Wireless mesh network

About: Wireless mesh network is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 13600 publications have been published within this topic receiving 221035 citations. The topic is also known as: WMN.

Performance analysis of wireless mesh routing protocols for smart utility networks

Abstract: Legacy utility meters for electricity, water and gas are rapidly being replaced by highly automated and networked smart meters. The network of smart meters, collector devices and head-end systems constitute an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The purpose of deploying an AMI is to increase the granularity of utility consumption data for demand-response applications. A data routing protocol is essential for forwarding collected information to an aggregation point. A fully functional protocol suite for networking of such smart metering devices is imperative to the success of the AMI. This paper reviews two such wireless mesh routing protocols designed to work for AMI systems, viz. RPL and Geographical routing. A performance analysis of these protocols using real world topology, deployed on-field, is presented in this paper.

Multi-gateway association in wireless mesh networks

Abstract: Most traditional models of wireless mesh networks involve a mobile device connecting to the backbone through one of the available gateways in a wireless mesh network. In this paper, we present an alternate model, in which mobile devices are allowed to connect through more than one of the available gateways. We call the model multi-gateway association (MGA). We present arguments for why such a model can result in better capacity, fairness, diversity and security when compared to the default single-association model. We also identify the primary challenges that need to be addressed when using multiple-gateway associations, and propose solutions to handle these challenges. Using simulations, we show that throughput benefits ranging from 10% to 125% can be obtained by the proposed model as compared to a default single association model with just two gateways and more importantly, benefits linear in the number of gateways are obtainable. Through simulations and analysis, we establish why only intelligent multi-gateway association and neither single or simple multi-gateway association strategies can yield significant benefits.

Coordinated power conservation for ad hoc networks

Abstract: Existing ad hoc routing protocols assume all nodes within the network to participate in the routing process. By conditionally selecting a subset of nodes is an appropriate approach to limiting the number of nodes participating in routing such that nodes not selected may be turned off to conserve power and extend network lifetime. However, not all non-routing-related nodes will be able to be turned off (suspended) at the same time. Sufficient bandwidth and forwarding capacity are still necessary in case of changing network topology and environment. We describe the coordinated power conservation (CPC) algorithm to facilitate power conservation for ad hoc networks. The algorithm constructs a backbone infrastructure to have CPC servers running on backbone nodes to coordinate suspending schedules among their local non-backbone nodes running CPC clients. Simulation results demonstrate that CPC-enabled ad hoc networks exhibit performance closely equivalent to ad hoc networks without CPC, while consuming less power.

A week in the life of three large Wireless Community Networks

Abstract: Wireless Community Networks (WCNs) are created and managed by a local community with the goal of sharing Internet connection and offering local services. This paper analyses the data collected on three large WCNs, ranging from 131 to 226 nodes, and used daily by thousands of people. We first analyse the topologies to get insights in the fundamental properties, next we concentrate on two crucial aspects: (i) the routing layer and (ii) metrics on the centrality of nodes and the network robustness. All the networks use the Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol extended with the Expected Transmission Count (ETX) metric. We analyse the quality of the routes and two different techniques to select the Multi-Point Relay (MPR) nodes. The centrality and robustness analysis shows that, in spite of being fully decentralized networks, an adversary that can control a small fraction of carefully chosen nodes can intercept up to 90% of the traffic. The collected data-sets are available as Open Data, so that they can be easily accessed by any interested researcher, and new studies on different topics can be performed. In fact, WCN are just an example of large wireless mesh networks, so our methodology can be applied to any other large mesh network, including commercial ISP networks.

Experimental evaluation of a wireless ad hoc network

Abstract: We experimentally evaluate the performance of a wireless ad hoc network from the point of view of both the routing and transport layers. The experiments are done on a testbed with desktop PCs and laptops using wireless radio LAN interfaces. For these experiments an on-demand routing protocol called AODV (ad hoc on-demand distance vector) has been implemented as a part of the operating system protocol stack. We describe our design choices and the experimental setup. The performance evaluation reveals that the performance is poor beyond two hops at moderate to high loads.