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On the Design and Implementation of Infrastructure Mesh Networks

01 January 2005

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All wireless mesh networks represent 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 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 interfaces 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) dynamic assignment of frequency channels to relay interfaces to maximize relay throughput, 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.