PUMA: Policy-Based Unified Multiradio Architecture for Agile Mesh Networking

This paper presents the design and implementation of PUMA, a declarative constraint-solving platform for policy-based routing and channel selection in multiradio wireless mesh networks. In PUMA, users formulate channel selection policies as optimization goals and constraints that are concisely declared using the Colog declarative language. To efficiently execute Colog programs in a distributed setting, PUMA integrates a high-performance constraint solver with a declarative networking engine. We demonstrate the capabilities of PUMA in defining distributed protocols that cross-optimize across channel selection and routing. We have developed a prototype of the PUMA system that we extensively evaluated in simulations and on the ORBIT testbed. Our experimental results demonstrate that PUMA can flexibly and efficiently implement a variety of centralized and distributed channel selection protocols that result in significantly higher throughput compared to single-channel and identical-channel assignment solutions.