Tree-based dual load balancing scheme in wireless mesh networks with multiple gateways

Since Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are commonly utilized for Internet access, the Internet Gateways (INGs) that link WMN to the wired network receive most of the traffic. Therefore, ING congestion is common, making traffic load balancing crucial. Despite significant research efforts focused on attaining load balancing among INGs and Mesh Router (MRs), more research is still required to address the inter-domain and intra-domain load balancing in WMN. In this paper, we have proposed a Tree-based Dual Load Balancing (TDLB) scheme that provides inter-domain and intra-domain load balancing and optimizes the number of INGs while maintaining QoS constraints in WMN. Our approach firstly covers the ING selection algorithm which achieves the objective of optimized gateway selection and places the ING to be close to each other. Then, the domain formulation algorithm assigns MRs to a domain according to some ordered priorities. We utilize the innovative ING reallocation algorithm, which accurately calculates the load ratio for each MR within the domain, facilitating the selection of the most suitable MR to be designated as the new ING. In order to accomplish load balancing, we perform inter-domain and intra-domain load balancing based on load ratio and cumulative load. The proposed TDLB scheme significantly enhances ING placement efficiency, network coverage, and traffic load balancing, leading to improved performance, scalability and a noteworthy contribution to the design and optimization of WMNs. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms existing algorithms in terms of fairness index, drop count and average path length in various scenarios.