Improving Video Streaming over IEEE 802.11 Mesh Networks through a Cross-Layer Design Technique

There has been a spate of interest in wireless mesh networks in recent years. The reason behind such an upsurge of interest is that wireless mesh networks are seen as enablers of ubiquitous broadband access applications such as the Internet. Moreover, wireless mesh networks provides benefits such as ease of installation, cost effective deployments, a high level of scalability in coverage area and capacity, network flexibility and self-configuration capabilities. These benefits enable the proliferation of seamless communication in underdeveloped areas such as rural communities. However, despite all these benefits, many research challenges still remain in wireless mesh networks. One such challenge is the support of real time applications such as video streaming. This paper presents a cross-layer optimization technique for real time applications provisioned over IEEE 802.11 wireless multihop networks. In this technique, packet error control and throughput optimization is established through rate adaptation mechanisms. Congestion control and optimal route selection in the network layer is achieved through routing protocol optimizations. Simulation results show that the proposed cross-layer optimization method significantly improves the performance of multihop wireless mesh networks when UDP is used as the transport protocol.