A QoS aware joint design for wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) provide Internet access to remote areas and wireless connections on a metropolitan scale. In this paper, we focus on the problem of improving the gateway throughput in WMNs while achieving fairness and supporting quality-of-service (QoS) differentiation for end-users. To address this problem, we propose a new distributed dynamic traffic scheduling algorithm that supports different QoS requirements from different users. We also develop a joint weight-aware channel assignment and minimum expected delay routing mechanism. Simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed work in terms of the achieved throughput and minimized packet loss ratio and delay.     

A genetic approach to joint routing and link scheduling for wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks are an attractive technology for providing broadband connectivity to mobile clients who are just on the edge of wired networks, and also for building self-organized networks in places where wired infrastructures are not available or not deemed to be worth deploying. This paper investigates the joint link scheduling and routing issues involved in the delivery of a given backlog from any node of a wireless mesh network towards a specific node (which acts as a gateway), within a given deadline. Scheduling and routing are assumed to be aware of the physical interference among nodes, which is modeled in the paper by means of a signal-to-interference ratio. Firstly, we present a theoretical model which allows us to formulate the task of deriving joint routing and scheduling as an integer linear programming problem. Secondly, since the problem cannot be dealt with using exact methods, we propose and use a technique based on genetic algorithms. To the best of our knowledge, these algorithms have never been used before for working out these kinds of optimization problems in a wireless mesh environment. We show that our technique is suitable for this purpose as it provides a good trade-off between fast computation and the overall goodness of the solution found. Our experience has in fact shown that genetic algorithms would seem to be quite promising for solving more complex models than the one dealt with in this paper, such as those including multiple flows and multi-radio multi-channels.     

Exact approach to reliability of wireless mesh networks with directional antennas

The paper is devoted to modeling and optimization of reliable wireless mesh networks that employ directional antennas. We introduce two mixed-integer programming formulations that allow to simultaneously characterize routing patterns and transmission schedules. The first model allows for maximizing the minimal flow in a network. The second model involves reliability constraints and aims at minimizing the number of used directional antennas. In both cases locations of mesh routers are known. However, the number of installed radio interfaces and their directions are subject to optimization. We discuss a way of solving a cost minimization problem based on the introduced characterization, and present an extensive numerical study that illustrates the efficiency of the solution algorithm. We also provide an algorithm capable of verifying feasibility of obtained solutions. Moreover, in rare cases of failed verification, the algorithm provides additional constraints that should be added to the problem.     

A survey on wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have emerged as a key technology for next-generation wireless networking. Because of their advantages over other wireless networks, WMNs are undergoing rapid progress and inspiring numerous applications. However, many technical issues still exist in this field. In order to provide a better understanding of the research challenges of WMNs, this article presents a detailed investigation of current state-of-the-art protocols and algorithms for WMNs. Open research issues in all protocol layers are also discussed, with an objective to spark new research interests in this field.     

无线mesh网络安全研究

无线mesh网络（wireless mesh networks,WMN）是下一代网络中的新型技术,和传统网络不同,它不依赖任何固定的设施,主机可以相互依赖保持网络连接,WISP可以利用它提供快速、简单、低廉的网络部署,然而存在一个主要的问题是容易遭受攻击。介绍了无线mesh网络的体系机构以及特点,分析并研究其存在的安全性威胁以及现有的关键安全解决机制。     

Securing wireless mesh networks

Using wireless mesh networks to offer Internet connectivity is becoming a popular choice for wireless Internet service providers as it allows fast, easy, and inexpensive network deployment. However, security in WMNs is still in its infancy as very little attention has been devoted thus far to this topic by the research community. In this article we describe the specifics of WMNs and identify three fundamental network operations that need to be secured.     

How to secure multi-domain wireless mesh networks

Due to the ease of deployment and low cost, wireless mesh networks have been deployed in many metropolitan areas and business units. How to establish secure communications among the communication entities such as mesh routers and mobile clients (or mesh clients) even when roaming to different mesh networks (called mesh domains) is a challenging task. In this paper, we leverage the ID-based cryptography and propose a novel secure architecture to enable secure communications in large-scale multi-domain wireless mesh networks. Under this architecture, mesh clients can conveniently gain services securely even when roaming.     

A novel approach for multicast call acceptance in multi-channel multi-radio wireless mesh networks

Multicasting is an efficient data transmission approach for group communication applications in multi-channel multi-radio wireless mesh networks. In this paper we have studied the problem of accepting on-line multicast requests, which is quite important for supporting multimedia applications. Our proposed algorithm investigates the acceptance of an arrived call in two phases. In the first phase, a loop-free mesh backbone is constructed. In this mesh, the set of possible parents of each node is limited to the neighbors that are one hop closer to the source node. The neighbors with the same distance from the source node are also acceptable under the circumstance that two neighboring nodes cannot be the possible parents of each other. Next, a sub-optimal mathematical model has been proposed for tree construction over the obtained mesh. The derived multicast trees utilize the minimum amount of bandwidth; are load-balanced; and exploit wireless broadcast advantage. The results show that the proposed algorithm improves the rate of multicast call acceptance by 40% on average compared to previous algorithms in a short running time.     

无线Mesh网络综述

无线Mesh网络是无线局域网和移动自组织网络相结合的产物,是一种全新的网络架构,有着极大的应用前景。简要介绍了无线Mesh网络体系结构、特点和应用领域,总结了无线Mesh网络路由协议的研究状况,探讨了存在的问题和今后发展的方向。     

A new algorithm for optimization of quality of service in peer to peer wireless mesh networks

Wireless Networks - Nowadays, wireless mesh networks are known as important parts of different commercial, scientific, and industrial processes. Their prevalence increases day-by-day and the future...     

A statistical trust system in wireless mesh networks

Most trust and reputation solutions in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) rely on the intrusion detection system (IDS) Watchdog. Nevertheless, Watchdog does not consider packet loss on wireless links and may generate false positives. Consequently, a node that suffers from packet loss on one of its links may be accused wrongly, by Watchdog, of misbehaving. To deal with this issue, we propose in this paper a novel trust system which considers packet loss of links. Our trust system is based on a statistical detection method (SDM) implemented on each node of the network. Firstly, the SDM, via CUSUM test, analyzes the behavior of the packets loss in order to detect a dropping attack. Secondly, the SDM, through the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, compares the behavior of the total packets loss with that of the control packets in order to identify the attack type. Our system allows every WMN’s node to assign to each of its neighbors, a trust value which reflects its real behavior. We have validated the proposed SDM method via extensive simulations on ns2 and have compared our trust system with an existing solution. The results display that our SDM solution offers better performance.     

Heuristic approach for broadcast scheduling,problem in wireless mesh networks

Disasters can be natural and human-initiated events that interrupt the usual functioning of people on a large scale. Region where disasters have occurred causes hazards to the public of that area and to the rescue teams. Disaster causes the damage to the communication network infrastructure also. Once the communication infrastructure is damaged, it is very difficult to the rescue teams to actively involve in relief operation. To handle these hazards, different wireless technologies can be initiated in the area of disaster. This paper discusses the innovative wireless technology for disaster management. Specifically, issues related to the broadcast scheduling problem in wireless mesh network is deployed efficiently during disaster relief are discussed. A domain specific memetic algorithm is proposed for solving the optimum time division multiple access broadcast scheduling problem in wireless mesh networks. The aim is to increase the total number of transmissions in optimized time slot with high channel utilization in a less computation time. Simulation results showed that our memetic algorithm approach to this problem achieves 100% convergence to solutions within reduced computation time while compared to recent efficient algorithms. The results were compared with several heuristic and non-heuristic algorithms for broadcast scheduling problem.     

Exploring the design space of reliable multicast protocols for wireless mesh networks

Many important applications in wireless mesh networks require reliable multicast communication, i.e., with 100% packet delivery ratio (PDR). Previously, numerous multicast protocols based on automatic repeat request (ARQ) have been proposed to improve the packet delivery ratio. However, these ARQ-based protocols can lead to excessive control overhead and drastically reduced throughput. In this paper, we present a comprehensive exploration of the design space for developing high-throughput, reliable multicast protocols that achieve 100% PDR.Motivated by the fact that 802.11 MAC layer broadcast, which is used by most wireless multicast protocols, offers no reliability, we first examine if better hop-by-hop reliability provided by unicasting the packets at the MAC layer can help to achieve end-to-end multicast reliability. We then turn to end-to-end solutions at the transport layer. Previously, forward error correction (FEC) techniques have been proved effective for providing reliable multicast in the Internet, by avoiding the control packet implosion and scalability problems of ARQ-based protocols. In this paper, we examine if FEC techniques can be equally effective to support reliable multicast in wireless mesh networks. We integrate four representative reliable schemes (one ARQ, one FEC, and two hybrid) originally developed for the Internet with a representative multicast protocol ODMRP and evaluate their performance.Our experimental results via extensive simulations offer an in-depth understanding of the various choices in the design space. First, compared to broadcast-based unreliable ODMRP, using unicast for per-hop transmission only offers a very small improvement in reliability under low load, but fails to improve the reliability under high load due to the significantly increased capacity requirement which leads to congestion and packet drop. Second, at the transport layer, the use of pure FEC can significantly improve the reliability, increasing PDR up to 100% in many cases, but can be inefficient in terms of the number of redundant packets transmitted. In contrast, a carefully designed ARQ–FEC hybrid protocol, such as RMDP, can also offer 100% reliability while improving the efficiency by up to 38% compared to a pure FEC scheme. To our best knowledge, this is the first in-depth study of high-throughput, reliable multicast protocols that provide 100% PDR for wireless mesh networks.     

Multi-gateway association in wireless mesh networks

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.     

Oblivious routing in wireless mesh networks

As new network applications have arisen rapidly in recent years, it is becoming more difficult to predict the exact traffic pattern of a network. In consequence, a routing scheme based on a single traffic demand matrix often leads to a poor performance. Oblivious routing (Racke in Proceedings of the 43rd annual IEEE symposium on foundations of computer science 43–52, 2002) is a technique for tackling the traffic demand uncertainty problem. A routing scheme derived from this principle intends to achieve a predicable performance for a set of traffic matrixes. Oblivious routing can certainly be an effective tool to handle traffic demand uncertainty in a wireless mesh network (WMN). However, a WMN has an additional tool that a wireline network does not have: dynamic bandwidth allocation. A router in a WMN can dynamically assign bandwidth to its attached links. This capability has never been exploited previously in works on oblivious routing for a spatial time division multiple access (STDMA) based WMN. Another useful insight is that although it is impossible to know the exact traffic matrix, it is relatively easy to estimate the amount of the traffic routed through a link when the routing scheme is given. Based on these two insights, we propose a new oblivious routing framework for STDMA WMNs. Both analytical models and simulation results are presented in this paper to prove that the performance—in terms of throughput, queue lengths, and fairness—of the proposed scheme can achieve significant gains over conventional oblivious routing schemes for STDMA based WMNs.     

A flow-based network monitoring framework for wireless mesh networks

As an extension of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, wireless mesh networks recently were developed as a key solution to provide high-quality multimedia services and applications, such as voice, data, and video, over wireless personal area networks, wireless local area networks, and wireless metropolitan area networks. A WMN has a hybrid network infrastructure with a backbone and an access network and usually is operated in both ad hoc and infrastructure modes with self-configuration and self-organization capabilities. In this article, we review security challenges, attacks, and countermeasures in the physical, medium access control (MAC), and network layers of wireless mesh backbone and access networks. We then extend the concept of traffic flow from IP networks and define meshflow in wireless mesh networks. Based on this new concept, we propose a comprehensive framework to realize network monitoring, user and router profiling, application and service balancing, and security protection in wireless mesh backbone networks. Practical issues and design trade-offs for implementing the proposed framework in real systems also are discussed.     

A scalable dual-radio wireless testbed for emulating mesh networks

In this paper, we introduce and evaluate ScaleMesh, a scalable miniaturized dual-radio wireless mesh testbed based on IEEE 802.11b/g technology. ScaleMesh can emulate large-scale mesh networks within a miniaturized experimentation area by adaptively shrinking the transmission range of mesh nodes by means of variable signal attenuators. To this end, we derive a theoretical formula for approximating the attenuation level required for downscaling desired network topologies. We conduct a comprehensive performance study, in which we validate the feasibility of ScaleMesh for network emulation and protocol evaluation. Among others, we study the effect of channel selection, signal attenuation level, different topologies, and traffic load on network performance. We particularly focus on the performance of single-radio versus dual-radio communication, while investigating key parameters which can provide a substantial improvement in performance. We show that dual-radio communication improves network goodput by up to 100%, yet does not overcome TCP’s fairness problems over IEEE 802.11.     

A robust security scheme for wireless mesh enterprise networks

In this paper, we address the security challenges for wireless mesh enterprise networks (WMENs). The topology and communication characteristics of WMEN include the following: (a) deployment of the network devices are not planar, rather, devices are deployed over three-dimensional space (e.g., office buildings, shopping malls, grocery stores, etc.); (b) messages, generated/received by a mesh client, traverse through mesh routers in a multihop fashion; and (c) mesh clients, being mostly mobile in nature, may result in misbehaving or be spurious during communications. We propose a security scheme for WMEN in order to ensure that only authorized users are granted network access. Particularly, our scheme includes: (a) a deterministic key distribution technique that perfectly suits the network topology, (b) an efficient session key establishment protocol to achieve the client–router and router–router communications security, and (c) a distributed detection mechanism to identify malicious clients in the network. Analytical and simulation results are presented to verify our proposed solutions.     

A deterministic approach to throughput scaling in wireless networks

We address the problem of how throughput in a wireless network scales as the number of users grows. Following the model of Gupta and Kumar, we consider n identical nodes placed in a fixed area. Pairs of transmitters and receivers wish to communicate but are subject to interference from other nodes. Throughput is measured in bit-meters per second. We provide a very elementary deterministic approach that gives achievability results in terms of three key properties of the node locations. As a special case, we obtain /spl Omega/(/spl radic/n) throughput for a general class of network configurations in a fixed area. Results for random node locations in a fixed area can also be derived as special cases of the general result by verifying the growth rate of three parameters. For example, as a simple corollary of our result we obtain a stronger (almost sure) version of the /spl radic/n//spl radic/(logn) throughput for random node locations in a fixed area obtained by Gupta and Kumar. Results for some other interesting non-independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) node distributions are also provided.     

The nominal capacity of wireless mesh networks

Wireless mesh networks are an alternative technology for last-mile broadband Internet access. In WMNs, similar to ad hoc networks, each user node operates not only as a host but also as a router; user packets are forwarded to and from an Internet-connected gateway in multihop fashion. The meshed topology provides good reliability, market coverage, and scalability, as well as low upfront investments. Despite the recent startup surge in WMNs, much research remains to be done before WMNs realize their full potential. This article tackles the problem of determining the exact capacity of a WMN. The key concept we introduce to enable this calculation is the bottleneck collision domain, defined as the geographical area of the network that bounds from above the amount of data that can be transmitted in the network. We show that for WMNs the throughput of each node decreases as O(1/n), where n is the total number of nodes in the network. In contrast with most existing work on ad hoc network capacity, we do not limit our study to the asymptotic case. In particular, for a given topology and the set of active nodes, we provide exact upper bounds on the throughput of any node. The calculation can be used to provision the network, to ensure quality of service and fairness. The theoretical results are validated by detailed simulations.