A Topology Control Algorithm for Effective Power Efficiency and Throughput for Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have become a better alternative for extending wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) to provide network coverage up to the furthest of far flung rural areas. This has been implemented by using a meshed backbone network interconnecting the mesh access points (MAPs) that manages each of the WLANs. The routing algorithms use the mesh backbone to establish inter-WLAN routes which are subsequently used by the distantly distributed mesh clients to communicate in a multihop fashion. In this work, a fully scalable power-efficient localized distributed topology control algorithm is proposed to effectively construct such a meshed backbone network of access points. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated via several simulations carried out in the NS-2 simulation environment. The resultant network topology is shown to have (1) reduced average node degree which leads to reduced traffic interference, (2) increased throughput and (3)increased network lifetime.