Wireless mesh network

If nodes constantly or frequently move, the mesh spends more time updating routes than delivering data.

In a wireless mesh network, topology tends to be more static, so that routes computation can converge and delivery of data to their destinations can occur.

Also, because it sometimes relies on static nodes to act as gateways, it is not a truly all-wireless ad hoc network.

The coverage area of all radio nodes working as a single network is sometimes called a mesh cloud.

Early wireless mesh network nodes had a single half-duplex radio that, at any one instant, could either transmit or receive, but not both at the same time.

Work in this field has been aided by the use of game theory methods to analyze strategies for the allocation of resources and routing of packets.

[2][3][4] Wireless mesh architecture is a first step towards providing cost effective and low mobility over a specific coverage area.

Wireless mesh infrastructure is, in effect, a network of routers minus the cabling between nodes.

It is built of peer radio devices that do not have to be cabled to a wired port like traditional WLAN access points (AP) do.

The solutions are as diverse as communication needs, for example in difficult environments such as emergency situations, tunnels, oil rigs, battlefield surveillance, high-speed mobile-video applications on board public transport, real-time racing-car telemetry, or self-organizing Internet access for communities.

Some current applications: The principle is similar to the way packets travel around the wired Internet – data hops from one device to another until it eventually reaches its destination.

Other projects, often proprietary or tied to a single institution, are: There are more than 70 competing schemes for routing packets across mesh networks.