Distributed bi-directional flow control in wireless mesh networks

摘要

A distributed, bidirectional congestion control and starvation avoidance system for wireless mesh networks. In particular implementations, the nodes of the wireless mesh network monitor their respective local buffers for traffic load, and signal upstream and downstream nodes in response to detected congestion or excess capacity to dynamically allocate transmit capacity between neighboring nodes. Particular implementations are capable of mitigating congestion and preventing starvation in a fully distributed, low-overhead, scalable and efficient manner.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
buffering packets to be transmitted in a downstream direction into a transmit queue; monitoring the transmit queue for congestion; if a number of packets buffered in the transmit queue exceeds an upper threshold, conditionally asserting a positive forward pressure signal comprising a priority class identifier to a downstream node to request an increase in a downstream transmit rate of the downstream node; and conditionally asserting a positive back pressure signal to an upstream node to request reduction of a downstream transmit rate of the upstream node, wherein the priority class identifier specifies one of a plurality of classes for determining processing priority of the positive forward pressure signal in relation to at least one other positive forward pressure signal.