A feedback-based adaptive online algorithm for Multi-Gateway load-balancing in wireless mesh networks

Abstract

We propose an adaptive online load-balancing protocol for Multi-Gateway Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) which, based on the current network conditions, balances load between gateways. Our protocol (GWLB) achieves two goals: (i) alleviating congestion in affected domains and (ii) balancing load to improve flow fairness across domains. As a result of applying GWLB the throughput and fairness of flows improves. The proposed scheme effectively takes into account the elastic nature of TCP traffic, and intra-flow and inter-flow interference when switching flows between domains. Through simulations, we analyze performance and compare with a number of proposed strategies, showing that GWLB outperforms them. In particular, we have observed average flow throughput gains of 104% over the nearest gateway strategy.