HIAM: Hidden Node and Interference Aware Routing Metric for Multi-channel Multi-radio Mesh Networks

Abstract

In wireless mesh networks, throughput degrades drastically as the network size grows mainly due to the hidden node problem and carrier sense interference. These phenomena can be avoided in multi-channel, multi-radio mesh networks by choosing a path consisting of channels in which the two problems can be mitigated. This paper proposes a new rout- ing metric, the Hidden node and Interference Aware routing Metric (HIAM), which considers both problems when choosing paths. The effect of the hidden node problem for a path is represented by estimating the packet transmission time with respect to the number of collisions that can occur due to hidden nodes. The effect of carrier sense interference for a path is represented by estimating the packet transmission time with respect to inter-flow and intra-flow interference. Our simulation results show that HIAM results in significantly higher routing stability and throughput, and lower control packet overhead than the existing methods.