A self-adaptive routing paradigm for wireless mesh networks based on reinforcement learning
Maddalena Nurchis, Raffaele Bruno, Marco Conti, Luciano Lenzini · 2011
Classical routing protocols for WMNs are typically designed to achieve specific target objectives (e.g., maximum throughput), and they offer very limited flexibility. As a consequence, more intelligent and adaptive mesh networking solutions are needed to obtain high performance in diverse network conditions. To this end, we propose a reinforcement learning-based routing framework that allows each mesh device to dynamically select at run time a routing protocol from a pre-defined set of routing options, which provides the best performance. The most salient advantages of our solution are: i) it can maximize routing performance considering different optimization goals, ii) it relies on a compact representation of the network state and it does not need any model of its evolution, and iii) it efficiently applies Q-learning methods to guarantee convergence of the routing decision process. Through extensive ns-2 simulations we show the superior performance of the proposed routing approach in comparison with two alternative routing schemes.