Capacity Estimation of Wireless Mesh Networks

[摘要] The goal of this research is to estimate the capacity of wireless mesh networks (WMNs). WMNs have unique topology and traffic patterns when compared to conventional wireless Internet access networks. In WMNs, user nodes act as a host and a router simultaneously and form a meshed topology. Traffic is forwarded towards a gateway connected to the Internet by cooperating user nodes in a multihop fashion. Since the considered WMNs use IEEE 802.11 for medium access control and physical layer implementation, theoretical maximum throughput and fairness issues in IEEE 802.11 networks are investigated as a preliminary framework for the capacity estimation of WMN. Due to a centralized traffic pattern and meshed topology, forwarded traffic becomes heavier as it gets closer to the gateway. The characteristics of the traffic behavior in WMNs are thoroughly examined and an analytical solution for capacity estimation is presented. The analytical solution is derived for various topologies and validated using simulations.

[发布机构] University:North Carolina State University

[效力级别] networks

[关键词] wireless;networks;mesh;ad hoc networks;capacity;Internet