TY - JOUR
T1 - Release-time-based multi-channel MAC protocol for wireless mesh networks
AU - Jeng, Andy An Kai
AU - Jan, Rong Hong
AU - Li, Chi-Yu
AU - Chen, Chien
PY - 2011/6/23
Y1 - 2011/6/23
N2 - The wireless mesh network (WMN) has been considered one of the most promising techniques for extending broadband access to the last mile. In order to utilize multiple channels to increase the throughput in WMNs, a variety of multi-channel MAC (MMAC) protocols have been proposed in the literature. In particular, the dedicated control channel (DCC) approach can greatly simply many design issues in multi-channel environments by using a common control channel to exchange control signals. On the other hand, it allows each sender-receiver pair to dynamically select a data channel for their data transmission in an on-demand matter. However, the common control channel would become a bottleneck of the overall performance. Besides, the selection of data channels would be highly related to the final throughput. In this paper, we propose a new MMAC protocol, named the release-time-based MMAC (RTBM) to overcome the control channel bottleneck and data channel selection problems in the DCC approach. The RTBM consists of three major components: (1) Control initiation-time predication (CIP); (2) Dynamic data-flow control (DDC); (3) Enhanced channel selection (ECS). The CIP can predict a proper initiation time for each control process to reduce control overhead. The DDC can dynamically adjust the flow of each data transmission to fully exploit the channel bandwidth. The ECS can achieve a higher reusability of data channels to further enhance the throughput. Simulation results show that the RTBM can substantially improve the throughput in both single-hop and multi-hop networks.
AB - The wireless mesh network (WMN) has been considered one of the most promising techniques for extending broadband access to the last mile. In order to utilize multiple channels to increase the throughput in WMNs, a variety of multi-channel MAC (MMAC) protocols have been proposed in the literature. In particular, the dedicated control channel (DCC) approach can greatly simply many design issues in multi-channel environments by using a common control channel to exchange control signals. On the other hand, it allows each sender-receiver pair to dynamically select a data channel for their data transmission in an on-demand matter. However, the common control channel would become a bottleneck of the overall performance. Besides, the selection of data channels would be highly related to the final throughput. In this paper, we propose a new MMAC protocol, named the release-time-based MMAC (RTBM) to overcome the control channel bottleneck and data channel selection problems in the DCC approach. The RTBM consists of three major components: (1) Control initiation-time predication (CIP); (2) Dynamic data-flow control (DDC); (3) Enhanced channel selection (ECS). The CIP can predict a proper initiation time for each control process to reduce control overhead. The DDC can dynamically adjust the flow of each data transmission to fully exploit the channel bandwidth. The ECS can achieve a higher reusability of data channels to further enhance the throughput. Simulation results show that the RTBM can substantially improve the throughput in both single-hop and multi-hop networks.
KW - Channel selection
KW - Medium access control
KW - Multi-channel multi-interface
KW - Wireless mesh network
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79957480916&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.comnet.2011.02.017
DO - 10.1016/j.comnet.2011.02.017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79957480916
SN - 1389-1286
VL - 55
SP - 2176
EP - 2195
JO - Computer Networks
JF - Computer Networks
IS - 9
ER -