Wireless mesh networks have been extensively studied as expandable, flexible, and inexpensive access networks to the Internet. This paper focuses on one composed of multiple access points (APs) connected through multihop wireless communications mainly by the wireless distribution system (WDS). For scalability, the proper partition of APs into multiple WDS clusters is essential, because the number of APs in one cluster is limited due to the increasing radio interference and control packets. In this paper, we formulate this WDS clustering problem and prove the NP-completeness of its decision version through reduction from a known NP-complete problem. Then, we propose its heuristic algorithm, using a greedy method and a variable depth search method, to satisfy the complex constraints while optimizing the cost function. We verify the effectiveness of our algorithm through extensive simulations, where the results confirm its superiority to the existing algorithm in terms of throughput.

This paper proposes a scheme to select an appropriate gateway based on multiple metrics such as remaining energy, mobility or speed, and number of hops in Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) and the infrastructure network integration. The Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method called Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) is used to rank and to select the gateway node. SAW method calculates the weights of gateway node candidates by considering these three metrics. The node with the highest weight will be selected as the gateway. Simulation results show that our scheme can reduce the average energy consumption of MANET nodes, and improve throughput performance, gateway lifetime, Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) of the MANET and the infrastructure network.

This paper presents novel flooding schemes for wireless mobile ad hoc networks. Clustering of nodes is assumed as a basic ad hoc network structure. GWF (Gateway Forwarding) and SGF (Selected Gateway Forwarding) are presented based on clustering. A new protocol, termed FGS (Flooding Gateway Selection) protocol, between a cluster head and its gateways to realize SGF is presented. It is shown that SGF significantly improves the packet delivery performance in ad hoc networks by reducing flooding traffic.