Modeling and analysing the performance of a wireless mesh network

Abstract

As an emerging technology for the future internet, the wireless mesh networks can provide fast-configure low-cost and scalable wireless networks to large are- as. The wireless community networks are based on the wireless mesh network technology as a new solution for internet access, game, internet radio and VoIP services for the users.

This thesis presents the wireless mesh network technology in details including the related routing protocols and standards. The topology data (in CNML) of Guifi.net, an open access community network deployed in Spain, was also ana- lyzed. Based on the topology information parsed from the CNML file, a small zone of Guifi.net was modeled. The performance of the modeled zone was studied via the simulations with the 802.11s mesh module in NS-3.

By analyzing the simulation results, the network efficiency and the instantanei- ty of the modeled zone were shown as decreasing with the increasing of the network load. The simulation results also indicated that the efficiency of the links in the modeled zone was not dependent on the hop count distance. From the analysis of the simulation results for peer links, the key factors that affect the performance of the links were identified: the antenna transmission gain of the radio and the distance between the nodes. At the end of the thesis, the idea of the topology generation scheme for Guifi.net is demonstrated. The results from this thesis can provide reference bases for the further steps of the research of the topology generation scheme.