GraphSAGE-Based Multi-Path Reliable Routing Algorithm for Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMN) promise to be an effective way to solve the “last mile” access problem on the Internet of Things (IoT) and the key to next-generation wireless networks. The current routing algorithms of WMN are difficult to adapt to complex environments and guarantee the reliable transmission of services. Therefore, this paper proposes a reliable routing algorithm that combines the improved breadth-first search and a graph neural network, namely GraphSAGE. The algorithm consists of two parts: (1) A multi-path routing algorithm based on the improved breadth-first search. This algorithm can continuously iterate link information based on network topology and output all shortest paths. (2) A GraphSAGE-based performance optimization algorithm. This algorithm creates a method to generate network labels for supervised training of GraphSAGE. Then, the network labels and GraphSAGE are used to learn graph features to obtain the value of network performance for each shortest path. Finally, the path with the best network performance is selected for data transmission. Simulation results show that in the face of complex environments, the proposed algorithm can effectively alleviate network congestion, improve throughput, and reduce end-to-end delay and packet loss rate compared with the traditional shortest-path routing algorithm and the Equal-Cost Multi-Path routing (ECMP).