Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Authorship by Chapter
- Foreword
- Preface
- Part I Introduction to 802.11
- Part II 802.11 Quality of Service
- Part III 802.11 Security
- Part IV High Throughput 802.11
- Part V 802.11 Mesh Networks
- Chapter 10 Capacity of Wireless Mesh Networks
- Chapter 11 Autonomous Mobile Mesh Networks and their Design Challenges
- Chapter 12 Service Provisioning for Wireless Mesh Networks
- Chapter 13 Metro–Scale Wi–Fi Networks
- Chapter 14 Usage and Performance Comparison of Mobile Metro Mesh Networks
- Chapter 15 First, Second and Third Generation Mesh Architectures
- Chapter 16 Wireless Mesh Networks
- Part VI 802.11/Cellular Interworking
- Part VII Coexistence
- Part VIII 802.11 Network and Radio Resource Management
- Part IX 802.11 Range
- Part X 802.11 Hardware Design
- Part XI Wi-Fi Hotspots
- Part XII Wi-Fi Applications
- Part XIII Ultra WideBand (UWB)
- Part XIV Public Wireless Broadband
- Epilogue
- Index
Chapter 10 - Capacity of Wireless Mesh Networks
from Part V - 802.11 Mesh Networks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Authorship by Chapter
- Foreword
- Preface
- Part I Introduction to 802.11
- Part II 802.11 Quality of Service
- Part III 802.11 Security
- Part IV High Throughput 802.11
- Part V 802.11 Mesh Networks
- Chapter 10 Capacity of Wireless Mesh Networks
- Chapter 11 Autonomous Mobile Mesh Networks and their Design Challenges
- Chapter 12 Service Provisioning for Wireless Mesh Networks
- Chapter 13 Metro–Scale Wi–Fi Networks
- Chapter 14 Usage and Performance Comparison of Mobile Metro Mesh Networks
- Chapter 15 First, Second and Third Generation Mesh Architectures
- Chapter 16 Wireless Mesh Networks
- Part VI 802.11/Cellular Interworking
- Part VII Coexistence
- Part VIII 802.11 Network and Radio Resource Management
- Part IX 802.11 Range
- Part X 802.11 Hardware Design
- Part XI Wi-Fi Hotspots
- Part XII Wi-Fi Applications
- Part XIII Ultra WideBand (UWB)
- Part XIV Public Wireless Broadband
- Epilogue
- Index
Summary
This chapter focuses on wireless mesh infrastructure systems used for creating large scale Wi-Fi based infrastructure networks, and examines three different approaches currently available for implementing them. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of each approach with particular focus on an analysis of the capacity that is available to users.
Introduction
Mesh is a type of network architecture. Other common network architectures have included Ethernet, originally a shared bus topology for local area networks (LANs) in which every node taps into a common cable that carries all transmissions from all nodes to an egress point. In bus networks, any node on the network senses all transmissions from every other node in the network. Today, most LANs use a star architecture in which every node is connected using a dedicated link to a central switch connected to an egress point (switches can be interconnected to form larger networks).
Mesh networks are different – physical layer connectivity from every node to the egress is not required. As long as a node is connected to at least one other node in the mesh network, it will have full connectivity to the entire network because each mesh node forwards packets to other nodes in the network as required. Mesh protocols automatically determine the best route through the network and can dynamically reconfigure the network if a link becomes unusable.
There are many different types of mesh networks.
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- Emerging Technologies in Wireless LANsTheory, Design, and Deployment, pp. 217 - 238Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007