INTEGRATING SHORT-RANGE AD-HOC RADIO TECHNOLOGIES INTO NEXT-GENERATION WIRELESS NETWORKS

This paper considers the use of short-range ad-hoc radio technologies for next-generation wireless networks. In particular, we examine the application of 802.11 WLAN radios to construct metropolitan area mesh networks of particular interest for rapid deployment of broadband Internet access in developing countries like India. A system model for an 802.11 metro-area mesh is developed and used to estimate capacity, performance and cost for sample scenarios. Enabling technologies for mesh networks such as topology discovery, self-organization and multi-hop routing are discussed and open technical problems and solutions are identified. A specific system design based on WINLAB's self-organizing hierarchical ad-hoc network (SOHAN) prototype is presented. System-level experimental prototyping results using the ORBIT radio grid emulator testbed as a platform are provided as a proof-of-concept validation.

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