Measurement-Based Detection of Interfering Neighbors for QoS in Wireless Mesh Networks

Communication in wireless mesh networks based on the IEEE 802.11 WLAN standard is mainly governed by the carrier sensing based medium access. Knowledge about, which nodes influence each other, can improve the performance and is essential for QoS provision in terms of bandwidth guarantees. However, until now only approximations for the determination of station in carrier sense range are used. We present an exact solution by measuring the carrier sense in static wireless mesh networks. Simulation studies and measurements are done that verify the correctness of the protocol and reveal some significant properties of the carrier sense. It is shown that the carrier sense relation is neither strict nor symmetric in the general case, in opposite to the assumptions normally found in literature. We further conclude that for evaluation better simulation models are required that match these properties.