Cross-Layer Design of 802.11s-based Wireless Mesh Networks

Under the scope of improving the network performances in Wireless Mesh Network (WMN), a cross-layer design concerning channel allocation and routing algorithms is needed. IEEE 802.11 standard provides at least three non overlapping channels and thus, the possibility for the network in general and a node in particular, equipped with more than one network interface card (NIC), to operate on different channels simultaneously. This may increase the aggregate bandwidth available for end-users. Most of related works attempt to present a modified MAC layer that takes into account the routing and the channel allocation features. Only few of them present cross-layer solutions introducing a joint channel allocation and routing models that are claimed by their authors to provide performances nearly the theoretical optimum of use of the network capacity. However, most of the cross-layer MAC/Network proposals are done for a centralized manner. In this paper, we propose to review the different approaches to resolve the channel allocation problem for IEEE 802.11s backbone and we introduce two approaches for a distributed joint channel allocation and routing algorithms dedicated to a network where nodes are equipped with several network interface cards (NICs) working on multi-hop ad-hoc mode.