Time division multiple access (TDMA) wireless mesh networks can be utilized in extreme scenarios, such as remote, rural, and difficult-to-wire areas. Time division in TDMA mesh networks and interference among wireless links are sorted out in the time domain. This paper analyzes the delay-aware routing and scheduling problem for TDMA wireless mesh networks. An integer linear programming formulation is proposed to solve the problem optimally for a small mesh grid. Since the running time for the integer linear programming solution grows exponentially with the size of the wireless mesh network grid, the authors provide a heuristic based on Lagrangian decomposition.

Although there are many works on the routing and/or link scheduling of wireless mesh networks, the majority of them are aimed at throughput maximization, or reducing the average delay. Very few of them can impose an upper bound on a user pre-specified deadline. In this paper, the authors solve the problem of routing and link scheduling together for time division wireless networks while satisfying a user pre-specified deadline.

The paper is organized very nicely. The authors introduce TDMA wireless mesh networks in the first section. The challenges of link scheduling and routing are discussed together with previous works. The authors then systematically formulate the problem and provide integer linear programming and heuristic solutions. In the experimental results section, the authors provide concrete data to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

I enjoyed reading the paper, as it solves a very interesting problem. It is written in clear technical language and its overall flow is smooth. I recommend this paper to anyone who is interested in routing and scheduling in wireless mesh networks.