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The 802.11s mesh appears as a single logical broadcast domain. Support for spanning tree guarantees loop-free
connectivity with external networks Portals B and C blocked. Via portal D, 802.3 station J
integrates transparently
with the
802.11s
802.3 J mesh.
802.11s enables mobile mesh Portal B Portal C
STA Y to seamlessly establish Mesh STA C
a new mesh link to mesh STA C Mesh STA B
and release mesh links to
mesh STAs A and H. 802.3
Portal D Internet
router
Mesh STA D
Mesh STA Y
SS B Mesh STA E AP L Portal E
AP M
BSS C
Mesh STA Y L BSS
M
SS A
A
B
Mesh STA H
Portal A B
Mesh STA G Mesh STA F
BS C Mesh STA A
Mesh BSS The 802.11
802.16
concept relies on a
Mesh STA K central AP that forms a
Mesh STA J basic service set (BSS).
AP K
Interconnected by 802.11s,
Mesh STA W stations can transition to and
E from APs K, L, and M within
802.11s mesh D BSSs K, L, and M, respectively.
integrates with other BSS K
802 networks
(802.3, 802.16, etc.)
Mesh STA U Mesh STA V
Due to its mesh capabilities, mesh STA U connects simultaneously to the printer (mesh STA W) and the storage device
(mesh STA V), and maintains Internet connectivity via mesh STA J. However, as a non-forwarding mesh device, mesh
STA U does not participate in mesh formation. Thus, it does not interconnect mesh STAs W, V, and J.
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HIERTZ LAYOUT 2/9/10 1:45 PM Page 106
2 octets 2 octets 6 octets 6 octets 6 octets 2 octets 6 octets 2 octets 4 octets 07955 octets 4 octets
Frame Sequence
Duration/ID Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Address 4 QoS control HT control Body FCS
control control
Figure 2. The 802.11s mesh control field is part of the frame body and provides up to two more address fields.
transmitting and receiving station addresses, acknowledgments and reservations. Devices use
which denote the stations that actually forward- management frames to set up, organize, and
ed the frame, change with every hop. The 802.11 maintain a WLAN and the local link. To provide
frame format provides two additional bits denot- for multihop, 802.11s extends data and manage-
ed To DS and From DS. The bit combina- ment frames by an additional mesh control field,
tions 10 and 01 indicate the traffic entering or as shown in Fig. 2. The mesh control field con-
leaving the DS from a BSS, respectively. For the sists of a mesh time to live (TTL) field, a mesh
traffic that is relayed within the DS from one AP sequence number, a mesh flags field, and possi-
to another, the bit combination 11 is used. 1 bly a mesh address extension field. The TTL and
Interestingly, vendors often use the vernacular sequence number fields are used to prevent the
term wireless DS (WDS) for this configuration. frames from looping forever. When mesh sta-
tions communicate over a single hop, their
THE 802.11S CONCEPT frames do not carry the mesh control field.
The mesh flags field indicates the presence of
Since the current standard [4] explicitly states that additional MAC addresses in the mesh control
it does not define the procedures necessary for field. The address extension allows for a total of
WDS implementation, many 802.11 multihop six address fields in a mesh frame. This is useful
implementations do not interoperate. 802.11s not when the source and destination of the frame are
only helps interconnect BSSs wirelessly and there- not part of the mesh, but are proxied by mesh sta-
by fills the WDS gap; it also enables a new type of tions. Figure 1 presents an example where mesh
BSS, the so-called mesh BSS (MBSS). In the fol- station D proxies non-mesh stations A, B, and J.
lowing we describe the major sections of 802.11s. Informing other mesh stations of its proxied
Its amendments to interworking, MAC, security, devices, mesh station D diverts to itself all frames
and path selection make the MBSS a self-con- destined for A, B, or J. Together with the six-
tained network that enables applications beyond address scheme, the proxied entities can be iden-
what a traditional single-hop WLAN supports. tified as the final destination beyond the
intermediate destination D. In addition, the
INTERWORKING extension to six addresses allows for proactive
routing, explained later. Proactive routing divides
As a family of standards, interoperability a path into two distinct routes to simplify path
between the different networking concepts is a selection. In Fig. 3 only mesh station C maintains
requirement for 802. For seamless integration, paths to all mesh stations. In this case non-mesh
the 802.11s network appears as a single Ethernet station Ds frames enter the mesh at mesh station
segment to the outside (Fig. 1). The WMN K, traverse to mesh station C (the first route),
implements a single broadcast domain and thus and from there to mesh station J (the second
integrates seamlessly with other 802 networks. In route). An observant reader will note from Fig. 2
particular, 802.11s supports transparent delivery that the address extension field allows for the
of uni-, multi-, and broadcast frames to destina- addition of three addresses, rather than just two.
tions in- and outside of the MBSS (referred to The rationale for this is that standard manage-
as mesh in the following). Devices that form the ment frames have three addresses only. Hence, in
mesh are called mesh stations (mesh STAs). the case of multihop mesh management frames,
Mesh stations forward frames wirelessly but do address 4 is included in the mesh control field
not communicate with non-mesh stations. How- rather than in the standard frame header.
ever, a mesh station may be collocated with
other 802.11 entities. MESH FORMATION AND MANAGEMENT
Just as an APs beacon frame helps the stations
1 The bit combination 00 FRAME STRUCTURE to detect a BSS and learn about its settings, the
is to be used within an Currently, 802.11 categorizes frames as data, mesh stations beacon carries information about
independent BSS that control, or management. Data frames carry high- the mesh and helps other mesh stations detect
does not have an AP. er-layer data. Control frames are used for and join the mesh. Mesh stations detect each
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HIERTZ LAYOUT 2/9/10 1:45 PM Page 107
If a mesh station
Mesh STA C operates as root mesh STA
as it provides connection to the Internet. holds a larger
Portal C
channel precedence
Mesh STA C value, it broadcasts
its value and may
Mesh STA B
indicate a different
Mesh STA D frequency channel.
Mesh STA E
Following the
Mesh STA A highest announced
Mesh BSS
precedence value,
Mesh STA H
mesh stations finally
Mesh STA G Mesh STA F coalesce on the
new channel.
Mesh STA K
Mesh STA J
AP K
STA D associates with
AP K that is collocated
Mesh STA J is the E with mesh STA K.
intended recipient of D STA D sends a frame
STA Ds frame. to mesh STA J.
BSS K
Figure 3. The six address scheme provides support for proxied stations and tree-based path selection.
other based on passive scanning (observation of and mesh stations are required to comply with
beacon frames) or active scanning (probe frame these regulatory requirements. In Europe, for
transmission). The mesh-specific beacon and example, devices must switch to a different chan-
probe frames contain a Mesh ID (the name of a nel (dynamic frequency selection) upon detec-
mesh), a configuration element that advertises tion of a radar station in the 5 GHz band. To
the mesh services, and parameters supported by prevent a mesh from splitting, a channel selec-
the transmitting mesh station. This functionality tion protocol allows selection of the new fre-
enables mesh stations to search for suitable peers quency channel. In the absence of a central
(e.g., other mesh stations that use the same path coordinator, a distributed algorithm is devel-
selection protocol and metric). Once such a can- oped, based on a 31-bit random channel prece-
didate peer has been identified, a mesh station dence value, for arbitration.
uses the Mesh Peer Link Management protocol If mesh station O in Fig. 4 detects a radar
to establish a peer link with another mesh sta- station, it is required to leave its current fre-
tion. Even when the physical link breaks, mesh quency channel and indicates the new frequency
stations may keep the peer link status to allow channel to mesh station N. N forwards the mes-
for quick reconnection. In Fig. 1 mesh station Y sage, and thus, mesh stations D and T learn
may re-establish connection with mesh station A about the channel switch too. After a predeter-
or H as soon as it moves in range again. mined period of time, the mesh channel switch
Mesh stations use a single transceiver only. time, the mesh stations switch to the new chan-
Accordingly, a mesh operates in a single fre- nel. If a mesh station holds a larger channel
quency channel only. With multitransceiver precedence value, it broadcasts its value and may
devices, however, different frequency channel indicate a different frequency channel. Following
meshes can be unified into a single LAN. Figure the highest announced precedence value, mesh
4 provides an example where five meshes oper- stations finally coalesce on the new channel.
ate in four different frequency channels. Mesh
stations C, D, and E collocate within a device SYNCHRONIZATION AND POWER MANAGEMENT
that has three independent transceivers. Incor- All beacon frames provide a time reference that
porating an 802 bridge in the device, the collo- is used for synchronization and power saving.
cated mesh stations interconnect and help to Power-saving mesh stations are either in light- or
forward frames between their meshes. Conse- deep-sleep mode. Being in light-sleep mode, a
quently, a single WMN can be constituted. mesh station switches to full power whenever a
Regulatory bodies have different require- neighbor or the mesh station itself is expected to
ments on the frequency bands used by 802.11 transmit a beacon frame. In deep-sleep mode a
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HIERTZ LAYOUT 2/9/10 1:45 PM Page 108
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HIERTZ LAYOUT 2/9/10 1:45 PM Page 109
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HIERTZ LAYOUT 2/9/10 1:45 PM Page 110
70 5
Measured Measured
Regression Average
60
4
50
Discovery time (ms)
Throughput (Mb/s)
40 3
30
2
20
1
10
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Number of hops Number of hops
of each other, and manual address filter settings year. Remaining problem areas are congestion
enforce multihop topologies. We measure the control, channel selection, and medium access.
discovery duration from the time a path setup is The congestion control mechanism requires a
requested until the time the path is actually mesh station to specify the congestion duration
established. As expected, routes are resolved in to its neighbors. However, due to varying radio
linear time, and the variance increases with the conditions, the link speed changes; a congested
length of the path. Figure 6b shows the average mesh station can hardly predict this. Even worse,
end-to-end data rate measurement results in an legacy devices in overlapping BSSs cannot com-
environment where the default 802.11 parame- ply with congestion messages. As a result, neigh-
ters are used for measurements, and where each boring BSSs receive an increased share of the
experiment is run six times for 10 s per measure- wireless medium, and the congested mesh sta-
ment in an uncontrolled wireless environment. tion is not really helped. Finally, conditions that
As previously mentioned, non-802.11s prod- trigger congestion control, as well as neighbor
ucts rely on the unspecified WDS to enable mul- mesh station reaction, are left unspecified.
tihop networking. However, without path Another concern addresses the current 802.11s
selection mechanisms, suboptimal path length or method for distributed frequency channel selection.
undesired increase in path length occurs. Figure Based on random values that are needed for arbi-
6 illustrates scenarios with more than four to five tration, the propagation of a common frequency
hops that are usually beyond the application sce- channel has limited reliability. Unfortunately, the
nario of a single-channel WMN. Note that selection scheme cannot guarantee that all mesh
throughput decreases rapidly with the number of stations are informed. Since a mesh station switches
hops in the fully connected topology of the at the latest after 255 ms, large networks are subject
experiment. Under normal conditions, the rout- to partitioning when different mesh stations
ing protocol used in 802.11s would resolve paths increase the precedence value and the message
that are limited to one or two hops only. The cannot propagate back to the originator in time.
open80211s stack has been part of the Linux Finally, there remains the challenge of medi-
kernel since version 2.6.26 (July 2008). um access. Currently, WLAN deployments rely
on a wired backbone where APs need not be in
CONCLUSIONS radio range and hence do not share a frequency
channel. However, to form a WMN, this changes.
The wired Internet liberated users from dial-up With the wireless medium being shared among
connections and leased lines. By interconnecting neighbors, the environment becomes much more
autonomous systems, the decentralized Internet interference-prone. Furthermore, mesh stations
enabled new services and business. With 802.11s, have no priority over other 802.11 devices, and a
a similar development has started. The classical mesh suffers severely from any overlapping BSS.
single-hop connectivity no longer addresses the Even if a mesh AP incorporates multiple
needs of an ever-growing user base, and mesh transceivers to separate the BSS and mesh net-
technology is the natural evolution. work into different frequency bands (2.4 and 5
However, with mesh networking, 802.11 enters GHz), the WMN carries the aggregation of
uncharted territories, and 802.11s does not yet locally generated and forwarded traffic. Accord-
define the definite solution. Further improvements ingly, the WMN is threatened with saturation.
are necessary to increase efficiency and enable a Experiments with real 802.11s deployments sub-
degree of QoS that users are willing to accept. stantiate these limitations of the EDCA-based
Judging from the current status of the ongoing medium access mechanisms when used in a
standardization process, it seems that the finaliza- WMN environment. Schemes tailored to mesh-
tion of the 802.11s standard may be expected next specific needs, such as the MCCA scheme, possi-
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Authorized licensed use limited to: Javier Cardona. Downloaded on February 26,2010 at 21:10:57 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.