Ant colony algorithm-based fair routing algorithm for wireless mesh networks

As the centralized management architecture adopted by wireless Mesh networks often results in unbalanced bandwidth and load allocation, this paper proposes a fair bandwidth-allocation routing algorithm based on the ant colony algorithm by introducing a fair routing evaluation standard named minimum per-user average bandwidth. In the proposed algorithm, the traffic load is balanced and the bandwidth is fairly allocated for each user by maximizing the minimum per-user average bandwidth with the aid of optimization function of ants' travelling. Simulated results indicate that, as compared with the existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm may result in fairer bandwidth allocation though both the complexity and the average path length increase.