Introduction
802.11 wireless LANs for broadband wireless access constitute a growing success story. Their deployment in single-cell (i.e. single AP) scenarios (homes, small business and hotspots) is well-supported by current .11 technology. However scaling such networks to the enterprise environment to serve a large number of simultaneous users with voice and data services while providing coverage remains a challenge. A promising architectural solution consists of a two-tier multi-cellular, multi-hop approach to WLAN network design whereby an AP mesh provides the infrastructure for communication between mobile clients. Implicit in this is a direct wireless inter-connection between mesh nodes which all route traffic (only some of which are APs with associated clients, and a very small fraction act as gateways to the wired Internet).
Our research seeks to advance the state-of-art of such .11 based multi-hop mesh networks by undertaking an integrated cross-layer approach to innovations at Layers 1-3 (joint PHY/MAC/Network). Optimizing of such networks will require on-line tuning of key protocol parameters at various layers (hence leading to an Adaptive Mesh). Currently we are investigating
- The impact of Physical Carrier Sensing (determined by carrier sensing and/or receiver sensitivity threshold) on MAC performance as a function of network topology
- The impact of Multi-radio/node Mesh nodes on network performance, particularly the new degrees of freedom that it offers for joint channel assignment and link-aware routing
as components of an optimized .11 AP mesh. Our approach combines protocol/algorithmic innovation supported by OPNET simulations and experimental results from a StarEast based MESH network in a laboratory setting.
Getting Started
You will find basic information on the StarEast platform in this PDF presentation (1 MB). You can also find detailed documentation on setting up the StarEast boards, and a list of publications relevant to mesh networks.