Traffic engineering framework for inter-working multi-hop wireless networks

Abstract

The interworking of multi-hop wireless networks conveniently provide ubiquitous service access and continuity. In such networks, multi-technology mobile terminals (nodes) relay traffic for each other. However, it is desirable to have appropriate traffic engineering (TE) mechanisms so that nodes can identify links that optimizes network parameters and route traffic through such links. The contributions of this paper are; firstly, to propose a multi-layer TE framework. The framework defines the link discovery, resource utilization and routing processes. For these processes, the concept of connectivity in inter-working multi-hop wireless networks was investigated. We define connectivity as a function of a link's availability and non-impairment probability. Secondly, we derived analytical models for the processes and the connectivity model is proposed as a routing metric. Thirdly, we incorporated the framework into NS-miracle/NS2 and evaluated its performance. The simulation compared the framework with another which is available in NS-miracle.