Multi-virtual wireless mesh networks through multiple channels and interfaces
Marques, C. M.
; Kandasamy, S. K
;
Sargento, S.
; Matos, R.
; Calçada, T.C.
; Ricardo, M.
Wireless Networks Vol. 1, Nº 1, pp. 1 - 16, January, 2018.
ISSN (print): 1022-0038
ISSN (online): 1572-8196
Scimago Journal Ranking: 0,40 (in 2018)
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1007/s11276-017-1650-7
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Abstract
The high flexibility of the Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) physical infrastructure can be exploited to provide communication with different technologies and support for a variety of different services and scenarios. Context information may trigger the need to build different logical networks on top of physical networks, where users can be grouped according to similarity of their context, and can be assigned to the logical networks matching their context. When building logical networks, network virtualization can be a very useful technique allowing a flexibleutilizationofaphysicalnetworkinfrastructure.Moreover, dynamic resource management taking into advantage the use of multiple channels and interfaces, directional antennas and power control, is able to provide higher degree of flexibility in terms of scheduling and resource allocation among the available virtual networks, to enable isolated and non-interfering communications while maximizing the network efficiency. In this paper we propose a resource management approach which uses interference-aware transmit power control with both omnidirectional and directional antennas, to determine the resources of each logical network while minimizing interference between logical networks, considering the support of multiple services, users and logical networks. Each logical network can be extended to include the nodes on the WMN the new user is attached to. The results of the proposed approach show that the support of multiple logical networks for multiple services highly improves the network performance when compared to the support of the services in only one logical network.