Wireless Mesh Networking: An IoT-Oriented Perspective Survey on Relevant Technologies

The Internet of Things (IoT), being a “network of networks”, promises to allow billions of humans and machines to interact with each other. Owing to this rapid growth, the deployment of IoT-oriented networks based on mesh topologies is very attractive, thanks to their scalability and reliability (in the presence of failures). In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of the following relevant wireless technologies: IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.15.4-oriented, and Sub-GHz-based LoRa. Our goal is to highlight how various communication technologies may be suitable for mesh networking, either providing a native support or being adapted subsequently. Hence, we discuss how these wireless technologies, being either standard or proprietary, can adapt to IoT scenarios (e.g., smart cities and smart agriculture) in which the heterogeneity of the involved devices is a key feature. Finally, we provide reference use cases involving all the analyzed mesh-oriented technologies.

[1]  Carles Gomez,et al.  Bluetooth Low Energy Mesh Networks: A Survey , 2017, Sensors.

[2]  Ju Wook Jang,et al.  BLEmesh: A Wireless Mesh Network Protocol for Bluetooth Low Energy Devices , 2015, 2015 3rd International Conference on Future Internet of Things and Cloud.

[3]  Athanasios V. Vasilakos,et al.  BLE mesh: a practical mesh networking development framework for public safety communications , 2018 .

[4]  Luca Veltri,et al.  PMSR — Poor Man's Segment Routing, a minimalistic approach to Segment Routing and a Traffic Engineering use case , 2015, NOMS 2016 - 2016 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium.

[5]  Kemal Akkaya,et al.  Supporting Seamless Connectivity in Drone-assisted Intelligent Transportation Systems , 2018, 2018 IEEE 43rd Conference on Local Computer Networks Workshops (LCN Workshops).

[6]  Eduardo Casilari-Pérez,et al.  Analysis of the scalability of hierarchical IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee networks , 2008, Infoscale.

[7]  Ishaq Unwala,et al.  Thread: An IoT Protocol , 2018, 2018 IEEE Green Technologies Conference (GreenTech).

[8]  D. Jhonson.  The Dynamic Source Routing Protocol (DSR) for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks for IPv4 , 2007 .

[9]  Luca Davoli,et al.  DiRPL: A RPL-Based Resource and Service Discovery Algorithm for 6LoWPANs , 2018 .

[10]  Matteo Ridolfi,et al.  WiFi ad-hoc mesh network and MAC protocol solution for UWB indoor localization systems , 2016, 2016 Symposium on Communications and Vehicular Technologies (SCVT).

[11]  Ismail Güvenç,et al.  UAV-Enabled Intelligent Transportation Systems for the Smart City: Applications and Challenges , 2017, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[12]  Axel Sikora,et al.  Investigations on the performance of bluetooth enabled mesh networking , 2016, 2016 3rd International Symposium on Wireless Systems within the Conferences on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems (IDAACS-SWS).

[13]  Ana Maria Zambrano,et al.  Situation awareness in the large forest fires response. A solution based on wireless mesh networks , 2017, 2017 IEEE 9th Latin-American Conference on Communications (LATINCOM).

[14]  Charles E. Perkins,et al.  Highly Dynamic Destination-Sequenced Distance-Vector Routing (DSDV) for mobile computers , 1994, SIGCOMM.

[15]  Dan Komosny,et al.  Comprehensive Performance Analysis of Lightweight Mesh and Its Comparison with ZigBee Pro Technology , 2014, Wirel. Pers. Commun..

[16]  Fernand Meyer,et al.  A comparative study of LPWAN technologies for large-scale IoT deployment , 2019, ICT Express.

[17]  Andrzej Duda,et al.  Comparison of the Device Lifetime in Wireless Networks for the Internet of Things , 2017, IEEE Access.

[18]  Wojciech Rzepecki,et al.  IEEE 802.15.4 Thread Mesh Network – Data Transmission in Harsh Environment , 2018, 2018 6th International Conference on Future Internet of Things and Cloud Workshops (FiCloudW).

[19]  F. Anwar,et al.  Performance study of hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP) for IEEE 802.11s WLAN mesh networks , 2012, 2012 International Conference on Computer and Communication Engineering (ICCCE).

[20]  Gianluigi Ferrari,et al.  Integration of Wi-Fi mobile nodes in a Web of Things Testbed , 2016, ICT Express.

[21]  António Grilo,et al.  LoRaWAN multi-hop uplink extension , 2018, ANT/SEIT.

[22]  Chiara Buratti,et al.  Routing protocols for video surveillance drones in IEEE 802.11s Wireless Mesh Networks , 2017, 2017 European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC).

[23]  Praneeth Juturu,et al.  A mesh network for mobile devices using Bluetooth low energy , 2015, 2015 IEEE SENSORS.

[24]  Rifki Muhendra,et al.  Development of street lights controller using wifi mesh network , 2017, 2017 International Conference on Smart Cities, Automation & Intelligent Computing Systems (ICON-SONICS).

[25]  Sofie Pollin,et al.  Bluetooth now or low energy: Should BLE mesh become a flooding or connection oriented network? , 2017, 2017 IEEE 28th Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC).

[26]  Christian Nyberg,et al.  A Routing Protocol for LoRA Mesh Networks , 2018, 2018 IEEE 19th International Symposium on "A World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks" (WoWMoM).

[27]  Alan J. Michaels,et al.  Network Scalability Comparison of IEEE 802.15.4 and Receiver-Assigned CDMA , 2019, IEEE Internet of Things Journal.

[28]  Gaetano Patti,et al.  Multi-Hop Real-Time Communications Over Bluetooth Low Energy Industrial Wireless Mesh Networks , 2018, IEEE Access.

[29]  Adonay A. Veiga,et al.  Proposal and Application of Bluetooth Mesh Profile for Smart Cities’ Services , 2018, Smart Cities.

[30]  Kai-Hsiang Ke,et al.  Monitoring of Large-Area IoT Sensors Using a LoRa Wireless Mesh Network System: Design and Evaluation , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[31]  Gianluigi Ferrari,et al.  Design and Deployment of an IoT Application-Oriented Testbed , 2015, Computer.

[32]  Gianluigi Ferrari,et al.  From Micro to Macro IoT: Challenges and Solutions in the Integration of IEEE 802.15.4/802.11 and Sub-GHz Technologies , 2018, IEEE Internet of Things Journal.

[33]  Michael A. DeCristofaro,et al.  Heterogeneous Wireless Mesh Network Technology Evaluation for Space Proximity and Surface Applications , 2014 .

[34]  Bernhard Walke,et al.  IEEE 802.11s: The WLAN Mesh Standard , 2010, IEEE Wireless Communications.

[35]  Vishwas Lakkundi,et al.  Implementing LWM2M in constrained IoT devices , 2015, 2015 IEEE Conference on Wireless Sensors (ICWiSe).

[36]  Jeroen Hoebeke,et al.  The Bluetooth Mesh Standard: An Overview and Experimental Evaluation , 2018, Sensors.

[37]  Jochen Seitz,et al.  Evaluation of BLE Mesh capabilities: A case study based on CSRMesh , 2016, 2016 Eighth International Conference on Ubiquitous and Future Networks (ICUFN).

[38]  Luca Veltri,et al.  A Scalable and Self-Configuring Architecture for Service Discovery in the Internet of Things , 2014, IEEE Internet of Things Journal.

[39]  Philippe Jacquet,et al.  Optimized Link State Routing Protocol (OLSR) , 2003, RFC.