Optimizing router placement for wireless mesh deployment

Abstract

The performance of multi-channel (MRMC) wireless mesh networks (WMNs) is largely affected by interference, which depends on router placement, traffic routing and channel assignment. This work seeks to jointly optimize the placement, routing and channel assignment for mesh deployment given flow requirements. The problem is complex because router placement changes network topology which in turns impacts routing and channel decisions, while routing and channel assignment algorithms affect router placement decision. We present a novel scheme PRACA (Placement, Routing And Channel Assignment), which seeks to minimize the network-wide interference by considering the three inter-dependent factors. Through extensive simulation, we show that PRACA significantly outperforms other schemes in terms of loss rate, delay, fairness and throughput.