Inter-flow and intra-flow interference mitigation routing in wireless mesh networks

In this paper, we address the problem of QoS support in an heterogeneous single-radio single-channel multi-rate wireless mesh network. We propose a new routing metric that provides information about link quality, based on PHY and MAC characteristics, including the link availability, the loss rate and the available bandwidth. This metric allows to apprehend inter-flow interferences and avoid bottleneck formation by balancing traffic load on the links. Based on the conflict graph model and calculation of maximal cliques, we define a method to estimate the available bandwidth of a path which considers, in addition, intra-flow interferences. Finally, we propose a routing protocol that supports this metric and we study by simulation its performances compared to different existing routing metrics and protocols. The results revealed the ability of our protocol (LARM) to support the network scalability as well as its ability to choose routes with high throughput and limited delay.