To minimize interference in multi hop wireless mesh networks using load balancing interference aware protocol

Abstract

In recent years, wireless mesh networks have become more popular than ever. They are now called as last mile internet connectivity. WMN has the advantage of robust fault tolerance. Even if some of the mesh nodes are incapable, there exist many other alternative nodes to serve relay. In addition, multi-hop of WMN can not only spread coverage but also save both cabling cost and human resource. A common problem in WMN is the performance degradation with multiple hops. This is due to the interference of the neighbors and varying traffic load. This is a critical issue in WMN. It has always been a challenging task for the researchers to minimize interference in multi hop Wireless Mesh Networks. In this work we have addressed a critical issue of performance degradation in WMN due to interference and varying load. For this we have proposed a load balancing interference aware routing protocol (LBIARP). This protocol is evaluated by simulating it in OPNET Modeler 17.1 PL1. Simulation results show that LBIARP achieves significantquality performanceover AODV WCETT and AODV HOP-COUNT based IEEE 802.11 mesh networks