A Multi-radio 802.11 Mesh Network Architecture

Routers equipped with multiple 802.11 radios can alleviate capacity problems in wireless mesh networks. However, a practical, complete system architecture that can realize the benefits of multiple radios does not exist. The focus of our work is to offer such an architecture. Our architecture provides solutions to challenges in three key areas. The first is the construction of a Split Wireless Router that enables modular wireless mesh routers to be constructed from commodity hardware. A split wireless router alleviates the interference that can occur between commodity radios within a single piece of hardware. The second is the design of a channel assignment server responsible for collecting information about the mesh topology and the interference relationship between the mesh links, executing a channel selection algorithm that selects channels which result in high-throughput frequency-diversified routes, and disseminating channel assignments to mesh routers. Third is the design and impl...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: MONET
• Authors: Krishna N. Ramachandran, Irfan Sheriff, Elizabeth M. Belding, Kevin C. Almeroth
• Keywords: Architecture, MONET 2008, Router, Split Wireless Router