An Efficient Hybrid Channel Assignment Protocol for a Multi Interface Wireless Mesh Network

Abstract—In Both multi-interface and dynamicchannel adjustment are prevailingly used to improve thecapacity and the flexibility of wireless mesh networks(WMNs). The System over heads that are generated by uncontrolled interface switching adversely decrease the performance of WMNs. To find a reasonable tradeoff between flexibility and switching overheads, we propose ahybrid channelassignment protocol (HCAP) for multiinterface WMNs. The HCAP adopts a static interfaceassignment strategy for nodes that have the heaviest loads to avoid frequent interface switching, whereas it adopts a hybrid interfaceassignment strategy for other nodes to improve the ability of adapting to flow change. In our implementation, we present a slotbased coordination policy. Extensive NS2 simulations demonstrate that the HCAP improves network capacity, enhances flexibility, and guarantees interflow fairness