Integrated Scheduling for Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMN) represent a new networking technology involving wireless devices that are typically fixed at buildings and other infrastructure. These devices act as access points for wireless services such as the Internet. Importantly, the access points may directly connect to each other and forward data to a destination. This is typically an Internet gateway where communication is transferred from wireless to wires/cables. The relaying of data in a WMN causes problems for maintaining quality of service. It is important that data is scheduled sequentially for transfer between pairs of sending and receiving devices because processing within a device cannot occur in parallel. Consequently scheduling ensures that collisions between transmissions do not occur. It also allows data to be routed along paths so that objectives such as latency and delay of data are minimized while fairness between users is maximized. Our contribution will include eliciting the complexities of the underlying communication dynamics in mathematical terms. Collaboration with our project partner (BT plc) will ensure that all relevant engineering issues are incorporated. The research project specifically looks at the problem of creating schedules so that objectives are resolved. Two types of schedules are addressed: those for the user who wishes to transfer data to-and-from a particular access point and those needed to relay data to other access points in the WMN. These scheduling problems are computationally complex and require research based on mathematics and computer science. This will determine the existence of such schedules and their creation using advanced computational methods. The outcome of this research is of particular interest to our project partner who will examine the engineering implications of using the techniques developed in this project for future WMN deployments such as Wireless Cities initiatives.