An Overview of Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are communication networks which comprise radio nodes in which nodes are arranged in a mesh topology. Mesh topology is an interconnection of all nodes connected with all other nodes in the network. The network includes devices like nodes, clients, routers, gateways, etc. As the nodes are fully connected, mesh networks are usually less mobile as rerouting is less difficult in predicting the reroute results in delay in data transmission. Mesh clients can be of any wireless devices like cell phones, laptops, etc. The gateways which act as forwarding nodes may not be connected with the Internet. As different devices come under a single network, it is also referred as mesh cloud. WMN is self-healable. It works better with various different networks which include cellular networks and IEEE 802.11, 802.15, and 802.16 as well. WMN is flexible to work with more than one protocol. This chapter gives architecture, layer functionalities, and applications

A Performance Comparison of Virtual Backbone Formation Algorithms for Wireless Mesh Networks

Currently wireless networks are dominant by star topology paradigm. Its natural the evolution is towards wireless mesh multi-hop networks. This article compares the performance of several algorithms for virtual backbone formation in ad hoc mesh networks both theoretically and through simulations. Firstly, an overview of the algorithms is given. Next, the results of the algorithm simulations made with the program Dominating Set Simulation Suite (DSSS) are described and interpreted. We have been extended the simulator to simulate the Mobile Backbone Network Topology Synthesis Algorithm. The results show that this algorithm has the best combination of performance characteristics among the compared algorithms

Resource allocation and throughput analysis for multi-radio multi-channel networks.

Xu, Ceng.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-71).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Abstract --- p.iAcknowledgement --- p.iiiChapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Motivation --- p.3Chapter 1.2 --- Contributions --- p.5Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis Scope --- p.5Chapter 2 --- Background Study --- p.6Chapter 2.1 --- Wireless Mesh Networks --- p.6Chapter 2.1.1 --- Overview of Wireless Mesh Networks --- p.6Chapter 2.1.2 --- Challenges of Wireless Mesh Networks --- p.9Chapter 2.1.3 --- Capacity Analysis of Wireless Mesh Net- works --- p.11Chapter 2.2 --- Network Coding --- p.13Chapter 2.2.1 --- Overview of Network Coding --- p.13Chapter 2.2.2 --- Network Coding in Wireless Networks --- p.17Chapter 3 --- Throughput Analysis --- p.19Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.19Chapter 3.2 --- Preliminaries --- p.20Chapter 3.3 --- Proof of Theorem 3.2.1 when n = m --- p.23Chapter 3.4 --- Proof of Theorem 3.2.1 when n≠ m --- p.36Chapter 3.4.1 --- Proof of Theorem 3.2.1 when m n --- p.37Chapter 3.5 --- Applying network coding into multi-radio multichannel networks --- p.37Chapter 3.6 --- Some simulation results --- p.40Chapter 3.6.1 --- String Topology --- p.40Chapter 3.6.2 --- Grid Topology --- p.41Chapter 3.6.3 --- Random Topology --- p.42Chapter 4 --- Interface Reduction in Wireless Mesh Networks --- p.43Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.43Chapter 4.2 --- Preliminaries --- p.44Chapter 4.2.1 --- Assumptions and Objectives of the Algorithm --- p.44Chapter 4.2.2 --- Definitions --- p.45Chapter 4.3 --- Steps of the Algorithm and an Example --- p.49Chapter 4.4 --- Simulation Results and Discussions --- p.53Chapter 4.5 --- Generalization --- p.54Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.66Bibliography --- p.6

On algorithms, system design, and implementation for wireless mesh networks.

Yuan, Yan.Thesis submitted in: November 2007.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-87).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Wireless Mesh Network --- p.3Chapter 1.1.1 --- Architecture Overview --- p.3Chapter 1.1.2 --- Routing Protocols --- p.5Chapter 1.2 --- Contribution of this Thesis --- p.7Chapter 1.3 --- Organization of this Thesis --- p.8Chapter 2 --- Background and Literature Review --- p.9Chapter 2.1 --- VoIP on Wireless Mesh Networks --- p.9Chapter 2.1.1 --- Performance of VoIP on Wireless Mesh Networks --- p.9Chapter 2.1.2 --- Optimizations for VoIP over Wireless Mesh Networks --- p.12Chapter 2.1.3 --- Path and Packet Aggregation Scheme --- p.14Chapter 2.2 --- Network Coding on Wireless Mesh Networks --- p.15Chapter 2.2.1 --- The Concept of Network Coding --- p.15Chapter 2.2.2 --- Related Work --- p.16Chapter 3 --- Adaptive Path and Packet Aggregation System --- p.19Chapter 3.1 --- Overview --- p.19Chapter 3.2 --- The Adaptive Path Aggregation Routing Algorithm --- p.20Chapter 3.2.1 --- Protocol Overview --- p.20Chapter 3.2.2 --- Data Structure --- p.21Chapter 3.2.3 --- The Concept of Link Weight and Path Weight --- p.26Chapter 3.2.4 --- APA Operations --- p.27Chapter 3.3 --- The Packet Aggregation System --- p.39Chapter 3.3.1 --- Overview --- p.39Chapter 3.3.2 --- Packet structure --- p.40Chapter 3.3.3 --- Local Compression --- p.41Chapter 3.3.4 --- Packet Aggregation/Disaggregation --- p.42Chapter 3.4 --- Performance Analysis --- p.44Chapter 3.4.1 --- Integration of the path aggregation routing protocol and the packet aggregation system --- p.46Chapter 3.5 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.48Chapter 3.5.1 --- Testbed Setup --- p.48Chapter 3.5.2 --- Packet aggregation --- p.48Chapter 3.5.3 --- Combined scenario: path and packet aggregation --- p.58Chapter 3.6 --- Summary --- p.65Chapter 4 --- Network Coding System in wireless network --- p.67Chapter 4.1 --- Overview --- p.67Chapter 4.2 --- System Architecture --- p.68Chapter 4.2.1 --- Packet Format --- p.68Chapter 4.2.2 --- Encoding and decoding --- p.69Chapter 4.3 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.71Chapter 4.3.1 --- Experiment Setup --- p.71Chapter 4.3.2 --- Performance Metric --- p.72Chapter 4.3.3 --- Experiment Results --- p.72Chapter 4.4 --- Summary --- p.79Chapter 5 --- Conclusions and Future Directions --- p.8

Challenges for wireless mesh networks to provide reliable carrier-grade services

Provision of mobile and wireless services today within a competitive environment and driven by a huge amount of steadily emerging new services and applications is both challenge and chance for radio network operators. Deployment and operation of an infrastructure for mobile and wireless broadband connectivity generally requires planning effort and large investments. A promising approach to reduce expenses for radio access networking is offered by Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). Here traditional dedicated backhaul connections to each access point are replaced by wireless multi-hop links between neighbouring access nodes and few gateways to the backbone employing standard radio technology. Such a solution provides at the same time high flexibility in both deployment and the amount of offered capacity and shall reduce overall expenses. On the other hand currently available mesh solutions do not provide carrier grade service quality and reliability and often fail to cope with high traffic load. EU project CARMEN (CARrier grade MEsh Networks) was initiated to incorporate different heterogeneous technologies and new protocols to allow for reliable transmission over "best effort" radio channels, to support a reliable mobility and network management, self-configuration and dynamic resource usage, and thus to offer a permanent or temporary broadband access at high cost efficiency. The contribution provides an overview on preliminary project results with focus on main technical challenges from a research and implementation point of view. Especially impact of mesh topology on the overall system performance in terms of throughput and connection reliability and aspects of a dedicated hybrid mobility management solution will be discussed.European Community's Seventh Framework ProgramPublicad

Ant Algorithms for Routing in Wireless Multi-Hop Networks

Wireless Multi-Hop Networks (such as Mobile Ad hoc Networks, Wireless Sensor Networks, and Wireless Mesh Networks) promise improved flexibility, reliability, and performance compared to conventional Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) or sensor installations. They can be deployed quickly to provide network connectivity in areas without existing backbone/back-haul infrastructure, such as disaster areas, impassable terrain, or underserved communities. Due to their distributed nature, routing algorithms for these types of networks have to be self-organized. Ant routing is a bio-inspired self-organized method for routing, which is a promising approach for routing in such Wireless Multi-Hop Networks. This chapter provides an introduction to Wireless Multi-Hop Networks, their specific challenges, and an overview of the ant algorithms available for routing in such networks

Wireless industrial monitoring and control networks: the journey so far and the road ahead

While traditional wired communication technologies have played a crucial role in industrial monitoring and control networks over the past few decades, they are increasingly proving to be inadequate to meet the highly dynamic and stringent demands of today’s industrial applications, primarily due to the very rigid nature of wired infrastructures. Wireless technology, however, through its increased pervasiveness, has the potential to revolutionize the industry, not only by mitigating the problems faced by wired solutions, but also by introducing a completely new class of applications. While present day wireless technologies made some preliminary inroads in the monitoring domain, they still have severe limitations especially when real-time, reliable distributed control operations are concerned. This article provides the reader with an overview of existing wireless technologies commonly used in the monitoring and control industry. It highlights the pros and cons of each technology and assesses the degree to which each technology is able to meet the stringent demands of industrial monitoring and control networks. Additionally, it summarizes mechanisms proposed by academia, especially serving critical applications by addressing the real-time and reliability requirements of industrial process automation. The article also describes certain key research problems from the physical layer communication for sensor networks and the wireless networking perspective that have yet to be addressed to allow the successful use of wireless technologies in industrial monitoring and control networks

To mesh or not to mesh: flexible wireless indoor communication among mobile robots in industrial environments

Mobile robots such as automated guided vehicles become increasingly important in industry as they can greatly increase efficiency. For their operation such robots must rely on wireless communication, typically realized by connecting them to an existing enterprise network. In this paper we motivate that such an approach is not always economically viable or might result in performance issues. Therefore we propose a flexible and configurable mixed architecture that leverages on mesh capabilities whenever appropriate. Through experiments on a wireless testbed for a variety of scenarios, we analyse the impact of roaming, mobility and traffic separation and demonstrate the potential of our approach