Wireless Router Channel Assignment for Mesh Network Delay
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless mesh networks face challenges with throughput, channel switching delay, and packet delivery ratio due to their multi-hop backbone structure, which affects their performance and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A wireless network design where some routers use a single fixed channel for communication, while others use multiple channels, with specific channel assignment and scheduling strategies to mitigate interference and delay, including interference-based, delay-based, and hybrid channel assignment strategies, as well as ripple and dynamic channel-switching scheduling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If wireless routers use multiple channels to communicate for forwarding network packets, then channel reuse is improved and network capacity increases, but channel switching delay increases and system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the wireless network into two distinct types of routers: fixed-channel routers and flexible-channel routers. This segmentation allows the network to simultaneously achieve high channel reuse (through flexible-channel routers switching between channels) and reduced switching delay (through fixed-channel routers that maintain stable connections). The segmentation resolves the contradiction by distributing different functional characteristics to different router types rather than requiring all routers to use the same channel strategy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by assigning different channel usage characteristics to different routers based on their specific roles and positions in the network. Fixed-channel routers provide stable, low-delay communication for certain traffic flows, while flexible-channel routers provide high channel reuse for other flows. This localized differentiation allows each router type to optimize for its specific function, resolving the contradiction between overall network capacity and individual channel switching delay.
2Loss of time
If wireless routers use a single fixed channel to communicate, then channel switching delay is reduced and implementation is simplified, but channel reuse is limited and network capacity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges two different channel access strategies (fixed-channel and flexible-channel approaches) into a single unified wireless network system. By combining fixed-channel routers that provide stability and low switching delay with flexible-channel routers that provide high channel reuse, the system achieves both benefits simultaneously at the network level, even though individual routers use only one approach. This merging resolves the contradiction by showing that the network as a whole can achieve both low delay and high capacity through cooperative diversity.
3Productivity
If all wireless routers use multiple channels for communication, then channel reuse is improved, but interference between routers increases and packet delivery ratio decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by having fixed-channel routers use a single dedicated channel, which eliminates interference issues and ensures high packet delivery ratio for their communications. Meanwhile, flexible-channel routers use multiple channels with coordinated switching, achieving high channel reuse where interference can be managed through timing and coordination. This localized differentiation resolves the contradiction by allowing each router type to operate in its optimal interference environment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces channel assignment and coordination mechanisms as intermediaries that manage the interaction between fixed-channel and flexible-channel routers. These intermediary control functions allocate channels, coordinate switching timing, and prevent interference between different router types. The intermediary layer resolves the contradiction by mediating the resource sharing between routers using different channel strategies, ensuring that high channel reuse does not come at the cost of increased interference and reduced packet delivery ratio.
Data Source
AI summary
A wireless network is provided. The wireless network includes a predetermined wireless router and a plurality of wireless routers. The predetermined wireless router has gateway functionality for accessing an external network. Each wireless router of the wireless routers has a single transceiver, and the wireless routers include at least a wireless router which communicates with other wireless router(s) in the wireless network for forwarding network packets by using a single fixed channel and at least a wireless router which communicates with other wireless router(s) in the wireless network for forwarding network packets by using a plurality of channels.