A Density Based Clustering Algorithm for Efficient Channel Allocation in Multi-radio Multi-channel Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract

Efficient channel selection is essential in 802.11 mesh deployments, for minimizing contention and interference among co-channel devices. The IEEE 802.11 standard provides at least three non-overlapping channels and thus it's possible for a node equipped with more than one network interface card (NIC) to operate on different channels simultaneously. This may increase the aggregate bandwidth available. In this work, we propose a density based clustering algorithm for channel allocation (DCCA) for multi-radio multi-channel mesh networks. DCCA manages the network topology by partitioning the mesh network into balanced cluster and affects a fixed and static channel to each cluster to be used mainly for control traffic. DCCA reduces intra- and inter-clusters interference and can be used in conjunction with a dynamic channel assignment strategy. Simulation results show that our solution gives balanced clusters and reduces broadcast time.