A Multi-Channel Scheduling MAC (MCS-MAC) Protocol for Wi-Fi Mesh Networks

A Wi-Fi mesh network providing multi-hop wireless connections based on IEEE 802.11 PHY/MAC technology has recently received a significant attention as a network infrastructure that interconnects RFID systems and wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, the current IEEE 802.11 contention-based MAC protocol cannot fully utilize the network capacity due to eithor frame collisions or unused network resources. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-channel scheduling MAC (MCS-MAC) protocol for Wi-Fi mesh networks. Under the secondary interference model of Wi-Fi mesh networks, the MCS-MAC protocol can maximize the network throughput via activation of collision-free links that has a maximal link weight. Through the simulations, we show that the throughput of the MCS-MAC protocol is at least three times higher than that of existing MAC protocols in Wi-Fi mesh networks.