Patent ID: 7643469

Claim:
method for making joint channel and routing assignments in a wireless mesh network, said wireless mesh network having a plurality of nodes, a plurality of channels and a plurality of radios, said method comprising the steps of: generating, by a network element, a flow graph of said wireless mesh network as function of said plurality of nodes, said plurality of channels and said plurality of radios; identifying, as a function of a throughput of said wireless mesh network and a set of fairness constraints, a first routing of said plurality of channels and said plurality of radios from a flow from said flow graph; a first adjusting of said flow to ensure a feasible channel assignment among said plurality of channels in said first routing, said first adjusting resulting in a second routing of said plurality of channels and said plurality of radios; a second adjusting of said flow as a function of a maximum interference level across each channel of said plurality of channels in said second routing; scaling said second adjusted flow to eliminate all interference over said plurality of channels; generating an interference free link schedule from said scaled, second adjusted flow; and sending said interference free link schedule said first routing, and said second routing to said plurality of nodes across said wireless mesh network for exchanging communications between said plurality of nodes.