Wireless Mesh Networks: Routing Protocols and Challenges

Abstract

In this paper, a survey on routing protocols, challenges and applications in wireless mesh networks (WMNs) is conducted. Wireless Mesh network is a type of distributed, self-organizing, self-configuring and self-healing network. When access points in Wireless Local area Networks start to communicate and get networked in an ad hoc fashion to relay packets for their neighbors, a wireless mesh network comes into being. Wireless Mesh Networks are a promising way to provide internet access to fixed and mobile wireless devices. In mesh networks, traffic between mesh nodes and the Internet is routed over mesh gateways. In this paper, we discuss some of the routing protocols (i) OLSR, an Optimized Link State Routing Protocol and (ii) FSR, Fish-eye state routing protocol in detail and present various ad hoc routing protocols and their properties.