Aims and scope
Wireless mesh networks have emerged as a key technology for next generation wireless networking. A wireless mesh network is characterized by dynamic self-organization, self-configuration and self-healing, which allow it for easy and fast, highly scalable, reliable and cost-effective network deployment under very diverse environments, and provision of better coverage and capacity to stationary and mobile users. Because of this, wireless mesh networks have not only become a hot topic in the research community, but are also experiencing a very fast deployment in many today’s environments, such as public city-wide broadband Wi-Fi, rural, and private business networks as well as neighbourhood communities that are characterized by frequent topology changes, cabling troubles, or hard environmental conditions.
Triggered by these fast advances in both research and industry communities, several standardization bodies have started working on specifying recognized protocols and architectures for interoperable WMNs, including both the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN standards committee (inside the IEEE 802.16/WiMAX, the IEEE 802.11s, and the IEEE 802.15.5 Working Groups) and the IETF in the context of wireless access and mobility support in Next Generation Internet (inside, e.g., the MIPSHOP, NETLMM and MANET Working Groups).
In addition to this, other technologies are now also appearing on the horizon, looking at new topologies alternative to classic base station centred ones. On the one hand, Wi-Fi Alliance is developing a peer-to-peer specification that targets at Bluetooth like deployments, so as to allow for a private network to be easily set up. On the other hand, the IEEE 802.11 Task Group “z” is developing an amendment that enables direct link connectivity between end stations, thereby avoiding unnecessary transmissions to and from an Access Point. Finally, the WLAN Mesh draft 802.11s itself offers a non-forwarding mode where devices communicate locally only.
With the traditional network topologies fading away, wireless mesh networks and their ad hoc relatives have become a hot topic in the research community. However, the new topologies affect protocol designs and interoperability with existing networks. Loop-free set-ups, broadcast traffic handling, inter-standard connectivity, and hand over of roaming devices are few examples that these new technologies need to be aware of. Furthermore, it is still to be fully understood what technological challenges the above mentioned standardization efforts have to face, how they will evolve, and what application scenarios will be able to drive their possible success in the market.
Building on the success of the previous editions, MeshTech 2009 aims at bringing together again practitioners and researchers from both academia and industry in order to discuss the recent advances and future evolution of next generation peer-to-peer and mobile mesh/multi-hop relay networking technologies and standards for Wireless Personal, Local, Metropolitan, Rural and Regional Area Networks. |
