Abstract-Wireless mesh network, a new wireless broadband access technology, is currently attracting significant attention. This work proposes a distributed medium access protocol, named Ripple, for wireless mesh networks (WMNs) under tree topology. In contrast to existing random-access approaches, Ripple uses a controlled-access approach to protect nodes from unintentional packet collisions and maximize the spatial reuse. The performance of Ripple under an error-free channel was investigated and the accuracy of the analysis was verified by simulation. Simulation results also indicated that Ripple achieved throughput, stability, and QoS enhancement than that of 802.11 DCF under a highly loaded situation in both chain and tree topologies
