Maximize concurrent data flows in multi-radio multi-channel wireless mesh networks

Multi-radio multi-channel (MRMC) wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have emerged as the broadband networks to provide access to the Internet for ubiq-uitous computing with the support for a large number of data flows. Many applications in WMNs can be abstracted as a multi-flow coexistence problem to carry out multiple concurrent data transfers. More specifically, links in different channel lay-ers must be concatenated to compose multiple data transfer paths based on nodes’ free interfaces and available channels. This is typically formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem with various stages including channel assignment, path computing, and link scheduling. This paper analyzes traffic behaviors and designs a coexisting algorithm to maximize the number of concurrent data flows. Simula-tions are conducted in combinatorial cases of channel and radio with various traffic requests of multiple pairs. The experimental results show the efficacy of the coexisting algorithm over a randomly generated topology. This scheme can be used to develop routing and scheduling solutions for various multi-flow network applications through prior computing.