Fast Multichannel Switching for IEEE 802.11s Multiradio Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMN) are efficient and low cost solutions for the deployment of broadband access in various environments. To support real-time applications such as multimedia and emergency services, WMNs must provide quality of service (QoS) guarantees and QoS continuity protection. While the capacity of single radio WMNs may severely limit the QoS for such traffic, multiradio WMNs can overcome this restriction and provide additional links to support better QoS mechanisms. This paper describes the design and implementation of a mechanism to switch channel in IEEE 802.11s multiradio WMNs. This semi-centralized mechanism decreases the delays required to switch channels and ensures a continuous connectivity between mesh points and mesh portal points. Intended for self-configuration and self-healing mechanisms, the performance of our new channel switch mechanism is evaluated in a simulated environment. We show that time performance results obtained to optimize topologies or to recover from failures are well below the time constraints of real-time applications.