A Multi-Objective Optimization Model For Planning Robust and Least Interfered Wireless Mesh Networks

A wise network planning becomes the most important phase in determining the network efficiency. In this paper we consider the wireless mesh network (WMN) planning problem where no much work has been done. We propose a new multi-objective optimization model for planning WMNs, where the two conflicting objectives, namely network deployment cost and network channels´ interferences, are simultaneously minimized while guaranteeing end- users´ full coverage and robust topologies. We also propose a novel performance metric to evaluate the network interference level and a population-based optimization heuristic to solve our model, whereby many WMN planning solutions are provided to the end-planner to choose among. We use realistic-size instances (up to 81) mesh nodes to test our multi-objective optimization model, and discuss the impact of the key parameters on the characteristics of the solutions.