This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts

for publication in the IEEE Globecom 2010 proceedings.

Throughput Improvement in Multi-Radio Multi-

Channel 802.11a-Based Wireless Mesh Networks
Aizaz U. Chaudhry, Roshdy H. M. Hafez, Osama Aboul-Magd, and Samy A. Mahmoud
Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
{auhchaud, hafez, oaboulma, mahmoud} @sce.carleton.ca

Abstract—Single-radio mesh routers operating on a single reuse of the scarce radio spectrum. So, the key issue in a Multi-
channel suffer from low throughput due to collisions. Equipping Radio Multi-Channel (MRMC) WMN architecture is the
mesh routers with multiple radios operating on non-overlapping Channel Assignment (CA) problem, which involves assigning
channels can significantly improve the throughput. However, the
each radio to a channel in such a way that minimizes
assignment of channels to radios in a multi-radio mesh network is
a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a channel interference on any given channel as well as guarantees
assignment algorithm, TICA (Topology-controlled Interference- network connectivity [2].
aware Channel-assignment Algorithm), which significantly This paper addresses the channel assignment problem by
improves network throughput by minimizing interference within proposing a centralized channel assignment algorithm that
the mesh network using a novel approach of controlling the builds a controlled topology using power control with the aim
network topology based on power control before intelligently
of minimizing interference between MRs but ensures network
assigning the channels to the multi-radio mesh routers, as well as
guaranteeing network connectivity. connectivity at the same time. The importance of topology
control based on power control lies in the fact that it improves
Keywords—channel assignment algorithm; multi-radio multi- network spatial reuse and hence the traffic carrying capacity.
channel; power control; topology control algorithm
To the best of our knowledge, the proposed algorithm is the
first of its kind to use topology control based on power control
I. INTRODUCTION for channel assignment in MRMC WMNs. The main features
Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) is an emerging of our work are as follows:
technology in which the wired enterprise backbone • A new Topology Control Algorithm (TCA) that builds the
infrastructure is replaced with a wireless backbone for network connectivity graph by selecting the nearest
providing Internet connectivity to mobile nodes or users. In neighbors for each node in the network with the objective
traditional Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), each of minimizing interference among MRs and enhancing
Access Point (AP) is connected to the wired network whereas frequency reuse and simultaneously ensuring a connected
in WMNs, only a subset of APs is connected to the wired network.
network. An AP that is connected to the wired network is • A new scheme which uses the minimum power as the link
called a Gateway (GW). APs that do not have wired weight when building the Shortest Path Tree (SPT) with
connections are called Mesh Routers (MRs) and they connect the required node degree with the objective of minimizing
to the gateway through multiple hops. Similar to the routers in interference and enhancing frequency reuse.
the wired network, the mesh routers in a WMN forward each • A new Topology-controlled Interference-aware Channel-
other’s traffic in order to establish and maintain their assignment Algorithm (TICA) which intelligently assigns
connectivity [1]. the available non-overlapping 802.11a frequency channels
In order to enhance the capacity of WMNs, the concept of to the mesh nodes with the objective of minimizing
equipping mesh routers with multiple radios is emerging as a interference and, thereby, improving network throughput.
promising approach. The IEEE 802.11a standard provides 12 • A new concept of assigning the Least Interfering Channel
non-overlapping frequency channels, which can be used (LIC) to a link if all available channels have already been
simultaneously within the interference range and reused outside assigned within the Interference Range (IR) of that link.
the interference range of MRs by assigning these channels to • A new scheme that builds the Interference Level (IL) for
the radio interfaces of the mesh routers. Hence, the mesh all frequency channels if all available frequency channels
routers can communicate simultaneously in spite of being in have already been assigned within the IR of a link.
the interference range of each other, which leads to efficient The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II
spectrum utilization and increases the capacity of a wireless presents the related work. Network architecture for the
mesh network. However, in an actual WMN, the total number proposed model is presented in section III. Section IV explains
of radios is much higher than the number of available channels. the channel assignment problem and sections V and VI discuss
So, many links between the MRs in the WMN operate on the the proposed topology control and channel assignment
same set of channels and interference among transmissions on algorithms, respectively. Performance evaluation and results
these channels decreases their utilization. Therefore, are given in section VII. The paper finally concludes in section
minimizing the effect of interference is required for efficient VIII.

978-1-4244-5638-3/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the IEEE Globecom 2010 proceedings.

II. RELATED WORK • The total number of non-overlapping channels is fixed.

A number of topology control and channel assignment • Since traffic in a WMN is directed to and from the
schemes have been proposed with the objective of addressing gateway, “traffic flows” are likely to aggregate at routers
the capacity problem in multi-hop WMNs. A summary of the close to the gateway. Links that are expected to support
related work is presented below. heavy traffic should be given more bandwidth than others.
A location-based topology control scheme in [3] is based on So, these links should use a channel that is shared by a
a Local Minimum Spanning Tree Algorithm. Another location- fewer number of nodes. Hence, priority in CA should be
based topology control scheme, proposed in [4], is based on an given to links starting from the gateway, based on the
Enhanced Local Minimum Shortest-Path Tree algorithm. In number of nodes that use a link to reach the gateway.
centralized CA schemes such as Centralized Hyacinth (C- V. TOPOLOGY CONTROL ALGORITHM (TCA)
HYA) [5] and Traffic and Interference Aware Channel
Initially, the gateway broadcasts a “Hello” message on the
Assignment Scheme (MesTiC) [2], the traffic load is required
control channel, announcing itself as the gateway. Each MR
to be known before assigning channels whereas our proposed
that receives this Hello message on the control channel over its
algorithm requires no such knowledge. The Hybrid Multiple
control radio broadcasts it again and it is flooded throughout
Channel Protocol (HMCP) proposed in [6] requires radios to
the network. The Hello message contains a hop-count field that
switch between channels on a per-packet basis. In such cases,
is incremented at each hop during its broadcast. A MR may
time synchronization and coordination between mesh nodes is
receive multiple copies of this message. However, the distance
required, which is not needed in our proposed algorithm. The
of a MR from the gateway is the shortest path length (shortest
Breadth First Search - Channel Assignment (BFS-CA) scheme
hop count) of the Hello message received by the MR through
proposed in [7] requires certain number of MRs with certain
its control radio over different paths. In this way, each MR
number of radio interfaces to be placed at certain hops from the
knows the next hop to reach the gateway using its control radio.
gateway, whereas our proposed algorithm simply requires all
Our proposed TCA controls the network topology by
MRs to have four data radios, does not require any careful
selecting the nearest neighbors for each node in the network
router placement strategy and works with any placement of
with the objective of minimizing interference among mesh
routers as verified by the performance evaluation.
routers. The proposed TCA is based on following assumptions:
III. NETWORK ARCHITECTURE A. Assumptions
In our proposed model, each MR is equipped with five • All nodes start with the maximum transmission power.
radios which operate on IEEE 802.11a channels (5 GHz band). • Each node has its location information.
One of these radios is used for control traffic, while the other • Each node uses an omni-directional antenna for both
four radios are used for data traffic. transmission and reception.
Out of the 12 available non-overlapping 802.11a channels, • Each node is able to adjust its own transmission power.
channel 12 is used for control radio on each MR and the
• The maximum transmission power is same for all nodes.
remaining 11 channels are used for data radios. Since each MR
• The maximum TR for any two nodes to communicate
is equipped with 4 data radios, it can communicate with a
directly is also the same.
maximum of four neighbors simultaneously, which implies that
• The initial topology graph created, when every node
the Maximum Node Degree (MND) per node is four. The
transmits with maximum power, is strongly connected.
MND of four is selected in order to fully utilize the 11
available non-overlapping channels. Results have shown that B. Phases of TCA
with 11 available channels, network throughput increases up to 1) Exchange of Information Between Nodes
a MND of four per node and saturates after that [5]. In the first exchange, each node broadcasts a Hello message
at maximum power containing its node ID and position.
IV. CHANNEL ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM 2) Building the Maximum Power Neighbor Table (MPNT)
Given the connectivity graph, the main challenge for From the information in the received Hello messages, each
Channel Assignment Algorithm (CAA) is how to assign a node arranges its neighboring nodes in ascending order of their
channel to each radio in a way to minimize interference distance. The result is the MPNT. Then, each node sends its
between MRs and ensure network connectivity. In order to MPNT along with its position and node ID to the gateway
achieve this, the CAA should satisfy the following constraints: using its control radio.
• In order to communicate, two nodes within Transmission 3) Building the Direct Neighbor Table (DNT)
Range (TR) of each other need to have a common channel For each node in the network, the gateway builds a DNT.
assigned to their end-point radios. Based on the information in the MPNT of node v and the
• Links in direct IR of each other should be assigned non- MPNTs of its neighbors, if (a) node w is in the MPNT of node
overlapping channels. v and (b) node w is closer to any other node y in the MPNT of
• The number of distinct channels that can be assigned to a node w than to node v, then the gateway eliminates node w
MR is bounded by the number of radios it has. from the MPNT of node v. If after removing nodes from the

978-1-4244-5638-3/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the IEEE Globecom 2010 proceedings.

Figure 1. Topology-controlled Interference-aware Channel-assignment Algorithm (TICA)

MPNT of node v, the remaining number of nodes in the MPNT RxThresh ( d ) 4 , (3)
Pmin =
of node v is equal to “x-1,” then the gateway selects “x” nearest 2
Gt G r ht hr
2

nodes as neighbors of node v, which results in the DNT. where Gt and Gr are the transmitter and receiver antenna gains,
However, after removing nodes from the MPNT of node v, if respectively. RxThresh is the power required by the radio
the remaining number of nodes is greater than or equal to “x,” interface of the receiving node to correctly receive the message.
the result is the DNT. We call the above algorithm as Select x
for less than x TCA, where x is a positive integer. VI. CHANNEL ASSIGNMENT ALGORITHM
4) Converting into Bi-directional Links The problem of assigning channels to links in a mesh
For each node in the network, the gateway converts the uni- network is NP-hard based on its mapping to the graph-coloring
directional links in the DNT of a node into bi-directional links. problem [5] and standard graph-coloring algorithms cannot
For each uni-directional link, this is done by adding a reverse satisfy all of its constraints. Also, the CA problem for mesh
link in the DNT of the neighboring node. This converts the networks looks similar to the list-coloring problem, which is
DNT into bi-directional DNT, which results in the Final NP-complete [9]. Therefore, we propose an approximate
Neighbor Table (FNT). algorithm for channel assignment. Our proposed algorithm,
5) Calculating the Minimum Power Required TICA, as shown in Fig. 1, has the following phases:
For each node in the network, the gateway calculates the A. Topology Control
minimum power required to reach each of the nodes in the FNT In order to create the network connectivity graph with the
of a node, using appropriate propagation model formulas. If the aim of reducing the interference between MRs, network
distance between two nodes u and v is less than the cross-over topology is controlled using power control at each MR. All
distance, i.e., d( u,v ) < Cross_over_dist, Free Space model is nodes send their MPNTs to the gateway using their control
used, whereas if d( u,v ) > Cross_over_dist, Two-ray model is radio. Note that in order to send its MPNT to the gateway, each
used. Cross-over distance is given by [8] MR knows the next hop to reach the gateway using its control
4πhthr , (1) radio via gateway advertisement process. Gateway starts with
Cross _ over _ dist =
λ the Select 1 for less than 1 TCA and builds FNTs for all nodes.
where ht and hr are the antenna heights of the transmitter and B. Connectivity Graph
receiver, respectively. The minimum power for the free-space Based on the FNTs of all nodes, the gateway builds the
propagation model is calculated as [8] connectivity graph. It checks the resulting network for
RxThresh( 4πd ) 2 . (2) connectivity to ensure that it can reach any node in the network
P = min
G t G r λ2 directly or through intermediate hops. If the resulting network
The minimum power for the two-ray propagation model is is not connected, the gateway moves to a higher TCA by
given by [8] incrementing x in the Select x for less than x TCA.

978-1-4244-5638-3/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the IEEE Globecom 2010 proceedings.

C. Minimum Power-based SPT (MPSPT) with a MND of 4 interference level of channel i, r is rank of link using channel i,
After ensuring that the connectivity graph is connected, the R is maximum rank assigned to a link in MPSPT, m is a link
gateway builds the SPT based on the connectivity graph. The using channel i that is within IR of a node of the 12th-ranked
metric for path selection is minimum power. While building link, d is distance from a node of link m to a node of the 12th-
the SPT, the gateway ensures that each node can have only 4 ranked link, and α is 2 or 4 depending on cross-over distance.
TR neighbors and builds a SPT with a MND of 4 per node. If If a link is emanating from either of the two nodes that
any node in the SPT has more than four links, gateway selects constitute the 12th-ranked link and a channel has been assigned
those four links for that node that have the minimum weight to that link, then IL for this channel is set to infinity. LIC is
and sets the weights of all other links to infinity. It then checks selected as
the resulting MPSPT graph for connectivity. If the resulting (IL )LIC = min [(IL )1 , (IL )2 ,........, (IL )11 ]. (6)
MPSPT is not connected, the gateway moves to a higher TCA. Similarly, the gateway assigns channels to all the links in
D. Link Ranking the SPT. Using its control radio, it then sends each mesh node
The gateway calculates the rank of each link in the SPT the CA message. For each channel assigned to a MR, the CA
based on the number of nodes that use a link to reach the message contains the channel number and the neighbor node to
gateway. If l is a link and n is a node using link l to reach the communicate with using this channel. The CA message also
gateway, then the rank of link l, i.e., rl, is given by contains the next hop to reach the gateway for data traffic.
N
Based on the channel assigned to a MR to communicate with a
rl = ∑ I n ,l , (4)
neighbor and its distance to that neighbor, the MR applies
n =1
where N is the total number of nodes in the network. In,l is 1 if power control and adjusts its transmission power accordingly,
node n is using link l, and 0 otherwise. In case of links with the using (2) or (3), depending on the cross-over distance.
same rank, link whose power of farthest node to the gateway is VII. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
smallest is given a higher rank. If there are still links with the
The performance of TICA, a CAA for MRMC WMNs, is
same rank, link with smallest node IDs is given a higher rank.
compared against a “Single-Radio Single-Channel” (SRSC)
E. Channel Assignment scheme and a “Common Channel Assignment” (CCA) scheme
The algorithm then assigns a channel to each link of the for multi-radio mesh nodes. In CCA scheme [2], all MRs have
MPSPT according to its rank. It begins with assigning the 11 four radio interfaces. First radio on each MR is tuned to first
available channels to the 11 highest-ranked links such that non-overlapping channel; second radio is tuned to second non-
channel 1 is assigned to first-ranked link. For 12th-ranked link overlapping channel and so on. In CCA and SRSC schemes, all
and onwards, the gateway checks the CA of all the links within MRs transmit with the same maximum power and use AODV
IR of both nodes that constitute that link. If gateway finds one (Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector) routing protocol [10].
or more channels among the 11 available channels that are not A. Simulation Environment
assigned to any link within IR of both nodes of the 12th-ranked
For the performance evaluation via throughput analysis,
link, it assigns that channel from the unassigned channels to
NS2 (version 2.30) [11] simulation tool is used. Multi-interface
12th-ranked link which has the highest channel number.
wireless mesh nodes are created in NS2 by modifying the
1) Least Interfering Channel (LIC) original node model in NS2 using the procedure given in [12].
If the gateway cannot find any channel, among the 11
All radios are IEEE 802.11a radios and support 12
available channels, that is not assigned to any link within IR of
channels. As per the IEEE 802.11 standard [13], RxThresh is
both nodes of the 12th-ranked link, it selects a LIC and assigns
set to -65 dBm to achieve a maximum data rate of 54 Mbps
it to that link.
supported by IEEE 802.11a. In order to achieve a strongly
2) Interference Level (IL) connected topology, the maximum transmission power for all
To find out the LIC, the gateway builds the IL for all 11
the radios is set to 27 dBm. RTS/CTS is disabled.
channels. LIC is the channel with minimum IL, which means
that assigning this channel to the 12th-ranked link results in B. Network Topologies
minimum interference in the network. In order to build IL for Three topologies are used in the evaluation, each consisting
channel 1, the gateway finds all links within IR of each of the of 36 MRs distributed in an area of 500 m × 500 m. Topology 1
two nodes that constitute the 12th-ranked link that use channel 1 is a grid and topology 2 is randomly generated, while in
and calculates IL of each link based on its rank and distance topology 3, called controlled random, the physical terrain is
from a node of the 12th-ranked link. It sums up individual ILs divided into cells and a MR is placed randomly in each cell.
of all links that use channel 1 within IR of each of the two C. Simulation Parameters in NS2
nodes that constitute 12th-ranked link, to find out the total IL Based on the CA by the gateway, IEEE 802.11a channels
for channel 1. This is done by using are assigned to links between MRs and transmission power for
⎛ rm ⎞⎛⎜ 1 ⎞⎟ , (5) each radio of each MR is set accordingly. The physical (PHY)
( IL) = i ∑ ⎜⎝ R ⎟⎠⎜ d α ⎟ and MAC (Medium Access Control) layer settings used for
m ⎝ m ⎠
where i is the channel that has value between 1 and 11, (IL)i is simulation are shown in Tables I and II, respectively.

978-1-4244-5638-3/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the IEEE Globecom 2010 proceedings.

All MRs at the periphery of network send traffic to gateway [2] H. Skalli, S. Ghosh, S. K. Das, L. Lenzini, and M. Conti, “Channel
Assignment Strategies for Multiradio Wireless Mesh Networks: Issues
simultaneously. This represents a scenario in which multiple and Solutions,” IEEE Comm. Magazine, 45(11), pp. 86-93, Nov. 2007.
flows within mesh network interfere with each other. Each of [3] N. Li, J. Hou, and L. Sha, “Design and Analysis of an MST-Based
these nodes generates an 8 Mbps Constant Bit Rate UDP traffic Topology Control Algorithm,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless
stream consisting of 1024 byte packets. They start at 1 second Communications , 4(3), pp. 1195-1206, May 2005.
and do not stop until the end of the simulation (600 seconds). [4] F. O. Aron, T. O. Olwal, A. Kurien and Y. Hamam, “Network
Preservation Through a Topology Control Algorithm for Wireless Mesh
Table I. PHY Layer Configuration in NS2 Networks,” in Proc. 2nd IASTED Africa Conference on Modelling and
Physical Layer Parameters Settings Simulation, September 2008.
TX/RX Antenna Height (m) 3 [5] A. Raniwala, K. Gopalan, and T. Chiueh, “Centralized Channel
Assignment and Routing Algorithms for Multi-Channel Wireless Mesh
Gain of TX/RX Antenna (dB) 1 Networks,” ACM MC2R 8(2), pp. 50-65, April 2004.
Packet Capture Threshold (dB) 10 [6] P. Kyasanur and N. Vaidya., “Routing and Interface Assignment in
Packet Reception Threshold (watts) 3.16227e-10 Multi-Channel Multi-Interface Wireless Networks,” in Proc. IEEE
Carrier Sense Threshold (watts) 7.90569e-11 WCNC, 4, pp. 2051-2056, March 2005.
[7] K. Ramachandran, E. Belding, K. Almeroth, and M. Buddhikot,
Table II. MAC Layer Configuration in NS2
“Interference-Aware Channel Assignment in Multi-Radio Wireless
MAC Layer Parameters Settings Mesh Networks,” in Proc. IEEE INFOCOM, April 2006.
Minimum Contention Window 15 [8] T. Rappaport, “Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice,” 2nd
Maximum Contention Window 1023 Edition, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002.
Slot Time (micro seconds) 9 [9] K. Rosen, “Discrete Mathematics and its Apps.,” McGraw Hill, 1999.
SIFS period (micro seconds) 16 [10] Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) Routing Protocol,
RFC3561, available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3561.txt.
Preamble Length (bits) 96
[11] The VINT Project, “Network Simulator (NS) – Version 2,” available at
PLCP Header Length (bits) 24
http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns.
Basic Rate (Mbps) 6
[12] R. A. Calvo and J. P. Campo, “Adding Multiple Interface Support in
Data Rate (Mbps) 54 NS-2,” University of Cantabria, January 2007.
D. Simulation Results [13] "IEEE Standard for IT-Telecom. and Info. Exchange Between Systems-
Local and Metropolitan Area Networks-Specific Requirements - Part 11:
Figs. 2 and 3 show the average throughput of all schemes Wireless LAN MAC and PHY Specifications," IEEE Std 802.11-2007
for ten different random and controlled random topologies, (Revision of IEEE Std 802.11-1999) , June 2007.
respectively. Fig. 4 shows the comparison of average
throughput of all schemes for the three topologies (random,
controlled random and grid). Note that for random and
controlled random topologies in Fig. 4, the average throughput
is the average over ten different random and controlled random
topologies, respectively.
As compared to the CCA scheme, the throughput
improvement with TICA is 3 times for random topology, 11
times for controlled random topology and 12 times for grid
topology. In comparison to the SRSC scheme, the throughput Figure 2. Average Throughput for ten random topologies
improvement with TICA is 8 times for random topology, 95
times for controlled random topology and 133 times for grid
topology. These results clearly indicate that TICA significantly
outperforms other schemes for all three topologies.
VIII. CONCLUSION
Our proposed TCA, Select x for less than x, not only
minimizes the interference among the mesh routers but also
results in causing minimum interference to other co-located
Figure 3. Average Throughput for ten controlled random topologies
IEEE 802.11a-based wireless networks. The improvement in
the overall network throughput due to our TICA is significantly
higher than the CCA scheme, and is much higher than the
SRSC scheme in all three topologies. This is due to the fact that
power control results in an efficient frequency reuse during CA
which leads to significant improvement in network throughput.
REFERENCES
[1] N. Nandiraju et al., “Wireless Mesh Networks: Current Challenges and
Future Directions of Web-in-the-Sky,” IEEE Wireless Communications
14(4), pp. 79-89, August 2007. Figure 4. Average Throughput of all schemes for the three topologies

978-1-4244-5638-3/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE