**6. Conclusions**

In this chapter, we have discussed the problem of assigning channels with partial overlaps to radios in single- and multi-radio WMNs. We have characterized different types of interferences that may exist in a WMN depending on the flow characteristics and on the particular configuration of interfaces to channel assignments. We then presented IEEE 802.11 standard constraints on communications and evaluated the benefits of using partially overlapped channels (POCs) for the design of efficient channel assignment schemes with the help of experiments performed on a real testbed. Our, and previous experiments demonstrated that the use of POCs: i) improves network capacity by enabling more parallel communications and ii) provides more efficient utilization of the available spectrum. We have also provided a survey of some of the existing POC assignment schemes in WMNs and have classified them based on the interference models that they employ. Finally, we discussed some of the challenges and open issues in designing efficient channel assignment schemes utilizing both orthogonal and non-orthogonal channels in WMNs.
