On the Unicast Capacity of Stationary Multi-channel Multi-radio Wireless Networks: Separability and Multi-channel Routing

The first result is on the separability of the unicast capacity of stationary multi-channel multi-radio wireless networks, i.e., whether the capacity of such a network is equal to the sum of the capacities of the corresponding single-channel single-radio wireless networks. For both the Arbitrary Network model and the Random Network model, given a channel assignment, the separability property does not always hold. However, if the number of radio interfaces at each node is equal to the number of channels, the separability property holds. The second result is on the impact of multi-channel routing (i.e., routing a bit through multiple channels as opposed to through a single channel) on the network capacity. For both network models, the network capacities conditioned on a channel assignment under the two routing schemes are not always equal, but if again the number of radio interfaces at each node is equal to the number of channels, the two routing schemes yield equal network capacities.