R-CA: A Routing-Based Dynamic Channel Assignment Algorithm in Wireless Mesh Networks

Even though channel assignment has been studied for years, most IEEE 802.11-based multi-hop wireless networks such as WSN, WMN, MANET are limited by channel interference. Properly assigning orthogonal channels to wireless links can improve the throughput of multi-hop network. To solve the dynamic channel assignment problem, a routing-based channel assignment algorithm R-CA is proposed. R-CA can allocate channels for wireless nodes when they need communication and free channels after data transmission. Limited channel resources can be taken advantage of by more wireless nodes. Simulations are done and the results show that this channel allocation strategy can effectively ensure and enhance the network throughput and packet delivery rate.