Efficient Load-Aware Routing Scheme for Wireless Mesh Networks

This paper proposes a load-aware routing scheme for wireless mesh networks (WMNs). In a WMN, the traffic load tends to be unevenly distributed over the network. In this situation, the load-aware routing scheme can balance the load, and consequently, enhance the overall network capacity. We design a routing scheme which maximizes the utility, i.e., the degree of user satisfaction, by using the dual decomposition method. The structure of this method makes it possible to implement the proposed routing scheme in a fully distributed way. With the proposed scheme, a WMN is divided into multiple clusters for load control. A cluster head estimates traffic load in its cluster. As the estimated load gets higher, the cluster head increases the routing metrics of the routes passing through the cluster. Based on the routing metrics, user traffic takes a detour to avoid overloaded areas, and as a result, the WMN achieves global load balancing. We present the numerical results showing that the proposed scheme effectively balances the traffic load and outperforms the routing algorithm using the expected transmission time (ETT) as a routing metric.