Design and implementation of adaptive WLAN mesh networks for video surveillance

Abstract

This paper presents a novel design and practical experiments of adaptive wireless mesh networks based on 802.11 based Wireless Local Area Networks for supporting public video surveillance. A network of video cameras and sensors can be equipped with wireless communication modules to form wireless surveillance at only a small expense of cost and labor. However, large and redundant multimedia data transmitted through the wireless medium pose challenging problems such as decrease in Quality of Service (QoS) and system reliability. To support seamless transmission of surveillance data through wireless means, we propose a wireless surveillance network design based on the protocols and functions of IEEE 802.11 mesh standard. One of the key functions of our adaptive mesh network is the “Multi-Gateway Routing with Congestion Avoidance”, which provides enhanced QoS support via adaptive congestion control. Network congestion is predicted in a distributed manner and amounts of data traffic transmitted to the congested path are redirected to multiple gateways. Redirection of traffic flows are made in such a way to provide quicker transmission for more time critical packets. Experimental studies via practical testbed implementation and simulation via NS-3 are conducted to prove the superiority of our proposed scheme.