An interference-free multicast for mesh networks with directional antennas

Abstract

In this study, we consider an optimization problem concerning about how to build a multicast tree to deliver continuous multimedia streams to a large number of mesh clients on the wireless mesh networks simultaneously. In order to provide high-quality streams to users, we need to allocate non-overlapping channels to communication links to avoid interference. Since the number of non-overlapping channels is very limited, some links may not have channels allocated, and the resulting multicast tree may cover only a subset of subscribers. Since the more subscribers can be serviced, the more profits we can make. The goal of this research is then set to determine a multicast tree that can maximize the number of serviced subscribers. An algorithm named LCMR is proposed for the problem described above. The experimental results show that the partial multicast tree determined by our LCMR method outperforms the trees found by the previous published approaches.