i-POCA: Interference-aware partially overlapping channel assignment in 802.11-based meshes

In this paper, we address the problem of channel assignment considering partially overlapping channels (POCs) for interference avoidance in 802.11-based wireless mesh networks. A novel interference model is proposed which provides a systematic approach of measuring the interference caused by links operating on POCs by taking into account both the adjacent channel interference and the corresponding physical distance between mesh nodes. Based on this model, we design a centralized and a distributed interference-aware channel assignment algorithm called i-POCA which enables the use of smart ants for assigning orthogonal and non-orthogonal channels to radios in order to minimize total network interference. We evaluate our algorithms through extensive simulations and demonstrate that our proposed algorithms improve network throughput by efficient utilization of the available spectrum.