  Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) deployments are poised to reduce the reliance on
wired infrastructure especially with the advent of the multi-radio
multi-channel (MRMC) WMN architecture. But the benefits that MRMC WMNs offer
viz., augmented network capacity, uninterrupted connectivity and reduced
latency, are depreciated by the detrimental effect of prevalent interference.
Interference mitigation is thus a prime objective in WMN deployments. It is
often accomplished through prudent channel allocation (CA) schemes which
minimize the adverse impact of interference and enhance the network
performance. However, a multitude of CA schemes have been proposed in research
literature and absence of a CA performance prediction metric, which could aid
in the selection of an efficient CA scheme for a given WMN, is often felt. In
this work, we offer a fresh characterization of the interference endemic in
wireless networks. We then propose a reliable CA performance prediction metric,
which employs a statistical interference estimation approach. We carry out a
rigorous quantitative assessment of the proposed metric by validating its CA
performance predictions with experimental results, recorded from extensive
simulations run on an ns-3 802.11g environment.
