A MAC protocol for multi-channel multi-interface wireless mesh network using hybrid channel assignment scheme

Abstract

In recent years, Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) which uses a multi-hop configuration to extend the reach of the last-mile access to Internet has come into public notice. WMN improves network performance by the use of multiple orthogonal (non-overlapping) channels and multiple wireless interfaces. However, the Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol in IEEE 802.11 standard was designed and suited for only one channel and one interface. In this paper, we present a new MAC protocol which is specially designed for multi-channel and multi-interface WMNs. The proposed MAC protocol employs a hybrid channel assignment strategy to solve the rendezvous problem and a waiting time scheme for updating network allocation vectors (NAVs) to solve the multi-channel hidden terminal problem. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol can achieve a better utilization of both interfaces and channels.