Maximizing Networking Capacity in Multi-Channel Multi-Radio Wireless Networks

Abstract

Providing each node with one or more multi-channel radios offers a promising avenue for enhancing the network capacity by simultaneously exploiting multiple non-overlapping channels through different radio interfaces and mitigating interferences through proper channel assignment. However, it is quite challenging to effectively utilize multiple channels and/or multiple radios to maximize throughput capacity. The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Project 61128005 conducted comprehensive algorithmic-theoretic and queuing-theoretic studies of maximizing wireless networking capacity in multi-channel multi-radio (MC-MR) wireless networks under the protocol interference model and fundamentally advanced the state of the art. In addition, under the notoriously hard physical interference model, this project has taken initial algorithmic studies on maximizing the network capacity, with or without power control. We expect the new techniques and tools developed in this project will have wide applications in capacity planning, resource allocation and sharing, and protocol design for wireless networks, and will serve as the basis for future algorithm developments in wireless networks with advanced features, such as multi-input multi-output (MIMO) wireless networks.