Partially Overlapped Channel Assignment for Cloud-Based Heterogeneous Cellular and Mesh Networks

Innovative cloud computing services based on Heterogeneous Cellular Mesh Networks (HCMN) offered adaptive data storage functions and a flexible environment. Channel Assignment is one of the significant tasks in these networks by using Partially Overlapped Channels (POCs) in Multi-Radio Multi-Channel HCMNs. POCs can help to maximize the network throughput, but the availability of a fewer number of Non-Overlapping Channels makes these processes challenging. Mostly 802.11 Industrial, Scientific, and Medical radio bands are used in commercial and private deployments. The use of the same frequency band in neighboring networks is the leading source of external interference. As interference is a major cause of performance degradation in networks and needs to minimize it, but interference from co-located networks is overlooked in existing POC assignments. In this paper, a centralized Interference Aware Partially Overlapped Channel Assignment is proposed that takes both external and internal interference into account along with the degree of overlap among adjacent channels. Initially, it binds interfaces of each node to its one-hop neighbors and identifies all possible links by constructing a neighborhood graph. Average external interference is measured in terms of channel utilization and the number of interfering radios at each channel. The proposed scheme selects and assigns a channel with minimum total network interference for a link. Simulation results indicated a considerable improvement in terms of throughput, packet loss ratio, and end-to-end delay as compares to the existing scheme.