Identifying High Throughput Paths in 802.11 Mesh Networks: A Model-Based Approach

The authors address the problem of identifying high throughput paths in 802.11 wireless mesh networks. They introduce an analytical model that accurately captures the 802.11 MAC protocol operation and predicts both throughput and delay of multi-hop flows under changing traffic load or routing decisions. The main idea is to characterize each link by the packet loss probability and by the fraction of busy time sensed by the link transmitter, and to capture both intra-flow and inter-flow interference. The model reveals that the busy time fraction experienced by a node, a locally measurable quantity, is essential in finding maximum throughput paths.