State Based Single Channel Selection in Multi-Channel Wireless Networks

We present a scheme for identifying and selecting high performing channels in a multi-channel wireless network through the application of a state based approach. The proposed scheme can increase throughput and reduce delay; however a significant challenge is node coordination. In dedicated control channel schemes, data channels are selected based upon channel agreement between nodes. One widely implemented channel selection scheme is random selection which can lead to suboptimal network performance when one or more data channels are disadvantaged. Our proposed channel selection scheme is shown to overcome the inefficiency of random selection. We develop a theoretical performance model of our state based selection scheme and compare it against random selection. We then present simulation results to demonstrate a significant reduction in transmission errors by state based over random selection.