Maximizing Multicast Call Acceptance Rate in Multi-Channel Multi-Interface Wireless Mesh Networks

In this paper, we consider the problem of constructing bandwidth-guaranteed multicast tree in multi-channel multi-interface wireless mesh networks. We focus on the scenario of dynamic multicast call arrival, where each call has a specific bandwidth requirement. A call is accepted if a multicast tree with sufficient bandwidth on each link can be constructed. Intuitively, if the carried load on both the most-heavily loaded channel and the most-heavily loaded node is minimized, the traffic load in the network will be balanced. If the network load is balanced, more room will be available for accommodating future calls. This would maximize the call acceptance rate in the network. With the above notion of load balancing in mind, an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation is formulated for constructing bandwidth-guaranteed tree. We show that the above problem is NP-hard, and an efficient heuristic algorithm called Largest Coverage Shortest-Path First (LC-SPF) is devised. Simulation results show that LC-SPF yields comparable call acceptance rate as the ILP formulation, but with much shorter running time.