Q-CAR: an intelligent solution for joint QoS multicast routing and channel assignment in multichannel multiradio wireless mesh networks

Abstract

Multicast routing improves the efficiency of a network by effectively utilizing the available network bandwidth. In multichannel multiradio wireless mesh networks the channel allocation strategy plays a vital role along with multicast tree construction. However, the multicast routing problem in multichannel multiradio wireless mesh networks is proven to be NP-hard. With this paper, we propose a Quality of Service Channel Assignment and multicast Routing (Q-CAR) algorithm. The proposed algorithm jointly solves the channel assignment and multicast tree construction problem by intelligent computational methods. We use a slightly modified differential evolution approach for assigning channels to links. We design a genetic algorithm based multicast tree construction strategy which determines a delay, jitter bounded low cost multicast tree. Moreover, we define a multi objective fitness function for the tree construction algorithm which optimizes interference as well as tree cost. Finally, we compare the performance of Q-CAR with QoS Multicast Routing and Channel Assignment(QoS-MRCA) and intelligent Quality of service multicast routing and Channel Assignment(i-QCA) algorithm in multichannel multiradio wireless mesh network (simulated) environments. Our experimental results distinctly show the outstanding performance of the proposed algorithm.