Mobile Mesh Networks Research Articles

ECHO: Efficient Zero-Control-Packet Broadcasting for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Applications such as collaborative mapping motivate a need for network-wide broadcasting in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET) with low-rate long-range links. Existing MANET protocols are inadequate in such low-capacity regimes due to their high use of control packets. We present a novel protocol called ECHO that constructs and maintains a broadcast backbone without using any control packets. Instead, using a field in the data packet header, a node transmits and listens for an “echo” of the specific packet to determine its membership in the backbone. ECHO is deterministic, source-independent, fully distributed, accommodates mobility, and balances battery consumption across nodes. We prove ECHO’s correctness and show that its communication complexity is lower than that of Multi-Point Relay (MPR) and Flooding, and comparable to that of Opportunistic Announcement (OA). Simulations over random mobile low-capacity networks show that ECHO provides at least a 30 percent better delivery ratio than Flooding, MPR, and OA for 50-node networks and dramatically reduces the communication load. Experiments on a 12-node testbed of goTenna mobile mesh networking devices show that ECHO reduces transmissions by about 3x and increases battery life by more than 50 percent over Flooding. ECHO’s performance advantages are crucial for scalable broadcast in low-power, low-capacity wireless networks.

Ensuring Information Availability in a Mobile MESH Network with Connectivity Restrictions

Ensuring Information Availability in a Mobile MESH Network with Connectivity Restrictions

RTS: A Robust and Trusted Scheme for IoT-Based Mobile Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks consist of various mesh clients that are organized in an unfixed infrastructure and packets are forwarded using a multi-hop model. Routing protocols have a significant impact on mesh networks because their performance has a crucial effect on nodes connectivity and throughput. Recently, the integration of mesh clients with the Internet of Things (IoT) has gained significant importance to connect billions of machines and achieve fast coverage with minimum network cost. However, if mesh clients are mobile, then data routing via intermediate nodes gives a noteworthy effect on the network performance and latency. Furthermore, over the Internet, a malicious node may be a part of the mesh network and as a result, the sending information can be manipulated and compromised. Therefore, this research article aims to propose a robust and trusted scheme (RTS) for IoT-based mobile mesh networks to provide reliable routing, data confidentiality, and integrity. Firstly, the proposed scheme presents a robust data routing among mobile mesh clients, routers and gateway devices based on the network parameters and measurement of wireless channels. Moreover, the wireless channels between mesh devices are formulated based on the efficacy of link costs for data dissemination. Besides, the location of mobile mesh clients is determined by computing the distance vector at a regular time interval. Secondly, a secure and authentic data protection technique is proposed using public-private key cryptography, which aims to increase the protection of mesh clients with minimal overhead. The competence of the proposed scheme is significantly improved with respect to network throughput by an average of 14%, packet loss rate by an average of 37%, latency rate by an average of 12%, computational overhead by an average of 34%, and energy efficiency by an average of 20% as compared to other works.

An interview with Jason Ernst

In this series of interviews with innovation leaders, Ubiquity Associate Editor and software engineer, Dr. Bushra Anjum, sits down with Jason Ernst, CTO of RightMesh, to discuss how his company is using mobile mesh networks to decentralize existing network infrastructure in areas where it doesn't exist or is too expensive to maintain--effectively putting the control of data in the hands of the people.

A Survey on MANETs: Architecture, Evolution, Applications, Security Issues and Solutions

Mobile ad hoc networks or MANETs, also referred to as mobile mesh networks at times, are self-configuring networks of mobile devices that are joined using wireless channels. These represent convoluted distributed systems comprising of wireless mobile nodes which are free to move and self-organise dynamically into temporary and arbitrary, ad hoc topologies. This makes it possible for devices as well as people to internetwork seamlessly in such regions that have no communication infrastructure in place. Conventionally, the single communication networking application following the ad hoc concept had been tactical networks. Lately, new technologies have been introduced such as IEEE 802.11, Hyperlan and Bluetooth that are assisting in the deployment of commercial MANETs external to the military realm. Such topical evolutions infuse a new and rising interest in MANET research and development. This paper provides an overview of the dynamic domain of MANETs. It begins with the discussion on the evolution of MANETs followed by its significance in various fields. Besides, the MANETs have been analysed from the security perspective, particularly the work performed in the node misbehaviour paradigm has been elaborated.

Composable routing in mobile mesh networks

Small teams of cooperating robots have been shown to be useful in a myriad of applications, with robots communicating with one another in real-time, be it multimedia, motion control or position information. Their mobility leads to a dynamic network mesh topology through which communications have to be routed, interfering in intricate patterns that vary with time, with the number of active robots in the team, and with their relative positions. In this short paper we advocate that routing for small teams of cooperating robots benefits from global synchronization and immediate forwarding, supporting composability of communications in the time domain by isolating the paths of each flow in separate time slots.

Noncoplanar Geometry for Mobile NLOS MIMO Ultraviolet Communication With Linear Complexity Signal Detection

In this paper, we take a first step toward the mobile support for nonline-of-sight ultraviolet (UV) links by introducing a mesh UV network framework. Spatial multiplexing noncoplanar multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) UV system architecture is designed geometrically for the mobile mesh network to overcome the data rate bottleneck induced by scattered UV channel. Based on the MIMO UV channel characteristics, we further propose a modified sphere decoding (SD) method to accomplish MIMO signal detection in practical spatial correlated channels at a linear computational complexity. We evaluate mobile MIMO channel responses under various geometric parameters and the feasibility of this system geometry in $2 \times 2$ and $4 \times 4$ cases. Comparison of the bit error rates (BERs) between the modified SD, zero forcing, and SD is also done. Numerical results demonstrate that compared with the traditional linear array system structure, fully multiplexing is much easier via the noncoplanar MIMO geometry under very realistic parameters and the modified SD significantly improves the MIMO signal detection complexity with bit BER performance loss.

Optimal Deployment and Traffic Flows in Mobile Mesh Network after a Disaster

It is a critical research problem to quickly reconstruct a communication system after a disaster. One resolution is to deploy mobile mesh routers (MMR) in the disaster area to guarantee the connection of users. However, it is still a challenge to find an optimal deployment of MMRs to maximally satisfy users while ensuring a fluent and reliable communication network. In this paper, we focus on the above problems and propose a communication-demand-oriented deployment method (CDODM) and a global-data-traffic routing optimisation method (GTFROM) for a disaster. Our main contributions are (1) formalisation and optimisation of computation transmission cost in CDODM and (2) formalisation and optimisation traffic flows in GTFROM. Through the evaluation in NS3, user satisfaction calculated based on recorded throughput in NS3 can be enhanced clearly in the proposed solutions. In scalability study, the proposed methods works well, with changing range of disaster areas, number of MMRs and communication demands.

Optimal deployment and traffic flows in mobile mesh network after a disaster

It is a critical research problem to quickly reconstruct a communication system after a disaster. One resolution is to deploy mobile mesh routers (MMR) in the disaster area to guarantee the connection of users. However, it is still a challenge to find an optimal deployment of MMRs to maximally satisfy users while ensuring a fluent and reliable communication network. In this paper, we focus on the above problems and propose a communication-demand-oriented deployment method (CDODM) and a global-data-traffic routing optimisation method (GTFROM) for a disaster. Our main contributions are (1) formalisation and optimisation of computation transmission cost in CDODM and (2) formalisation and optimisation traffic flows in GTFROM. Through the evaluation in NS3, user satisfaction calculated based on recorded throughput in NS3 can be enhanced clearly in the proposed solutions. In scalability study, the proposed methods works well, with changing range of disaster areas, number of MMRs and communication demands.

A Topology Control Algorithm of Wireless Mobile Mesh Network Based on Tolerance Region

Delaunay Triangulation (DT) has many desirable properties, so it is widely used in various fields of science. We use DT as network topology of WM 2 N. In dynamic scenarios, it is difficult for nodes to maintain the topology as DT. To solve this problem, we propose a topology control algorithm of WM 2 N based on Tolerance Region (MDTTR). There are two main contributions as follows: (1) All the nodes divide to groups, each group uses DT as network topology; (2) The node according to the neighbor information, will compute a tolerance region, when it move in the tolerance region, the topology will maintain DT graph. Simulation results show that when the network topology maintains DT graph, simplifying the operation of routing, the network throughput is increased when the nodes move forward to the hot zone.

An Empirical Performance Evaluation of AODV and DSR using ALERT Protocol in MANET

Recent advances in portable computing and wireless technologies are opening up exciting possibilities for the future of wireless mobile networking. [1]A mobile ad hoc network (MANET), sometimes called a mobile mesh network, is a self-configuring network of mobile devices connected by wireless links to exchange necessary information. Unlike traditional mobile wireless networks, ad hoc networks do not rely on any fixed infrastructure and are a new wireless networking paradigm for mobile hosts. Analyzing and comparing the performance of routing protocol and doing some efforts for making these protocol performs much better is a wide area of research now a days. In this research work we implemented ALERT in AODV and DSR to provide the anonymity to the source, destination and routes in the network for the secure transmission by hiding node identities and routes from outside observers and compares the performance of those based on parameters such as throughput, packet delivery ratio, and packet delay This research achieves anonymity in AODV and DSR by using ALERT protocol without losing performance of AODV and DSR protocol in MANET. We are also Monitoring Loss at destination node using different traffic generator UDP/CBR in ALERT-AODV and ALERT-DSR for proposed work and TCP/FTP in normal AODV and DSR..

Autonomous Mobile Mesh Networks

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are ideal for situations where a fixed infrastructure is unavailable or infeasible. Today's MANETs, however, may suffer from network partitioning. This limitation makes MANETs unsuitable for applications such as crisis management and battlefield communications, in which team members might need to work in groups scattered in the application terrain. In such applications, intergroup communication is crucial to the team collaboration. To address this weakness, we introduce in this paper a new class of ad-hoc network called Autonomous Mobile Mesh Network (AMMNET). Unlike conventional mesh networks, the mobile mesh nodes of an AMMNET are capable of following the mesh clients in the application terrain, and organizing themselves into a suitable network topology to ensure good connectivity for both intra- and intergroup communications. We propose a distributed client tracking solution to deal with the dynamic nature of client mobility, and present techniques for dynamic topology adaptation in accordance with the mobility pattern of the clients. Our simulation results indicate that AMMNET is robust against network partitioning and capable of providing high relay throughput for the mobile clients.

와이맥스 메쉬 네트워크에서 LSQR 스케줄링을 이용한 QoS 라우팅 성능 향상에 관한 연구

Recently, wireless mesh network has been focused as a core technology for resolving the issues of shadow zone and distributed bypass route as it has broad service coverage as well as good scalability features. It, however, provides users with relatively lower QoS than infrastructure-based networks. In order for addressing this QoS issue and also enhancing the routing performance of mobile WiMax mesh network, this paper proposes a load sensing QoS routing (LSQR) scheme. In the proposed LSQR, each node figures out network congestion status and selects a bypass route accordingly. With this scheme, we can expect good load balancing effect by changing the routing paths from centralized links to distributed links under a heavy traffic condition. From the simulation results using NS-2, it has been verified that the LSQR shows lower packet loss rates and data transmission delays than the existing representative routing schemes.

Distributed Routing Based on Minimum End to End Delay for OFDMA Backhaul Mobile Mesh Networks

In this paper, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based minimum end-to-end delay (MED) distributed routing scheme for mobile backhaul wireless mesh networks is proposed. The proposed scheme selects routing paths based on OFDMA subcarrier synchronization control, subcarrier availability, and delay. In the proposed scheme, OFDMA is used to transmit frames between mesh routers using type-I hybrid automatic repeat request over multipath Rayleigh fading channels. Compared with other distributed routing algorithms, such as most forward within radius R, farthest neighbor routing, nearest neighbor routing, and nearest with forwarding progress, simulation results show that the proposed MED routing can reduce end-to-end delay and support highly reliable routing using only local information of neighbor nodes.

Distributed Routing Based on Minimum End to End Delay for OFDMA Backhaul Mobile Mesh Networks

In this paper, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based minimum end-to-end delay (MED) distributed routing scheme for mobile backhaul wireless mesh networks is proposed. The proposed scheme selects routing paths based on OFDMA subcarrier synchronization control, subcarrier availability, and delay. In the proposed scheme, OFDMA is used to transmit frames between mesh routers using type-I hybrid automatic repeat request over multipath Rayleigh fading channels. Compared with other distributed routing algorithms, such as most forward within radius R, farthest neighbor routing, nearest neighbor routing, and nearest with forwarding progress, simulation results show that the proposed MED routing can reduce end-to-end delay and support highly reliable routing using only local information of neighbor nodes.

A Preamble Design Technique for Efficient Handover in IEEE 802.16 OFDM-Based Mobile Mesh Networks

In this paper, a hierarchical design concept of a preamble for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)-based mobile mesh networks (MMNs) is proposed to reduce the handover overhead by distinguishing an intercluster handover event from an intracluster handover event at the physical layer. The handover procedure using the proposed preamble can simplify the scanning procedure and skip/simplify the network entry procedure, resulting in a significant reduction of the handover overhead. The performance of the handover procedure using the proposed preamble is evaluated using the parameters in the IEEE 802.16 mesh mode.

Improving Compression of Short Messages

Compression of short text strings, such as the GSM Short Message Service (SMS) and Twitter messages, has received relatively little attention compared to the compression of longer texts. This is not surprising given that for typical cellular and internet-based networks, the cost of compression probably outweighs the cost of delivering uncompressed messages. However, this is not necessarily true in the case where the cost of data transport is high, for example, where satellite back-haul is involved, or on bandwidth-starved mobile mesh networks, such as the mesh networks for disaster relief, rural, remote and developing contexts envisaged by the Serval Project [1-4]. This motivated the development of a state-of-art text compression algorithm that could be used to compress mesh-based short-message traffic, culminating in the development of the stats3 SMS compression scheme described in this paper. Stats3 uses word frequency and 3rd-order letter statistics embodied in a pre-constructed dictionary to affect lossless compression of short text messages. This scheme shows that our scheme compressing text messages typically reduces messages to less than half of their original size, and in so doing substantially outperforms all public SMS compression systems, while also matching or exceeding the marketing claims of the commercial options known to the authors. We also outline approaches for future work that has the potential to further improve the performance and practical utility of stats3.

Asymptotic performance of amplify-and-forward cooperative diversity networks with the Nth best relay over Rician fading channels

This paper analyzes and derives the asymptotic symbol error rate expression of amplify-and-forward cooperative communications with the Nth best relay over independent and non-identical Rician fading channels. Rician fading takes the line-of-sight effects into account and often exists in microcellular mobile and wireless mesh networks. In practice, the Nth best relay is selected when the best relay is unavailable because of fairness and load balancing issues. Performance analysis reveals that the diversity gain of the Nth best-relay scheme equals R–N+2, while the best relay and all-participate schemes achieve the diversity gain of R+1, where R is the number of relays. Simulation and numerical evaluation show the tightness of the asymptotic symbol error rate expression and the accuracy of our theoretical analysis. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mitigating multi-path fading in a mobile mesh network

By using robots as routers, a team of networked robots can provide a communication substrate to establish a wireless mesh network. The mobile mesh network can autonomously optimize its configuration, increasing performance. One of the main sources of radio signal fading in such a network is multi-path propagation, which can be mitigated by moving the senders or the receivers on the distance of the order of a wavelength. In this paper, we measure the performance gain when robots are allowed to make such small movements and find that it may be as much as 270%. Our main contribution is the design of a system that allows robots to cooperate and improve the real-world network throughput via a practical solution. We model the problem of which robots to move as a distributed constraint optimization problem (DCOP). Our study includes four local metrics to estimate global throughput.