ABI State of the Art Analysis of Wireless Mesh Technologies 2006

Wireless mesh networks are a recent architecture for multihop wireless networks. Also, standards for realizing mesh networks are being actively developed, especially in the IEEE working groups. In contrast with mobile ad hoc networks, mesh networks consist of static nodes communicating with each other over wireless links. The static nodes are essentially wireless routers. Such networks can be used, for example to provide a cost effective alternative to a wireline Internet access network. As opposed to the nodes in mobile ad hoc networks, the nodes in mesh networks are not energy constrained and node mobility is not a concern in protocol scalability. Instead, the main technical problems relate to achieving high user data rates over multihop wireless paths by using advanced MAC/routing layer solutions. This report presents a state-of-the-art analysis of wireless mesh networks, both from the point of view of standardization and academic research activities. In the standardization, we focus on the recent developments on defining new physical layer and MAC layer standards for mesh network in the IEEE 802.11 and 802.16 working groups. At the IP layer, in addition to routing, mobility management is a key issue, and these are reviewed from the point of view of recent IETF activities in the field. In academic research, the emphasis has been on identifying feasible mechanisms that can be used to mitigate the impact of interference on the capacity of multihop wireless networks, for example by increasing spatial multiplexing through the use of several orthogonal channels and multiple radio interfaces. The solutions typically involve crosslayer approaches, and a specific survey on these is also provided. Finally, a review is given on some of the current commercial products available on the market, as well as operational academic test beds.