Mesh Networks - Basics

Contents

Introduction Classification of Wireless Mesh Networks General Problem Statement Exploiting the Capacity of the Radio Channel by Spatial Reuse Fairness and Congestion Avoidance Routing

INTRODUCTION

Introduction
The wireless mesh network (WMN) is

a communication network made up of radio nodes in which there are at least two pathways of communication to each node. In full mesh topology, each node is connected directly to each of the others. In partial mesh topology, some nodes are connected to all the others, but some are connected only to those other nodes with which they exchange the most data.

 Characteristic of the WMN: the capability to relay frames from one device to another

Introduction

Introduction
Characteristic of the WMN: Mesh networks potentially have no hierarchy

No such a central device in WMN Everybody relays every others

Most of the traffic is directed and received from a central device

Introduction
Mesh supporting MAC layer needs to

consider

Multi-hop path exists bet/ the nodes in the WMN Different from the situation where a central neighbor (AP) control all the transmissions. Routing needs to be handled by each relay

Path selection: routing function in the mesh-

devices in the broadcast medium

able MAC layer

Distinguished from the routing: identification

of possible hops from source to destination in the IP layer

Introduction
Key elements in designing a wireless mesh

network

Security: the WMN may consist of devices

mutually unknown to each other Path selection MAC adaptation

CLASSIFICATION OF WIRELESS MESH NETWORKS

Classification of Wireless Mesh Networks

WMN may operate with or without a hierarchical

structure:
Flat mesh networks Hierarchical mesh networks

In flat hierarchy,
Any device is able to forward frames Any device operates as a sink or source, also as a relay.

The devices needs path selection functionality and the

capability to support multi-hop traffic

Classification of Wireless Mesh Networks

In hierarchy mesh networks, only mesh-able device provide the mesh networking service to other non-mesh-able devices that do not have relaying capabilities Typically, mesh-able devices are APs (Access Point) Only mesh-able devices need extra resources such as memory, computing power and multiple tranceivers to be able to operate the WMN

Classification of Wireless Mesh Networks

With regard to the frequency channels used,

WMNs with respect to the mesh function in comparison to the BSS support function may operate in band or out of band WMNs may operate on single or multiple frequency channels

Classification of Wireless Mesh Networks

GENERAL PROBLEM STATEMENT

General Problem Statement

New phenomena emerging from the WMN: Multi-hop transmission reduces the end-to-end throughput and overall latency/delay increases Self-interference of relayed frames and unpredictable path metrics

General Problem Statement Path Selection

Routing algorithm in wired networks
Routing metric: hop count, link speed, cost for transiting traffic, etc. NOT take into account frequent change of topology and link speed

How about wireless networks?

Topology (connectivity of nodes) and link speed changes Path metrics of wired networks appear insufficient for WMNs

Path metrics for WMNs may need to consider as an addition: Packet error probability that depends on SINR Congestion status of receiving relay node Availability of relay node on a certain frequency channel Bandwidth needed for transmission

General Problem Statement Path Selection

Path metrics for WMNs are all time variant and

may essentially change within a short duration. This information may be available in the MAC layer only. NOT in the routing layer. The WMN developed at the IEEE cover only layers 1 and 2 and must provide transparency to higher layers. The MANET routing protocols cant be used since frame forwarding is performed in the IP layer.

General Problem Statement - MAC

Medium Access Control (MAC) Problem in relaying in multi-hop networks cant be solved by just applying single-hop MAC protocol multiple times. The WMN may be seen as A sum of a number of continuously overlapping neighboring single-hop networks Coordination of their channel access in an area

larger than that of a single-hop network is needed.

discussed later

Hidden and exposed terminal problem To be

EXPLOITING THE CAPACITY OF THE RADIO CHANNEL BY SPATIAL REUSE

Exploiting the Capacity of the Radio Channel by Spatial Reuse

Relaying the frame in the WMN Each relay node operates as both receiver and transmitter The wireless medium in the vicinity of a relay node is occupied once for frame reception and a second time for frame transmission. Assuming a string topology of equidistant nodes, the spatial reuse distance can be easily explained. See the following Fig.

Exploiting the Capacity of the Radio Channel by Spatial Reuse

Min spatial reuse distance = 3 hops

Hidden Devices Potential Interferers

The receiving device(B) is in Hidden Devices in Wireless Networks

Sensing/Rx

C
Tx

Rx B

reception range of two other devices(A,C). However, the latter ones (A,C) are out of mutual reception range. Hence, transmissions to the RX device (B) cannot be detected by a possible interferer (C). In WMNs, each device has more indirect than direct neighbors. Therefore, hidden devices have high potential of interference.

Hidden Devices Potential Interferers

Busy Tone Concept to Overcome Hidden Device Threat

B transmits a busy tone

f1 f2

A B
Busy tone

on a different channel. Device C, which is outside reception of the transmitting device A, receives the busy tone and defers from channel access. With busy tone, a receiving device can signal an ongoing frame reception to its neighborhood.

Exposed Devices Unused Capacity

A device is called exposed if, according to the

protocol applied, the device decides that the channel is not available, so that it refrains from channel access, although its transmission simultaneously to another ongoing transmission would not cause harmful interference.
What the node C is doing: 1. Perform carrier sense (CS) 2. Sense busy. So, would not trx What if it trx? Its ok. No harm

Rx B

Tx

C D

Exposed Devices Unused Capacity

Since exposed devices are not harmful to

others, most wireless standards do not take into account Obstacles, walls and buildings provide sufficient shadowing that may allow interference-free simultaneous transmission in the same channel. Detection and identification of opportunities for simultaneous transmission are important for the design of MAC protocols of dense WMNs.

FAIRNESS AND CONGESTION AVOIDANCE

Fairness and Congestion Avoidance

Fairness denotes a specific means of

resource sharing

Equally share the link (or bandwidth)

Different kinds of fairness IEEE 802.11 is based on frames: No matter what size the payload and which PHY mode is used for trx, all frames have equal chance. IEEE 802.11e is now based on
The capacity (trx rate) of the WMN Transmission Opportunities (TXOP)

Fairness and Congestion Avoidance

When the number of flows is large and the

capacity is given, none of the traffic flows may be able to fulfill its QoS requirements.
Flow Admission Control (FAC) Traffic flow prioritization

Both FAC and prioritization are needed in

the WMNs to establish fairness and support QoS traffic flows.

Fairness and Congestion Avoidance

The capacity of a wireless mesh network is

given by

The relaying capacity of the highest loaded relay

TCP over wireless TCP was designed for wired communication networks Congestion avoidance algorithm operates on the assumption that frame losses are due to insufficient capacity of congested routers High fluctuation of wireless links TCP draws the wrong conclusion and throttles down the window size

node (bottleneck) The bottleneck is typically the portal device connected to the Internet

Fairness and Congestion Avoidance

With multiple devices
Traffic Aggregation in WMNs

interconnected, bottleneck devices will result that limit the capacity of the mesh network. Relaying devices need to take into account that subsequent devices may carry traffic of other routes, too. How? A relaying device carries the traffic aggregated from three other devices. Prioritization of the forwarding device is necessary to ensure sufficient performance.

ROUTING

Routing Algorithms
MANET Ad-hoc Routing Protocols

Proactive protocols constantly maintain and detect paths

to all possible destinations. Reactive protocols save overhead and set-up paths only when needed. Hybrid protocols combine both aspects

Routing Algorithms
Further classification may distinguish between link state and distance vector based algorithms, hierarchy of path selection entities and the usage of location information for forwarding decisions.

Routing Algorithms
Proactive routing protocols use periodic flooding to broadcast information to devices about routes, known neighbors and others. This enables short path set-up times and ensures that the latest parameter values of the routing metrics are always present in the transmit range. Increased overhead is a drawback Examples: DSDV, OLSR

Routing Algorithms
Reactive routing protocols establish a route on request only, reducing path selection overhead but introducing high delay for the first frame to be transmitted Path selection procedure must be executed before data frames can be exchanged. Reactive routing protocols avoid maintaining unused routes, but pay for this by a higher route discovery and packet transmission delay. Examples: DSR, AODV

Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV)

AODV is a serious candidate for WMNs. Owing to its reactive nature, the protocol

avoids maintaining unused routes introducing a higher delay than proactive protocols when establishing a route The algorithm is divided into three parts:
Route Discovery Route Maintenance Local Repair

Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) Route Discovery

Route discovery: 1. Checks routing table to determine whether it

has a valid route available 2. If a route is known, then forwards to the next hop, otherwise initiates a route discovery process. 3. Broadcasts a Route Request (RREQ) message and floods the network (See the Fig in the next page)

Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) Route Discovery

RREQ contains: source IP address destination IP address a sequence number from the source device the last known sequence number from the

destination device a broadcast ID, which is incremented with each broadcast sent by the source <source IP, broadcast ID>: a unique identifier for the RREQ

Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) Route Discovery

After receiving the RREQ, dev D2: Checks whether it is the dst or if its routing table contains a valid route to the dst. If dst is unknown:
D2 builds a new reverse route entry for src D1. Reverse route

contains:
Source IP address of the RREQ According sequence number Hop count towards the source D1

IP address of the neighbor dev where the RREQ was received from

Then increments the RREQ hop count and re-broadcasts the

RREQ.

Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) Route Discovery

After receiving the RREQ, dev D2 (cont.): If D2 is the dst or the dst is known:
D2 compares the received sequence number (A) from the

RREQ and the last received one (B) stored in routing table. If A <= B, then D2 responds RREP to D1. The RREP contains src IP address and dst IP address D2 sets the sequence number in RREP by
= current sequence number if D2 = dst = sequence number saved in routing table

D2 sets hop count to = 0 if D2 = dst = value saved in routing table

Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) Route Discovery

Each dev receiving the RREP: Builds a forward path entry containing:

The dst. IP addess Neighbor IP address of the last RREP sender Hop count towards the dst. Each routing entry is associated with a certain lifetime (updated each time the entry is used)

To limit overhead, an extending-ring search

mechanism is proposed:

Send repeated RREQ with an increase Time-To-Live (TTL) Advantage: avoids flooding the whole network if dst. is

near Disadvantage: delays route discovery if dst. is far away.

Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV)

Source
RREQ

Src Dst

Downstream Node

Dst
Upstream Node

Source
RREP

Src

Dst
Local Repair

Dst
(b) Route Repair shown for Unicasting

(a) Route Discovery Process

A route request is flooded, and establishes the reverse path Destination unicasts the route reply and establish the forward path Route breaks are repaired locally

Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV)

Route Maintenance If the source moves during an active session, it

reinitiates the route discovery process. When either the dst. or an intermediate device moves and the routes breaks, a Route Error (RERR) packet is sent to the source. This RERR is sent by the device on the source side of the break (upstream) When the neighbors receive the RERR, they mark the affected route entries as invalid and send RERR to all neighbors that are affected by the broken link. The source recovers the route when it receives the RERR.

Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV)

Local Repair A method to repair broken route locally When a route breaks, the upstream device decides either to repair the route or to send an RERR message. A device using local repair sends an RREQ searching for a new route to the destination device. Note that the repair RREQ will not reach the source thus preventing creation of loops. The initiator of the local repair updates its routing entry and compares the stored hop count with the recently received one.
If the new hop count to the destination is larger than the former

If the repair attempt fails, an RERR is sent back to the

hop count, the device creates an RERR message for the source device

source.

Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV)

Based on link adaptation related information

available from the PHY, a device may be able to predict from the history of MCSs used the current link state so that a device is able to rearrange a route before it breaks Two link state prediction based route rearrangement algorithms:
Early Route Rearrangement (ERRA) Early Route Update (ERU)

Common Link Layer Behavior (Link Adaptation)

Most wireless communication standard leave LA open

to vendor-specific implementation. In general, most LA algorithms react to degrading channel conditions by switching to a lower data rate (more robust) PHY mode. If the SINR of the wireless medium improves again, a higher data rate (lest robust) mode is chosen. The following LA algorithm is based on

IEEE802.11a PHY/MAC (Weiss, 2004)

An enhanced version of auto rate fallback (ARF) Quick reaction to fast channel condition changes

while taking into account slow channel condition changes

Common Link Layer Behavior (Link Adaptation)

Common Link Layer Behavior (Link Adaptation)

Link Breakage Prediction

Link quality degrades when devices depart from each other. Sequential step-down of LA may serve to hint to the

network layer that a link will break soon, triggering route adaptation to prepare for an alternate route. During link operation, step-up and step-down might happen multiple times before a link will break. By summing all weights related to LA steps within a certain time period, where step-down is counted as negative, step-up as positive, an indicator for link reliability is gained.

Link Breakage Prediction

Actions for Expected Link Break

Assuming LA provides useful information about the link

state, it may trigger actions such as trying to rescue a link or guaranteeing a certain required link quality by establishing a new route. A device may distinguish 3 cases:
Outgoing link on a route is switched to lower PHY mode but the

incoming links remain unchanged. The link to a next device fades away since it moves away Both incoming as well as outgoing links are switched to lower PHY mode, indicating movement of the observing device itself. Incoming link is switched to a lower PHY mode, but the outgoing links remain unchanged. This indicates that the device at the other end is moving away.

Early Route Rearrangement (ERRA)

The ERRA protocol is derived from the local repair

idea that is part of the AODV routing protocol. ERRA does not wait until the link is broken but prior to breakage rearranges the route to avoid disruption. ERRA proactively, by rearrangement, prepares for an alternate route to avoid interruption of service.

Example
The initial route starts from source device 2

to dst. 7, intermediate device 5 is moving away. Device 4 detects the movement, triggers the ERRA. It locally broadcasts a route to device 7 rearrangement request (ERRA_REQ). Device 6 responds (ERRA_REP) and provides via device 8 an alternative route

Early Route Rearrangement (ERRA)

Early Route Update (ERU)

Like ERRA, the ERU protocol proactively

updates the routing table, and takes MCS step-down to the lowest PHY mode as a trigger. The current stepped-down link is used to establish alternate routes.

Early Route Update (ERU)

Dev 5 is assumed to leave a route. Dev 4 is trigged by its LA procedure when switching to BPSK1/2 and trx its neighborhood table (ERU_PATCH_INFO) piggy-backed to some data pkt sent to dev 5. ERU_PATCH_INFO:

Breakage Hop Counter (BHC): to count the number of hops trxted on a route, representing the size of the unstable part of the route.

Dev 5 forwards the info to dev 6 that has a steady outgoing link to dev 7. Dev 6 searches but does not find an intersection between the neighborhood received and its own dev 6 and its neighbor further rebroadcast the list.

Early Route Update (ERU)

Dev 11 has dev 8 in its

neighbor list and dev 8 is included in neighbor list of dev 4 A route 6-11-8-4 bypassing the weak link 4-5 is found. Dev 11 responds with ERU_REP to dev 4 via dev 8. The number of broadcasts correspond to the BHC (in example here BHC=2), greatly reducing traffic compared to flooding the vicinity dev 4.