On the Design and Implementation of Infrastructure Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networking is an exciting new technology that has applications in defence, metro-area Internet access, and transient networks (e.g: disaster recovery, conventions). In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a self-configuring, secure infrastructure mesh network architecture, called MeshCluster, composed using multi-radio network nodes. A subset of radio interfaces on these nodes are used for providing network access to end-devices whereas other radio interface are used for relaying packets to nearest Internet gateway. We identify four key design problems: (1) auto-configuration of MeshCluster nodes and relay infrastructure, (2) single and multipath routing in the relay infrastructure using routing metrics, (3) load balancing in the relay infrastructure, and (4) support for end-device mobility across access interfaces of mesh network. For each of these problems, we describe in detail our design, prototype implementation, and performance results.