Channel Time Allocation and Routing Algorithm for Multi-hop Communications in IEEE 802.15.3 High-Rate WPAN Mesh Networks

IEEE 802.15.3 High-rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) have been developed to communicate with devices within 10m at high speed. A mesh network made up of a parent piconet and several child piconets can support multi-hop communications. In this paper, we propose an efficient Channel Time Allocation (CTA) method and routing algorithm for multi-hop communications in IEEE 802.15.3 high-rate WPAN mesh networks. The proposed CTA allocation method allows sufficient CTA allocation for the relay PNCs. The proposed routing algorithm is tree-based, and the routing tables of parent PNCs and child PNCs are created by efficient device discovery process to find the shortest paths via parent PNCs or subordinate child PNCs. We evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms via simulations. The proposed algorithms are shown to extend the communication range by multi-hop exchange of packets and to provide sufficient Channel Time Allocations (CTAs) for parent and child PNCs.