IEEE 802.11 based Wireless Mesh Networks: A multi-channel MAC baseline study

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) extend the range of the IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi beyond the one-hop range. This has made it an attractive research topic given the exponential growth in Wi-Fi portable devices. However, the multi-hop nature of WMNs creates many new challenges, primarily in the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. Specifically, the IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control (MAC) layer is designed for a single hop wireless network. In this paper, we propose an effective modification to the IEEE 802.11 MAC layer by incorporating a multi-channel mode. Simulation evidence shows significant improvement in many major network performance metrics compared to the literature and to the single channel mode.