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.

911-NOW: A network on wheels for emergency response and disaster recovery operations

Abstract: Public safety organizations increasingly rely on wireless communication technology to provide effective command, control, and communication during emergencies and disaster response operations. Since emergencies can vary in scale from day-to-day operations to large-scale and widespread catastrophic events, any previously deployed network infrastructure may not be able to handle the traffic load. Worse, the wireless infrastructure may be damaged or destroyed, as occurred during the events of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The 911-network on wheels (911-NOW) solution is a novel portable cellular system based on base station routers (BSRs) that does not require any pre-existing wireless infrastructure and provides capacity and coverage on demand. It is an auto-configurable system with a fully integrated service architecture that can be deployed as a single-cell solution for local communication or be configured to operate as an ad hoc network of cells. This paper describes the 911-NOW vision and discusses some of the differentiating features such as auto-configuration, network management, wireless mesh networking, and interoperability with existing public safety systems. We also highlight some of the research challenges associated with mobile and rapidly deployable wireless networks. In particular we provide an overview of issues centered upon dynamic assignment and management of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, online and real-time calculation and maintenance of routing information, mobility management, and dynamic configuration and optimization of radio parameters. © 2007 Alcatel-Lucent.

Load-balanced routing for mesh networks

Abstract: Due to the static nature of nodes, in mesh networks, a poor choice of paths may remain unchanged for a long time and create hot spots. Hence, it is very important to design path weight functions (also called routing metrics) to facilitate load-balanced routing in mesh networks. Such path weight functions (PWFs) must reflect the shared nature of wireless channels and support easy calculation of loop-free paths. In this abstract, we present our theoretical studies of the requirements on PWFs and design the first PWF, called Metric of Interference and Channel-switching (MIC), that satisfies these requirements. Our simulation results show that MIC's performance is substantially better than existing PWFs. (See our technical report [5] for more details.)

Systems and methods utilizing a wireless mesh network

Abstract: In some examples, a wireless controller is utilized within a wireless mesh network. The wireless controller includes a control module configured to manage at least one energy device via a pneumatic pressure line based on one or more parts of an energy profile; and a network interface module configured to transmit energy data to a management server and receive the one or more parts of the energy profile from the management server.

Method and device for routing mesh network traffic

Abstract: A method and device for routing to a non-mesh network a first data flow received at a first mesh gateway via a wireless link as provided improves network efficiency. According to one aspect, the method includes determining that available bandwidth of a backhaul link to the non-mesh network through the first mesh gateway is below a threshold value. The first data flow is then determined to have a higher priority than a second data flow that is currently routed through the first mesh gateway to the non-mesh network. The second data flow is then forwarded to a second mesh gateway, whereby the second mesh gateway routes the second data flow to the non-mesh network. The first data flow is then routed to the non-mesh network through the first mesh gateway after forwarding the second data flow to the second mesh gateway.

Exploiting the Small-World Effect to Increase Connectivity in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Abstract: This paper investigates how the small world concept can be applied in the context of wireless ad hoc networks. Different from wireless ad hoc networks, small world networks have small characteristic path lengths and are highly clustered. This path length reduction is caused by long-range edges between randomly selected nodes. However, in a wireless ad hoc network there are no such long-range connections. Then, we propose to use a fraction of nodes in the network equipped with two radios with different transmission ranges in order to introduce the long-range shortcuts. We analyze the system from a percolation perspective and show that a small fraction of these “special nodes” can improve connectivity in a significant way. We also study the effects of the special nodes on the process of information diffusion and on network robustness.