Challenges for Wireless Mesh Networks to provide reliable carrier-grade services

[摘要] Provision of mobile and wireless services today within a competitiveenvironment and driven by a huge amount of steadily emerging new servicesand applications is both challenge and chance for radio network operators.Deployment and operation of an infrastructure for mobile and wirelessbroadband connectivity generally requires planning effort and largeinvestments. A promising approach to reduce expenses for radio accessnetworking is offered by Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). Here traditionaldedicated backhaul connections to each access point are replaced by wirelessmulti-hop links between neighbouring access nodes and few gateways to thebackbone employing standard radio technology. Such a solution provides atthe same time high flexibility in both deployment and the amount of offeredcapacity and shall reduce overall expenses.

On the other hand currently available mesh solutions do not provide carriergrade service quality and reliability and often fail to cope with hightraffic load. EU project CARMEN (CARrier grade MEsh Networks) was initiatedto incorporate different heterogeneous technologies and new protocols toallow for reliable transmission over "best effort" radio channels, tosupport a reliable mobility and network management, self-configuration anddynamic resource usage, and thus to offer a permanent or temporary broadbandaccess at high cost efficiency.

The contribution provides an overview on preliminary project results withfocus on main technical challenges from a research and implementation pointof view. Especially impact of mesh topology on the overall systemperformance in terms of throughput and connection reliability and aspects ofa dedicated hybrid mobility management solution will be discussed.

[学科分类] 电子、光学、磁材料