-Hop Mobile Ad Hoc Net works,” in
International Symposium on Parallel Architectures, Algorithms and Network (ISPAN), 2000
 Appendix

Implementation
Implementation architecture

Channel assignment implementation

Contention based hybrid channel assignment

User space

Channel
policy
manager
Neighbor nodes’ Hello Channel
information message usage
monitoring exchange monitoring

Otcl calls Otcl calls

Kernel space

Interface & channel abstraction layer

Interfaces
Channel selection procedure
Start contention based channel
assignment procedures

Check channel
usage table

Is there a Is there a
channel with the lowest channel with the lowest
No
contention degree? number of fixed No
interfaces?

Yes
Yes
Select a
Select this channel from
Select this channel for the list
channel for fixed interface randomly
fixed interface

Update channel
usage status
table

Broadcasting hello
message