Link scheduling with end-to-end delay constraints in wireless mesh networks

Link scheduling is used in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) to guarantee interference-free transmission on the shared wireless medium in a time division multiple access approach. Several papers in the literature address the problem of link scheduling guaranteeing a minimum throughput to the flows traversing the WMN. However, none of the existing works address the problem of computing a schedule that guarantees that prespecified end-to-end delay constraints are met. In this paper, we make a first step forward in this direction by defining a link scheduling algorithm that works in sinktree WMNs, i.e. those whose traffic is routed towards a common sink (i.e., the Internet gateway). Our iterative algorithm exploits a delay-based admission control procedure, devised through network calculus, which tests the feasibility of a schedule from the point of view of delay guarantees. Preliminary analyses reported in this paper show that the algorithm finds feasible solutions in few iterations.