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.

A Survey on Distributed Topology Control Techniques for Extending the Lifetime of Battery Powered Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract: Large-scale, self-organizing wireless sensor and mesh network deployments are being driven by recent technological developments such as The Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Grids and Smart Environment applications. Efficient use of the limited energy resources of wireless sensor network (WSN) nodes is critically important to support these advances, and application of topology control methods will have a profound impact on energy efficiency and hence battery lifetime. In this survey, we focus on the energy efficiency issue and present a comprehensive study of topology control techniques for extending the lifetime of battery powered WSNs. First, we review the significant topology control algorithms to provide insights into how energy efficiency is achieved by design. Further, these algorithms are classified according to the energy conservation approach they adopt, and evaluated by the trade-offs they offer to aid designers in selecting a technique that best suits their applications. Since the concept of "network lifetime" is widely used for assessing the algorithms' performance, we highlight various definitions of the term and discuss their merits and drawbacks. Recently, there has been growing interest in algorithms for non-planar topologies such as deployments in underwater environments or multi-level buildings. For this reason, we also include a detailed discussion of topology control algorithms that work efficiently in three dimensions. Based on the outcomes of our review, we identify a number of open research issues for achieving energy efficiency through topology control.

Co-operative downloading in vehicular ad-hoc wireless networks

Abstract: Increasing need for people to be "connected"; while at the same time remain as mobile as ever poses several interesting issues in wireless networks. It is conceivable in the near-future that wireless "hotspots" experience flash crowds-like traffic arrival pattern. A common phenomena in the Internet today characterized by sudden and unpredicted increase in popularity of on-line content. In this paper, we propose SPAWN, a cooperative strategy for content delivery and sharing in future vehicular networks. We study the issues involved in using such a strategy from the standpoint of vehicular ad-hoc networks. In particular, we show that not only content server but also wireless access network load reduction is critical. We propose a "communication efficient" swarming protocol which uses a gossip mechanism that leverages the inherent broadcast nature of the wireless medium, and a piece-selection strategy that takes proximity into account in decisions to exchange pieces. We show through simulation that gossip incorporates location-awareness into peer selection, while incurring low messaging overhead, and consequently enhancing the swarming protocol performance. We develop an analytical model to characterize the performance of SPAWN.

Method and apparatus for wireless communication in a mesh network

Abstract: A method and apparatus for communication in a wireless sensor network. In one embodiment, one or more routers in a network may be available for communication with one or more star nodes at a randomized time and/or frequency. A connectivity assessment, which may be performed at several different frequencies and/or times, may be performed to evaluate the quality of communications between devices in the network. Primary and secondary communication relationships may be formed between devices to provide for system redundancy. One or more proxies may be maintained where each proxy includes a status of one or more devices in the network, e.g., one or more star nodes or routers. Proxies may be used to handle information requests and/or status change requests, e.g., a proxy may be requested to change a communication relationship between devices in the network and may generate command signals to cause the corresponding devices to make the change.

Partially overlapped channels not considered harmful

Abstract: Many wireless channels in different technologies are known to have partial overlap. However, due to the interference effects among such partially overlapped channels, their simultaneous use has typically been avoided. In this paper, we present a first attempt to model partial overlap between channels in a systematic manner. Through the model, we illustrate that the use of partially overlapped channels is not always harmful. In fact, a careful use of some partially overlapped channels can often lead to significant improvements in spectrum utilization and application performance. We demonstrate this through analysis as well as through detailed application-level and MAC-level measurements. Additionally, we illustrate the benefits of our developed model by using it to directly enhance the performance of two previously proposed channel assignment algorithms --- one in the context of wireless LANs and the other in the context of multi-hop wireless mesh networks. Through detailed simulations, we show that use of partially overlapped channels in both these cases can improve end-to-end application throughput by factors between 1.6 and 2.7 in different scenarios, depending on wireless node density. We conclude by observing that the notion of partial overlap can be the right model of flexibility to design efficient channel access mechanisms in the emerging software radio platforms.

Symbol-level network coding for wireless mesh networks

Abstract: This paper describes MIXIT, a system that improves the throughput of wireless mesh networks. MIXIT exploits a basic property of mesh networks: even when no node receives a packet correctly, any given bit is likely to be received by some node correctly. Instead of insisting on forwarding only correct packets, MIXIT routers use physical layer hints to make their best guess about which bits in a corrupted packet are likely to be correct and forward them to the destination. Even though this approach inevitably lets erroneous bits through, we find that it can achieve high throughput without compromising end-to-end reliability.The core component of MIXIT is a novel network code that operates on small groups of bits, called symbols. It allows the nodes to opportunistically route groups of bits to their destination with low overhead. MIXIT's network code also incorporates an end-to-end error correction component that the destination uses to correct any errors that might seep through. We have implemented MIXIT on a software radio platform running the Zigbee radio protocol. Our experiments on a 25-node indoor testbed show that MIXIT has a throughput gain of 2.8x over MORE, a state-of-the-art opportunistic routing scheme, and about 3.9x over traditional routing using the ETX metric.