Probabilistic multi-path routing for multimedia over wireless mesh networks

Multimedia applications in wireless mesh networks face the challenges including limited bandwidth and interference. In these situations, single-path routing is prone to degradation of performance while improper multi-path routing selection may result in a low bandwidth due to severe interference. In this paper, we first present a method to adaptively find out a proper number of routes with less interference. Then we propose a new metric called effective bandwidth to measure the actual bandwidth of a specific route by considering congestion and intra/inter flow interference. Based on it, a distributed probabilistic multi-path routing algorithm is designed. This algorithm can balance the load throughout the entire network by using the route with a probability proportional to its effective bandwidth, leading to an optimal solution that improves bandwidth, delay and jitter. Consequently, it improves the QoS of multimedia applications. Simulations demonstrate that probabilistic multi-path routing outperforms single-path routing in improving network performance.