Title: Link-preserving channel assignment game for wireless mesh networks

Authors: Li-Hsing Yen; Bo-Rong Ye

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, National Chiao Tung University, No.1001, University Rd., Hsinchu 300, Taiwan ' Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National University of Kaohsiung, No.700, Kaohsiung University Rd., Nan Tzu Dist., Kaohsiung 811, Taiwan

Abstract: To deliver user traffic in a wireless mesh network (WMN), mesh stations equipped with multiple interfaces communicate with one another utilising multiple orthogonal channels. Channel assignment is to assign one channel to each interface to minimise co-channel interference among wireless links while preserving link connectivity. The interference and connectivity objectives are generally conflicting. This paper first analyses the probability of link connectivity when channels are randomly assigned to interfaces. We then propose a game-theoretic approach that jointly considers the two objectives with a unified payoff function. We prove that the proposed approach is an exact potential game, which guarantees stability in a finite time. We also prove the link-preserving property of the approach. Simulation results show that the proposed approach generally outperforms counterparts in terms of network interference when a moderate number of channels are available. For fairness of link interference, both the proposed approach and its variant outperform the counterparts.

Keywords: channel assignment; WMN; wireless mesh network; interference; connectivity; game theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAHUC.2019.099635

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, 2019 Vol.31 No.1, pp.13 - 22

Received: 02 Feb 2017
Accepted: 17 May 2017
Published online: 17 May 2019 *

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