Partially overlapped channel assignment for multi-channel multi-radio wireless mesh networks

Partially overlapped channels (POCs)-based design has been identified recently as an emerging technology to further eliminate interference and improve network capacity. However, there are only few studies of channel assignment algorithms for POCs. In this paper, we research on utilizing POCs to improve network capacity and propose a traffic-irrelevant channel assignment algorithm, which assigns channels for all links in the network while minimizing total network interference. Theoretical calculation approach is utilized to obtain the direct relationship between interference ranges and channel separations, which can be easily applied to mesh networks with various configurations without modification. As traffic between the Internet and clients is considered to be dominant, distance from the gateway, number of neighbors, and interference are used to determine the channel assignment order of links. Simulation results reveal that network throughput and end-to-end delay performance can be dramatically improved by fully exploiting POCs as well as orthogonal channels.