Robust Channel Allocation with Heterogeneous Requirements for Wireless Mesh Backbone Networks

When multiple mobile sensors and actuators share a common wireless mesh backbone network of defence systems, the channel allocation mechanism must guarantee the heterogeneous link requirements under conditions of uncertainty. In this paper, a robust channel allocation mechanism is proposed by exploiting partially overlapped channels for directional multi-channel wireless mesh networks. The approach relies on a chance-constrained optimization problem, in which the objective is to minimize the spectrum usage of the network, and the constraints are the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio requirements of links with uncertainty. We convert the proposed integer non-linear optimization problem into a mixed-integer convex problem by using efficient transition and approximation. The optimal channel allocation is obtained by solving the proposed optimization problem which adapts to the heterogeneous link and robustness requirements. The simulation results show that the proposed method ensures the heterogeneous link requirements under uncertain conditions while minimizing the spectrum usage of the network.