Designing and implementing an antenna on ESP32 for mesh network internet access and offline file transfer

Internet traffic from mobile users has been growing sharply. To meet the needs of those<br>users, it is important to expand capacity of networks that provide Internet access in cost effective<br>ways. This capacity has traditionally been provided by cellular networks. However,<br>expanding the capacity of those networks alone may not be the most cost-effective way to meet<br>the present and future growth of mobile Internet under some circumstances. In this dissertation,<br>we show that networks of connected vehicles can be an important way to complement the<br>capacity of cellular networks to provide mobile Internet access under several scenarios.<br>Connected vehicles may soon be widely deployed, forming mesh networks of short-range<br>connections among vehicles and between vehicles and roadside infrastructure. These<br>connections are collectively referred to as vehicle-to-everything, or V2X. Deployment of<br>connected vehicles and infrastructure is primarily intended to enhance road safety, and the U.S.<br>Department of Transportation has recently proposed a mandate of V2X devices in vehicles<br>using Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology. Other applications are also<br>envisioned that include Internet access in vehicles connecting to roadside infrastructure serving<br>as gateways to the Internet.<br>In this work, we find that V2X-based networks are more cost-effective than cellular to<br>provide Internet access, in scenarios which DSRC devices are mandated in vehicles to enhance<br>road safety. This is true initially for densely populated urban areas, but over time V2X-based<br>networks would be cost-effective in less populated areas as well, as long as Internet traffic or<br>penetration of V2X devices grow as expected.<br>Local and state governments are expected to deploy roadside infrastructure for safety<br>applications. If that infrastructure is shared with Internet Service Providers for a fee, then V2XABSTRACT based networks are cost-effective in locations with even lower population densities than the<br>locations where it is cost-effective to deploy infrastructure for Internet access only. Moreover,<br>the sharing fee could help governments save in infrastructure costs. We find the pricing<br>strategies that maximize either cost-effectiveness or government savings. We estimate that<br>governments could save about one-fifth of the total cost to deploy safety infrastructure<br>nationwide in the U.S., if fees are set to maximize government savings. Although we find that<br>these prices may differ from the pricing strategy that maximizes cost-effectiveness, maximizing<br>government savings results in near-optimal cost-effectiveness.<br>The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has allocated 75 MHz of spectrum to be<br>used exclusively by DSRC devices, and it has been hotly debated whether all or part of that<br>bandwidth should be shared with unlicensed devices. We find that it is highly efficient to share<br>any spectrum allocated to V2X communications beyond the portion of that spectrum that is<br>needed for safety-critical DSRC messages. V2X and unlicensed devices require up to 50% less<br>bandwidth on shared spectrum to achieve given throughputs, compared to V2X and unlicensed<br>devices using separate bands. We conclude that the spectrum available for V2X should be<br>maintained or increased, as long as much of that spectrum is shared with non-V2X devices.<br>Conclusions are derived from an engineering-economic approach, in which part of the<br>assumptions are based on data from a citywide deployment of connected vehicles in Portugal.<br>The data is used in a detailed and realistic packet-level simulation model of V2X-based<br>networks used to provide Internet access with DSRC technology. In some scenarios, the<br>simulation also includes unlicensed devices using Wi-Fi technology. The results of the network<br>simulation are then fed into engineering-economic models to compare costs of V2X-based<br>networks with costs of macrocellular networks to carry given amounts of Internet traffic, and to<br>estimate other measures such as government revenues and spectrum usage. Those measures<br>help inform decisions about where and when to deploy V2X-based networks, decisions about whether and how to promote public-private partnerships to deploy V2X infrastructure, and<br>decisions about sharing spectrum used for V2X communications with non-V2X devices. <br>

Currently, the technology of wireless mesh networks is actively developing. In 2021, Gartner included mesh network technologies and the tasks to ensure their security in the TOP global trends. A large number of scientific works focus on the research and modeling the traffic transmission in such networks. At the same time, they often bring up the "bottle neck" problem, characteristic of individual mesh network nodes. To address the issue, the authors of the article propose using the data caching mechanism and placing the cache data straight on the routers. The mathematical model presented in the article allows building a route with the highest access speed to the requested content by the modified Dijkstra algorithm. Besides, if the mesh network cache lacks the required content, the routers with the Internet access are applied. Practically, the considered method of creating routes to the content, which has already been requested by the users in the mesh network, allows for the optimal efficient use of the router bandwidth capacity distribution and reduces the latency period.

As part of this work, proposed the Mesh network architecture, which provides decentralization, security, anonymity and connection of devices without a dedicated router or Internet access. The nodes establish connections directly using Android P2P Wi-Fi technology, which complies with the Wi-Fi Direct standard. P2P Wi-Fi API organizes group communication and allows applications to connect to neighboring devices without the need for an Internet connection or access point. Despite the fact that in the Wi-Fi Direct standard there are no restrictions on connecting groups to each other, the Android Wi-Fi P2P API does not allow organize a connection between several groups. This is due to the fact that the IP addresses of owners of different groups in Wi-Fi Direct are always the same and unchanged. Communication between a P2P client and an inherited client that also owns another group is allowed in both directions. This provides connections between groups, where a P2P client acts as a proxy to access a neighboring group. Thus communication between nodes in a multigroup network is ensured through the use of transport layer tunnels installed in the logical topology and packet switching at the application level. When one or more nodes access the Internet, remote nodes outside the Wi-Fi coverage area communicate with the mesh through the application server. This architecture allows build a corporate, public or home network based on a wireless Mesh network, the nodes of which can be access points, computers and mobile devices of users.

SummaryDecentralization, in the form of mesh networking and blockchain, two promising technologies, is coming to the telecommunications industry. Mesh networking allows wider low‐cost Internet access with infrastructures built from routers contributed by diverse owners, whereas blockchain enables transparency and accountability for investments, revenue, or other forms of economic compensations from sharing of network traffic, content, and services. Crowdsourcing network coverage, combined with crowdfunding costs, can create economically sustainable yet decentralized Internet access. This means that every participant can invest in resources and pay or be paid for usage to recover the costs of network devices and maintenance. While mesh networks and mesh routing protocols enable self‐organized networks that expand organically, cryptocurrencies and smart contracts enable the economic coordination among network providers and consumers. We explore and evaluate two existing blockchain software stacks, Hyperledger Fabric (HLF) and Ethereum geth with Proof of Authority (PoA) intended as a local lightweight distributed ledger, deployed in a real city‐wide production mesh network and in laboratory network. We quantify the performance and bottlenecks and identify the current limitations and opportunities for improvement to serve locally the needs of wireless mesh networks, without the privacy and economic cost of relying on public blockchains.

With the rising demand for ubiquitous internet access, there is a growing need for technologies that allow users to remain connected to their home broadband network even when outside the house. This paper explores several proposed solutions, including advanced routers, VPNs, mobile applications, mesh networking, and hybrid cloud routers, that enable remote access to home networks. These technologies offer the potential to provide seamless, secure, and affordable connectivity, especially for individuals in rural or remote areas This innovation offers significant implications for rural internet connectivity and broader networking technology advancements. Additionally, the paper explores the societal and economic impacts of these technologies, particularly in underserved regions. By reducing dependence on expensive mobile data and providing secure, continuous internet access, these solutions can help bridge the digital divide in rural and remote areas. Improved connectivity fosters opportunities for education, remote work, and economic development, enhancing quality of life. Furthermore, advancements in hybrid cloud routers and mesh networking have the potential to drive innovation in the telecommunications industry, leading to more robust, scalable, and cost-effective networking solutions. The research underscores the need for further development and widespread implementation of these technologies to address existing internet accessibility challenges.

This article considers the concept of device-to- device communications for the resolution of persistent issues in mobile networks. Specifically, two scenarios are described, the opportunistic coverage expansion of the infrastructure, where an access point transits to offline mode (and hence its terminals shall exploit the presence of neighboring devices in order to reroute their traffic to alternative APs), as well as the opportunistic capacity expansion scenario where an AP faces congestion issues due to the excessive traffic of its terminals or the use of an obsolete RAT with low capacity. In the same manner, part of the traffic shall be offloaded to alternative APs through the creation of D2D links with neighboring devices. In order to realize the proposed solutions, the network elements exchange information regarding their capabilities and their status so as to identify the best path from all the potential ones. Therefore, control channels for cognitive radio systems will be utilized since the information that is conveyed through them comprises information from all the layers of the protocol stack. Furthermore, the article focuses on the coverage expansion scenario, which is implemented at the w.iLab-t testbed. In order to realize the D2D constructs, the devices of the testbed will be configured to communicate through WiFi technology, and specifically the 802.11s standard for wireless mesh networks, in order to enable multihop communications. In this respect, the D2D constructs that will be created are mesh networks that comprise the problematic terminals, their neighboring terminals that offload their traffic, and the APs that receive the traffic. In order to evaluate the proposed solution, the signaling loads of the conveyed messages are measured, as well as the performance of the mesh network that is created after the solution enforcement through the use of a ping, a file transfer, and a video streaming application.

Recently, mesh networking and blockchain are two of the hottest technologies in the telecommunications industry. Combining both can reformulate internet access and make connecting to the Internet not only easy, but affordable too. Hyperledger Fabric (HLF) is a blockchain framework implementation and one of the Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux Foundation. We evaluate HLF in a real production mesh network and in the laboratory, quantify its performance, bottlenecks and limitations of the current implementation. We identify the opportunities for improvement to serve the needs of wireless mesh access networks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first HLF deployment made in a production wireless mesh network.

In this paper we present HIRO-NET, Heterogeneous Intelligent Robotic Network. HIRO-NET is an emergency infrastructure-less network tailored to address the problem of providing connectivity in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, where no cellular or wide area network is operational and no Internet access is available. HIRO-NET establishes a two-tier wireless mesh network where the Lower Tier connects nearby survivors in a self-organized mesh via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)and the Upper Tier creates long-range VHF links between autonomous robots exploring the disaster stricken area. HIRO-NET main goal is to enable users in the disaster to exchange text messages in order to share critical information and request help from first responders. The mesh network discovery problem is analyzed and a network protocol specifically designed to facilitate the exploration process is presented. We show how HIRO-NET robots successfully discover, bridge and interconnect local mesh networks. Results show that the Lower Tier always reaches network convergence and the Upper Tier can virtually extend HIRO-NET functionalities to the range of a small metropolitan area. In the event of an Internet connection still being available to some user, HIRO-NET is able to opportunistically share and provide access to low data-rate services (e.g. Twitter, Gmail)to the whole network. Results suggest that a temporary emergency network to cover a metropolitan area can be created in tens of minutes.

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have emerged as a promising and cost-effective approach to extending the coverage range of wireless local area networks (WLANs) and providing last-mile broadband Internet access. Mesh routers and mesh clients are the key components of WMNs. Mesh routers perform the dual tasks of forwarding packets as well as providing network access to mesh clients. Mesh routers facilitated with the gateway functionality can be connected to the wired infrastructure for Internet access. Traffic streams towards or from the gateway form a tree-based logical structure. In this paper, we develop a new analytical model to investigate the performance metrics including throughput and end-to-end delay in the integrated WLANs and Internet-access WMN with the tree-based logical structure. Extensive simulation experiments are conducted to demonstrate the fact that the proposed analytical model can accurately predict the performance of the integrated network under various working conditions. By virtue of the analytical model, we can tune the system parameters and adjust the density of mesh routers at different locations so as to alleviate the bottleneck problem in the integrated WLANs and WMN.

Mobile communications and internet access are increasingly becoming an essential part of people's lives in today's information society. The growing interest by commercial airlines in providing internet access and cellular connectivity in the passenger cabin has lead to the emergence in recent years of the first satellite-based inflight connectivity providers, including Connexion by Boeing (now defunct), OnAir, AeroMobile, and Panasonic Avionics Corporation. Given the long range of transcontinental air travel, a satellite communications link is the most natural and flexible way to keep the aircraft connected to the ground throughout the flight. Long-distance flights typically traverse oceanic and remote airspace, e.g., large bodies of water, deserts, polar regions, etc., where no communications infrastructure can be deployed on the ground. However, direct air-to-ground (A2G) cellular networks are being deployed (e.g., AirCell in the United States) to provide faster and cheaper access during continental flight. This Chapter presents the vision of the Airborne Internet, a new paradigm for inflight connectivity based on the concept of mesh networking (Akyildiz & Wang, 2005). Airborne mesh networks are self-organizing wireless networks formed by aircraft via direct air-to-air (A2A) radio communication links. Such networks have so far been considered mainly in the context of military aviation (DirecNet, 2007; Bibb Cain et al., 2003). The concept of the Airborne Internet was first proposed at NASA Langley Research Center's Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) Planning Conference in 1999. In one conference session, it was suggested that such a system would require a peer-to-peer communications network among the aircraft. The Airborne Internet Consortium (AIC) formed subsequently to promote and aid in the development of such a system. Consortium members include Aerosat, C3D Aero, and United Airlines. As shown in Fig. 1, aeronautical mesh networking is envisioned as a means to extend the coverage of A2G access networks offshore to oceanic or remote airspace. By enabling aircraft themselves to act as network routers, an airborne mesh network is formed in the sky, as illustrated in Fig. 2. At any given time, only a fraction of all aircraft are within direct A2G coverage, as they fly over the ground infrastructure deployed on shore. During oceanic flight, the aircraft can stay connected by using the airborne mesh network as a bridge to the ground infrastructure, thus bypassing the costly satellite link. From an airline’s perspective, avoiding the satellite link can result in significantly reduced communication costs. Another potential benefit is reduced latency compared to a geostationary satellite, enabling delay-sensitive applications such as voice and video conferencing. With a geostationary

We profile the utility and limits in deployment of inexpensive disposable sensor networks by amateurs to achieve environmental monitoring goals. Four current technology movements — PC-on-a-chip processors such as Arduino, prebuilt sensors, 3-D printing, and Wi-Fi and mesh networking — enable rapid sensor platform creation and make it easy for non-specialists to create general sensor-bearing platforms. Deployment of a cluster of multiple sensor-bearing platforms is, however, communications-limited in terms of both range and number of devices supported, and generally requires a base station with internet access. We examine how inexpensive technology supports scenarios for short-term environmental modelling by average citizens.

Community wireless mesh networks have emerged as cooperative initiatives to provide Internet Access in areas where traditional ISP costs are not affordable for the population. It is common in wireless mesh networks sharing several capacity limited Internet gateways to provide Internet access. As routing does not handle capacity planning, end-users have to select gateways in such a way that the overall capacity of all gateways could be used effectively. An efficient gateway selection should minimize the processing logic and measurements over the mesh network. Selecting a high performance gateway can also ensure that the overall network load is balanced. This paper presents RIMO, a standalone best-effort algorithm for client nodes to select their preferred gateway without interacting with other client nodes. RIMO-based selection matches the gateway performance of the reference brute-force and omniscient algorithms for 60% of the test duration while reducing the gateway performance measurement cost from a factor of n to 2. With a reduced overhead and high efficiency, the RIMO algorithm automates the aggregation of multiple Internet gateways in wireless mesh networks, which results in robust last mile Internet connectivity to people in vulnerable situation.

Meshed Shared-Access Gateways: Technological Overview, Public Benefits, and Practical Deployment

This article describes HIRO-NET, an Heterogeneous Intelligent Robotic Network. HIRO-NET is an emergency infrastructure-less network that aims to address the problem of providing connectivity in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, where no cellular or wide area network is operational and no Internet access is available. HIRO-NET establishes a two-tier wireless mesh network where the Lower Tier connects nearby survivors in a self-organized mesh via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and the Upper Tier creates long-range VHF links between autonomous robots exploring the disaster-stricken area. HIRO-NET's main goal is to enable users in the disaster area to exchange text messages to share critical information and request help from first responders. The mesh network discovery problem is analyzed and a network protocol specifically designed to facilitate the exploration process is presented. We show how HIRO-NET robots successfully discover, bridge and interconnect local mesh networks. Results show that the Lower Tier always reaches network convergence and the Upper Tier can virtually extend HIRO-NET functionalities to the range of a small metropolitan area. In the event of an Internet connection still being available to some user, HIRO-NET is able to opportunistically share and provide access to low data-rate services (e.g., Twitter, Gmail) to the whole network. Results suggest that a temporary emergency network to cover a metropolitan area can be created in tens of minutes.

Pre-scheduled handoff for service-aware and seamless internet access