Interface Constraint Aware Modeling in Wireless Mesh Networks Using Mixed Hypergraph

Abstract

This paper focuses on channel assignment in wireless mesh networks. Since nodes have only a limited number of radio interfaces, channel assignment must ensure that the interface constraint is obeyed. Although many channel assignment heuristics have been proposed, the interface constraint is usually treated as a separate constraint that is not well incorporated in the heuristics themselves. In this paper, we propose a mixed hypergraph model that captures the interface constraint on nodes and the interference between links. We propose a greedy-based channel assignment algorithm that minimizes the interference between links while conforming to the interface constraint. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm performs especially well when the number of network interface cards is small.