Design and capacity performance analysis of wireless mesh network

ABSTRACT

From the network operator's point of view, the high CAPEX/OPEX cost resulting from fixed/wired backhaul links can be inhibitive to successful deployment of broadband wireless services. The emerging wireless mesh network (WMN) technology is seen as one of the potential solutions which may reduce wired backhaul dependency through multihop transmission. Despite the advantages, many remain sceptical on WMN's network capacity and scalability performances particularly when the user density is high. This paper provides an insight on the best possible upper-bound capacity performance of WMN, taking into consideration three key design parameters namely 1) Percentage of wired backhaul points per network, 2) Mesh-to-Access Link-Rate Ratio (R) and 3) Number of radio interfaces per mesh node including hybrid radio options. These design options are compared and contrasted with different deployment densities. The results generally show that the higher the number of backhaul points, the higher the effective access capacity available to each user domain. Increasing the R and the number of radio per mesh node are two alternative means to push up the effective access capacity per user domain without increasing the number of wired backhaul points. This is most significant in multi radio system where about 80% of saving in backhaul points with R= 3 can be achieved compared to 100% backhauled case. It is also found that 50% saving in the number of backhaul points can be achieved with R≥2 for all radio options (except for the pure single radio case) in order to maintain effective access capacity close to full rate (1.0) per user domain.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design
          Subjects: Wireless communication

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.6 Internetworking
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Signal processing systems

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Performance

Keywords:
broadband wireless access, network planning, wireless mesh networking