Towards an optimised traffic-aware routing in wireless mesh networks

In this paper, we study through simulations the impact of PHY/MAC protocols on higher layers. In a comparative way, we investigate the effectiveness of some protocols when they coexist on a wireless mesh network environment. Results show that PHY/MAC parameters have an important impact on routing performances. Based on these results, we propose two traffic-aware routing metrics based on link availability. The information about the link availability/occupancy is picked up from lower layers using a cross-layer approach. The first metric is load-sensitive and aims to balance the traffic load according to the availability of a link to support additional flows. The second metric reproduces better the capacity of a link since it is based on its residual bandwidth. Using several real experiments, we have shown that our proposals can accurately determine better paths in terms of throughput and delay. Our experiments are carried out into a heterogeneous IEEE 802.11n-based network running with OLSR routing protocol.