Optimal and Fair Rate Adaptation in Wireless Mesh Networks Based on Mathematical Programming and Game Theory

The authors have proposed a fair solution to optimal rate adaptation. The problem has been described in terms of the objective function, decision variables and constraints. Furthermore, using this problem definition, a rate adaptation heuristic was developed and divided into two sub- problems; part one requires finding the optimal rate allocation within the network, part two continues by finding a fair solution whilst still keeping an optimal rate allocation. The heuristic relies on cooperation in the network, and information regarding selected rates and loss due to interference, is distributed between neighbouring nodes. Furthermore, the heuristic is modelled as a repeated game with infinite horizon and it is shown how cooperation can be enforced. A Stack topology has been used for analysing and comparing performance and OMNeT++ 4.2.2 has been selected as simulation platform. The authors have shown that the heuristic effectively reduces the packet loss ratio (PLR). Thereafter, it was shown that the solution is both fair and optimal in terms of data rate.