Hybrid QoS Based Routing for IEEE 802.16j Mesh Infrastructure

With the growth of wireless networks, Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) has appeared as an emerging key solution for broadband Internet access with a low-cost deployment. Moreover, providing QoS guarantees for real-time and streaming applications such as VoIP (Voice over IP) and VoD (Video on Demand) is a challenging issue in such environment. In this paper, we propose a hybrid wireless mesh architecture to provide mesh clients with Internet access while guaranteeing QoS. It is formed by an IEEE 802.16j based infrastructure and several IEEE 802.11s based client domains. A clustering algorithm is developed to enhance scalability issues within the mesh infrastructure and a novel protocol called Hybrid QoS Mesh Routing (HQMR) is specified in order to provide QoS requirements. The HQMR protocol is deployed within the IEEE 802.16j infrastructure and it is composed of two routing sub-protocols: a reactive routing protocol for intrainfrastructure communications and a proactive QoS-based multi-tree routing protocol for communications with external networks. The proposed architecture provides real-time and streaming applications with QoS guarantee in mesh environment thanks to a clustering algorithm and a QoS-based routing protocol. Keywords—Wireless Mesh Network; QoS routing; IEEE 802.16j; HQMR.