Optimizing link rate assignment and transmission scheduling in WMN through compatible set generation

Radio links in wireless mesh networks (WMN) can select one of several modulation and coding schemes (MCS). A MCS assignment influences links data rates and their mutual interference, and therefore should be optimized. We consider joint optimization of link rate assignment and transmission scheduling in order to maximize the minimal flow in a WMN. One of the main difficulties stems from the requirement that each link has to use only one selected MCS for all its transmissions. This requirement leads to a complicated exact branch-and-price method, which is quite time-consuming for networks of practical size. Thus, we propose an original heuristic based on simulated annealing that utilizes specific characteristics of the problem. The method provides a balance between sub-optimality of the obtained solutions and the running time. The presented method is the main purpose and novelty of the paper. An extensive numerical study illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.Funding Agencies|EC Marie Curie Actions project MESH-WISE [FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IAPP-324515]; Excellence Center at Linkoping-Lund in Information Technology (ELLIIT); National Science Centre (Poland) [2011/01/B/ST7/02967]; Chinese Scholarship Council; European FP7 Marie Curie IOF grant [329313]