The capacity of wireless mesh networks can be greatly enhanced by equipping each mesh router with multiple radios and by exploiting multiple channels to reduce network interference. It has been proved that an efficient channel assignment scheme is critical to achieve the optimal network throughput. This paper presents a centralized channel assignment scheme for multi-radio multichannel wireless mesh networks. The scheme includes a spanner-based topology control operation and a linkranking channel assignment algorithm. In the topology control procedure, several links that cause intense interference are removed from the network without damage to the basic network connectivity. The channel assignment procedure improves the network throughput via ranking links based on the principle of load balance. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms the compared centralized channel assignment approach in terms of network throughput. The experimental results also indicate that the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is even evident in the case of heavy input traffic load where the potential interference in the network is severe. The capacity of wireless mesh networks can be greatly enhanced by equipping each mesh router with multiple radios and by exploiting multiple channels to reduce network interference. It has been proved that an efficient channel assignment scheme is critical to achieve the optimal network throughput. a centralized channel assignment scheme for multi-radio multichannel wireless mesh networks. The scheme includes a spanner-based topology control operation and a linkranking channel assignment algorithm. In the topology control procedure, several links that cause intense interference are removed from the network without damage to the basic network connectivity. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms the comparison centralized channel assignment approach in terms of network throughput. The experimental results also indica te that the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is even evident in the case of heavy input traffic load where the potential interference in the network is severe.