Slot allocation algorithms in centralized scheduling scheme for IEEE 802.16 based wireless mesh networks

In IEEE 802.16 based wireless mesh networks (WMNs), TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) is employed as the channel access method and only TDD (Time Division Duplex) is supported and there are no clearly separate downlink and uplink subframes in the physical frame structure. As the uplink and downlink traffic has different characteristics in that the uplink traffic decentralizes in each MSS (Mesh Subscriber Station) and the downlink traffic centralizes in the MBS (Mesh Base Station), different scheduling methods should be taken in the uplink and downlink. This paper presents a uniform slot allocation algorithm which is suitable for both uplinks and downlinks. To achieve higher spatial reuse and greater throughput and to avoid switching frequently between receiving and transmitting within two adjacent time slots when a relay node forwards traffic, different link selection criteria are taken into account when allocating slots for uplinks and downlinks. A combined uplink and downlink slot allocation algorithm is proposed for further improving the spatial reuse and network throughput. The proposed algorithms are evaluated by extensive simulations and the results show that it has good performance in terms of spatial reuse and network throughput. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first one that considers combined uplink and downlink slot allocation on the centralized scheduling scheme in IEEE 802.16 based WMNs.