Cross-layer adaptive control for wireless mesh networks

Abstract

This paper investigates optimal routing and adaptive scheduling in a wireless mesh network composed of mesh clients and mesh routers. The mesh clients are power constrained mobile nodes with relatively little knowledge of the overall network topology. The mesh routers are stationary wireless nodes with higher transmission rates and more capabilities. We develop a notion of instantaneous capacity regions, and construct algorithms for multi-hop routing and transmission scheduling that achieve network stability and fairness with respect to these regions. The algorithms are shown to operate under arbitrary client mobility models (including non-ergodic models with non-repeatable events), and provide analytical delay guarantees that are independent of the timescales of the mobility process. Our control strategies apply techniques of backpressure, shortest path routing, and Lyapunov optimization.