Evaluation of genetic algorithms for mesh router nodes placement in wireless mesh networks

In wireless mesh networks (WMNs) the meshing architecture, consisting of a grid of mesh routers, provides connectivity services to mesh client nodes. The performance and operability of WMNs largely depends on placement of mesh routers nodes in the geographical area to achieve network connectivity and stability. Thus, finding optimal or near-optimal mesh router nodes placement is crucial to such networks. In this work we propose and evaluate genetic algorithms (GAs) for near-optimally solving the problem. In our approach we seek a two-fold optimization, namely, the maximization of the size of the giant component in the network and the user coverage. The size of the giant component is considered here as a criteria for measuring network connectivity and user coverage as QoS. GAs explore the solution space by means of a population of individuals, which are evaluated, selected, crossed and mutated to reproduce new individuals of better quality. The fitness of individuals is measured with respect to network connectivity and user coverage being the former a primary objective and the later a secondary one. Several genetic operators have been considered in implementing GAs in order to find the configuration that works best for the problem. We have experimentally evaluated the proposed GAs using a benchmark of generated instances varying from small to large size. In order to evaluate the quality of achieved solutions for different possible client distributions, instances have been generated using four distributions of mesh clients (Uniform, Normal, Exponential and Weibull). The experimental results showed the efficiency of the GAs for computing high quality solutions of mesh router nodes placement in WMNs.