Enhancing reflection and self-determination in a real-life community mesh network

Abstract

This article discusses the Network Characterization Daemon (NCD), a piece of software that provides users of Community Mesh Networks (CMNs) with an interactive tool to monitor, evaluate and fine-tune their network nodes.First, CMNs are introduced as a particular case of Community Networks (CNs), and their participation challenges are analysed. The NCD is then discussed as a novel solution that provides CMN end users with mechanisms to assess network performance and improve their quality of experience by modifying their devices’ network configuration. The relation of the NCD with Quick Mesh Project (qMp) and the BatMan-eXperimental version 6 (BMX6) routing protocol is detailed as part of the social and technological context.The NCD also provides an experimentation framework to evaluate network performance in real-life CMNs. The latter part of this article covers the experiments performed using the NCD to assess network performance (in terms of path selection, Round-Trip Time (RTT), etc.) when different BMX6 routing policies are applied. The results show how, under different traffic conditions (e.g. distinct packet sizes), using specific routing policies leads to an improvement in network performance.Finally, the integration of the NCD in qMp is discussed, in order to ensure its long-term sustainability.