Title: Dynamic channel selection: an efficient strategy for balancing traffic in meshes

Authors: Po-Jen Chuang, Yue-Tsuen Jiang

Addresses: Department of Electrical Engineering, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taipei Hsien, 25137 Taiwan, ROC. ' Department of Electrical Engineering, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taipei Hsien, 25137 Taiwan, ROC

Abstract: This paper uses the idea of dynamic channel selection to balance traffic in a mesh network. The key point is to maintain the history of channel utilisation in each node. Based on the recorded information, the node router can predict the current load distribution and route packets through less trafficked channels to avoid congestion. To fit different routing characteristics, three dynamic channel selection policies, DCS-I, DCS-II and DCS-III, are presented. Experimental results show that when network traffic gets heavy, DCS-II and DCS-III yield constantly better throughput, lower communication latency and more even buffer utilisation – pinpointing the important link between balanced network traffic and desirable performance.

Keywords: adaptive routing algorithms; balanced traffic; channel selection; meshes; performance evaluation; turn model; virtual channels; wormhole routing; network traffic.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCSE.2006.009930

International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering, 2006 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.3 - 22

Published online: 03 Jun 2006 *

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