A joint routing and scheduling algorithm for efficient broadcast in wireless mesh networks

With the increasing popularity of wireless mesh networks (WMNs), broadcasting traffic (e.g. IP-TV) will contribute a large portion of network load. In this paper, we consider a multi-channel multi-interface WMN with real time broadcast call arrivals. Aiming at maximizing the call acceptance rate of the network, an efficient broadcast tree construction algorithm, called Schedule-based Greedy Expansion (S-Expand), is designed. Unlike the existing time fraction approach, which focuses on assigning time fractions to tree links to guarantee the existence of a feasible schedule, we follow the approach of joint routing and scheduling. The proposed S-Expand algorithm packs non-interfering transmissions to use the same time slots; this would allow more flexibility in accepting future calls. Simulation results show that S-Expand achieves higher call acceptance rate than the traditional time fraction approach.