IEEE 802.11s Wireless Mesh Networks for Last-Mile Internet Access: An Open-Source Real-World Indoor Testbed Implementation

Abstract

Due to their easy-to-deploy and self-healing features, WMNs (Wireless Mesh Networks) are emerging as a new promising technology with a rich set of applications. While the IEEE standardization of this new technology is still in progress, its main traits are already set, e.g., architecture and MAC routing. WMNs are attracting considerable research in academia and industry as well, but the lack of open-source testbeds is restricting such a research to simulation tools. The main problem with simulation tools is that they do not reflect the complexity of RF propagation, especially in indoor environments, of which IEEE 802.11s WMNs are an example. This paper presents an open-source implementation of an indoor IEEE 802.11s WMN testbed. The implementation is transparent, easy-to-deploy, and both the source code and deployment instructions are available online. The implementation can serve as a blueprint for the WMN research community to deploy their own testbeds, negating the shortcomings of using simulation tools. By delving into the testbed implementation subtleties, this paper is shedding further light on the details of the ongoing IEEE 802.11s standard. Major encountered implementation problems (e.g., clients association, Internetworking, and supporting multiple gateways) are identified and addressed. To ascertain the functionality of the testbed, both UDP and TCP traffic are supported and operational. The testbed uses the default IEEE 802.11s HWMP (Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol) routing protocol along with the default IEEE 802.11s Airtime routing metric.