CHANNEL ASSIGNMENT IN WIRELESS

MESH NETWORKS





Submitted To : Submitted By :
Dr. Neeraj kumar Keshav Rana
M.E(I.S.) 1
st
year
(801433014)



INTRODUCTION

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are built on a mix of fixed and
mobile nodes interconnected via wireless links to form a multi-hop ad
hoc network. Wireless mesh networks consist of mesh routers and mesh
clients, where mesh routers have minimal mobility and form the
backbone of WMNs. They provide network access for both mesh and
conventional clients.
Wireless mesh networks were used with nodes equipped with a single
radio due to the high cost associated with having multiple radios on a
node . Several methods were proposed which aimed to improve the
network throughput, for single-radio wireless mesh networks.









Having multiple radios on a node opens several possibilities and options
as to how these radios can be utilized to improve some of the important
characteristics of the nodes and the performance of the network.

Several interesting studies have been performed on multi-radio nodes
and have concluded that in some cases, having multiple radios can
considerably improve the throughput and network performance.
Wireless mesh networks offer many advantages in terms of connectivity
and reliability. They provide multiple paths between nodes and are self
healing.












CHANNEL ASSIGNMENT


Channel Assignment (CA) in a wireless mesh network consists of
assigning channels to the radio interfaces in order to achieve efficient
channel utilization and minimize interference. we describe different
channel schemes that can be used to assign channels in a wireless mesh
network.













These schemes are generally classified as: Static, Dynamic and Hybrid
Channel Assignment.
1) Static Assignment - Fixed assignment schemes assign channels to
interfaces either permanently or for long time intervals with
respect to the interface switching time. Such schemes can be
further subdivided into common channel assignment and varying
channel assignment.

2) Dynamic Assignment - Dynamic assignment strategies allow any
interface to be assigned any channel, and interfaces can frequently
switch from one channel to another. Therefore, when nodes need to
communicate with each other, a coordination mechanism has to
ensure they are on a common channel.




3) Hybrid Assignment- Hybrid channel assignment strategies
combine both static and dynamic assignment properties, for
example, by applying a fixed assignment for some interfaces and a
dynamic assignment for other interfaces. Hybrid assignment
strategies are attractive because, as with fixed assignment, they
allow for simple coordination algorithms, while still retaining the
flexibility of dynamic channel assignment.

NEED OF CHANNEL ASSIGNMENT

Channel assignment schemes are required to allocate bandwidth and
communication channels to base stations,access points and terminal
equipment . the objective is to achieve maximum system spectral
efficiency in bits/Hz by means of frequency reuse but still assure a
certain grade of service by avoiding co-channel interference and
adjacent channel interference among nearby cells or networks that share
the bandwidth.

There are two types of strategies that are allowed :
1) Fixed Channel Assignment (FCA) - In FCA each cell is given a
predetermined set of frequency channels. FCA requires manual
frequency planning, which is an arduous task
in TDMA and FDMA based systems, since such systems are
highly sensitive to co-channel interference from nearby cells that
are reusing the same channel.

2) Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA) - In DCA voice channel
are not allocated to cell permanently, instead for every call request
base station request channel from MSC. The channel is allocated
following an algorithm which accounts likelihood of future
blocking within the cell. It requires the MSC to collect real time
data on channel occupancy, traffic distribution and Received
Signal Strength Indications (RSSI). DCA schemes are suggested
for TDMA/FDMA based cellular systems such as GSM, but are
currently not used in any products













Constraint in Channel Assignment

The channel assignment to wireless mesh network adversely
affects the capacity of the mesh due to interference from adjacent
nodes in the network. Various schemes have been proposed to
address this capacity problem, such as modified medium access
control (MAC) protocols adapted to WMNs, the use of channel
switching on a single radio, and directional antennas. While
directional antennas and modified MAC protocols make the
practical deployment of such solutions infeasible on a wide scale,
the main issue in using multiple channels with a single radio is that
dynamic channel switching requires tight time synchronization
between the nodes.
Common channel assignment which is the part of static channel
have the limitation where the number of non-overlapping channels
is much greater than the number of network interface cards (NICs)
used per node. Thus, although this scheme presents a simple CA
strategy, it fails to account for the various factors affecting channel
assignment in a WMN.
In the dynamic channel assignment , the constraint involve channel
switching delays which means typically on the order of
milliseconds in commodity 802.11 wireless cards, and the need for
coordination mechanisms for channel switching between nodes.







Classification of Routing Metrics

Routing is the key functionality for directing communication over large
networks. Optimal paths are determined based on routing metrics. In this
report, we first develop a taxonomy for categorizing and classifying of
routing metrics. Then, we give an extensive overview of routing metrics
and apply our classification to them.
Routing Metrics can be classied into a number of mathematical
categories.
1) Link Combination Operator : Link metrics are aggregated and
concatenated according to certain rules in order to attain the metric
of a path. Each combination operator defines a class. While the
concatenation operator is clearly defined for most metrics, the
definition of the aggregation operator often is less straightforward.

2) Dynamic vs. Static : A metric is dynamic, if the value of the
metric changes over time. This is the case for most metrics.
Examples for static metrics are the number of interfaces of a node
or the maximal energy capacity.

3) Symmetric vs. Asymmetric : Let di,j be the metric value of the
link from node i to node j and dj,i the link in the opposite direction.
A metric is symmetric if di,j = dj,i holds for all links and all points
in time.







4) Single dimensional vs Multidimensional metrics: Multi-
dimensional metrics are not of type real, but they are vectors.
Wang and Crowcroft [94] use delay and bandwidth for the design
of a two-dimensional metric. Iannone et al. [43] do the same for
PLR, interference level and data rate. Sometimes, multi-
dimensional metrics are also called multiple metrics because they
can be decomposed into single-dimensional metrics.



Name of
metric
Quality
aware
Data rate Packet
size
Intra-flow
interference
Inter-flow
interference
Medium
Instability
HOP No No No No No No
ETX Yes No No No No No
ML Yes No No No No No
ETT Yes Yes Yes No No No
MIC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
ENT Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
iAWARE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes





Channel Assignment Techniques

Technique 1:
Interference-based Channel Assignment : It is a decentralized
approach, a new link is assigned the channel that exhibits the least
interference. This assignment also requires that the interference be
below some threshold. The link begins transmission with a
predetermined initial power. If the SINR is below , the transmitter
increases its power proportionally to the ratio / SINR. Clearly, this
could cause disruption to other co channel links if their SINR falls below
the threshold, leading them to increase their transmit powers as well.
Technique 2:
Distance-based Channel Assignment : In it multiaccess interference
for a link is handled in a two step process; rstly by scheduling out
strong interferers, followed by adjusting the transmit power of nodes
such that links are admissible (i.e. the SINR constraint is met). While
considers TDMA (time division multiple access) based schemes, we
follow the underlying resource allocation strategy to multiple frequency
channels. Hence we generalize the notion of time slots to channels
due to the analogy between scheduling and channel assignment. links
are admitted sequentially to a network and are assigned the rst
available channel. Note that this approach is also decentralized.





Technique 3:
Conflict Graph-based Channel Assignment: The work in [3] uses a
centralized approach to maximize the number of links on a given
channel by creating a binary conflict graph. For a pair of links, a conflict
occurs if either one creates excessive interference for the other. A new
link is assigned a channel so that it does not cause the SINR of any other
co channel link to drop below . It uses integer programming to
determine the maximum number of links that can be supported on a
given channel without violating the requisite SINR.

Technique 4 :
Minimum power re-adjustment based channel assignment : It
consist of two centralized algorithms. The minimum incremental power
algorithm and the least interference algorithm are presented, which
consider links with disparate rate requirements. Both algorithms are
found to exhibit similar performance, and we consider the rst algorithm
in our evaluation. Both use transmit power control to increase the
number of links that can be supported on a channel. Adding a link to a
channel causes other links to adjust their transmit powers to maintain the
requisite SINR.