Energy efficient topology control algorithm for wireless mesh networks

M. Tech. Electrical Engineering..Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have become a better alternative for extending wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) to provide network coverage up to the furthest of far flung rural areas. This has been implemented by using a meshed backbone network interconnecting the mesh access points (MAPs) that manage each of the WLANs, thus providing a vital mode complimentary to the wireless infrastructure-based networks. The benefits of WMN deployments, however, come with certain challenges e.g., power management. Due to the limited availability of power in typical rural areas in Africa, this dissertation presents an energy efficient localized distributed topology control algorithm to efficiently manage power consumption at the backbone of the wireless mesh networks. The goal is to extend these networks’ lifetimes, as well as improve on throughput. The focus of the project is on the application of the WMNs in rural areas in Africa and in remote urban areas where the mesh nodes are mostly powered by exhaustible power sources like wet-cells or diesel controlled power generators and hence, are considered power constrained. The proposed algorithm uses the propagation models and the concept of relay region to obtain an optimal transmission power per node. It further applies a topology management protocol framework to limit the average number of neighbours per node, which helps to reduce internodes interferences during communication. The performance of the algorithm is validated through extensive simulations in the Network Simulator (NS-2) environment. The results are further compared to those of the conventional IEEE 802.11b mesh network, without transmission power control. It is shown that with a reduction in per node transmission power via topology control it is possible to reduce the total energy consumption in the overall network. It is further shown that this reduction may lead to poor performance in capacity. Hence, it is important to ensure a proper balance in the transmit power to obtain a balance in energy efficiency as well as in throughput