Physical and MAC Cross Layer Design for Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are an alternative technology for last-mile broadband Internet access that can support broadband services. However, for a WMN to be all it can be, considerable research efforts are still needed. For example, the available MAC and routing protocols are not scalable; throughput drops significantly as the number of nodes or hops in WMNs increases. Thus, existing protocols need to be enhanced or re-invented for WMNs. When advanced physical layer techniques, used, novel MAC protocols, especially multi-channel MAC, need to be proposed to utilize the agility provided by the physical layer. This paper presents an introduction to wireless mesh networks, IEEE 802.11, physical layer and Medium Access Control (MAC) cross layer design.