IDENTIFICATION OF EFFICIENT ROUTING PROTOCOL FOR WIRELESS MESH NETWORKS Research Proposal
Abstract of Proposal
This proposal discusses in detail the process involved in identifying efficient routing protocols for wireless mesh networks. In this paper, background, and relevant research of the study will be presented. The objectives and the research questions are formulated to attain the goal. The important concepts, factors and features are stated. Finally, the method in which the whole research is to undergo.
In regard of these, this paper, attempts to identify the factors that determine the efficient routing protocols for wireless mesh networks.
Aims and Objectives
The research will focus on the common features of routing protocols for WMNs. The common features are tackled as to what from these features are best and efficient as a routing protocol for WMNs. Each feature is categorized in accordance to its efficiency and thus the best are recognized against just the good ones.
Moreover, the researcher aims to review the different approaches of each routing protocol and its effect to a particular WMN. It has been evident that the introduction of WMNs has brought great business to its new heights.
Lastly, the researcher aims to determine the factors for identification of efficient routing protocols.
Expected outcomes / deliverables
Based on this proposal, the research paper will have ten chapters. The First Chapter will present the aim and objectives of the research paper. In Chapter 2, expected outcomes / deliverables in the research paper itself will be discussed. In Chapter 3, the introduction for the research will be discussed. In Chapter 4, the background for the study will be discussed. In Chapter 5, related research and relevant technology as to previous studies will be discussed. In Chapter 6, the research questions / hypotheses will be presented. In Chapter 7, the research method will be discussed. In Chapter 8, the ethical issues will be discussed if there are any. Same goes for Chapter 9 with its risk management. Finally, in Chapter 10, the project plan will be presented.
Introduction
This paper discusses in detail the research proposal on the identification of efficient routing protocols for WMNs (Wireless Mesh Networks). In particular, the research will focus on identifying the factors that developers consider in forming the best characteristics of protocols which improves the performance of WMNs.
In this paper, the background, context and theme of the study are presented; the objectives of the study and the research statements are formulated. Here, vital concepts, questions and assumptions are stated. Finally, the scope and limitation of the study, methodology to be used and the significance of the research are discussed.
The drive for undertaking this research comes from the author’s belief that there numerous routing protocols for WMNs and how does a person or a company identifies an efficient one. The author has observed that there could be probably factors that developers look for when developing protocols for WMNs. As a result, it is necessary to find these factors in identifying an efficient routing protocol.
Background of the Research
A lot of very promising opportunities have been recently provided by the brilliance of Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). WMN’s mesh connectivity provides intrinsic built-in redundancy and they do not rely on wired communication infrastructures. WMNs are also perfect candidates as communication alternatives in case of emergencies if ever natural means of communications are physically unavailable. Like Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, WMNs share many properties as it is built on multi-hop forwarding of data packets from access nodes towards gateways to the fixed network. Most current research effort relating to Mobile Ad Hoc Networks are that nodes are assumed to be highly mobile wherein they are mainly battery operated. As a result, protocols and mechanisms try to cope with recurrent changes in topology and conserve energy. These assumptions could actually be relaxed which makes way for designing of new services and protocols. However, it has becoming a challenging task for WMNs to support any application. This is due to the limiting of scalability of WMNs as a result of multi-hop forwarding of packets. Regardless of this, WMNs have proven to be promising as it has a commercial potential. They are supposedly predicted to provide cheap wireless network access and coverage. Traditional approaches to service provisioning and routing should be taken into reconsideration if such is the aim for WMNs. Taking into account the complex characteristics of emerging application and those of WMN’s. This could give way to the appraisal of this technology which is foreseen to triumph over new markets in the coming years by taking gain of the growth of heterogeneous networks.
Related Research and Relevant Technology
There are actually more than 70 competing schemes for routing packets across mesh networks. These includes some: Ad-hoc On Demand Distance Vector, Better Approach To Mobile Adhoc Networking, Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol, Dynamic Source Routing, Optimized Link State Routing protocol, Temporarily-Ordered Routing Algorithm and Hazy-Sighted Link State.
IEEE is currently developing a set of standards under the title 802.11s to define an architecture and protocol for ESS Mesh Networking.
One way of improving network capacity according to Kim and Lee (2006), is to consider the traffic load, link loss rate, and the medium contention. They both suggested that the route metrics for wireless mesh networks the number of contention nodes that reflects both the traffic load and the medium contention as well as the aggregated traffic bandwidth that reflects the traffic load. They have compared the performances of the proposed route metrics with the existing route metrics of the hop count and the expected transmission count to reflect the link loss rate.
Draves, Padhaye, and Zill (2004) on the other hand says that a factor to consider when designing a new metric is improving the network capacity or the performance of the individual transfers, instead of coping with mobility or minimizing power usage.
Jun and Sichitiu however, developed their new routing protocol in terms of routing overhead, packet delivery ratio, throughput and delay. They described their new protocol as: “any node is WMN will only know how to reach one gateway and is, in general, reachable only from a gateway. Any small amount of client-to-client traffic can be routed through the common parent of the clients (potentially the gateway). In essence, the routes to and from the gateway form a tree rooted at the gateway”.
So why are there so many routing protocols for Mesh Networks anyway? According to Kowalik K.& Davis M. (2006), WMN protocols have reached more than a hundred.
Radio technology has been the chosen technology for WMNs. It actually influences the performance of the network. As a result, routing protocol needs to be aware of it, and cannot operate in the same way as wired networks. The capacity of a link and the quality of the communication is determined by the physical radio layer, whereas access is coordinated by the media access control (MAC) layer among the distributed nodes. Dynamic topologies, mobile nodes and changing link capacity characterizes the wireless mobile environment. The routing functionality of the network layer must be tailored to support it. Recently, Researchers are proposing a variety of new routing protocols to be developed specifically for ad-hoc wireless mesh networks2.
There have been a few problems that arise as we take a look at why there are so many routing protocols. Kowalik and Davis (2006) states the following problems faced:
Lack of standards. One of the reasons for the assortment of routing protocols for WMNs is that there is a lack of standards to which would define WMNs operations.
Variety of applications. Another reason is the wide range of applications. For example, a wireless mesh military network gaming builds automation or military communication while other do not.
Variety of design methods. When boarding on the development of routing protocols, there are many design scopes to choose from. Various methods used for distribution of routing information, paths computation, several strategies for nodes coordination and various data structures for storing such information making routing protocols operate in many ways. A routing protocol will realize the goal which the designer wants it to be through a selection of elements. To discover a route between nodes, information about the underlying network topology must be gathered. This information also enables nodes to communicate with each other. Two approaches for gathering information are: proactive and reactive (Kowalik and Davis, 2006).
The bandwidth problem. Kowalik and Davis (2006) explains: “the availability of bandwidth in 802.11 networks is scarce and the methods which aim to increase the throughput per node will also influence the way the routing protocols operate”.
A solution? There has been a considerable activity in the area of wireless municipal networks today. Many medium or small size community networks that are providing significant insights about the presentation of WMNs are now available. Even researchers are becoming more conscious of what are the main operational requirements and what are the possible solutions. Therefore, if the link quality, radio range, delays energy consumption and data rates will satisfy the user requirement, we will soon be expecting the standard for municipal WMNs will be defined. This will provide new WMNs that are low cost. Thus, there will be low-cost Internet access for users. Other applications, like wireless mesh gaming, building automation or military communications have specific requirements that are often opposing. Client devices of various applications may operate on variety of hardware platforms such as general purpose computers, mobile phones, PDAs, etc. with varying capabilities. Thus Kowalik and Davis (2006) suggested that only a few routing protocols be required to accomplish the majority of these requirements.
Research Questions
According to Kowalik K.& Davis M. (2006), there are many routing protocols for WMNs which is numbering to more than a hundred. Basically, these routing protocols affect the performance of WMNs. In this regard, this paper attempts to identify the different factors to consider in determining the appropriate characteristics of a certain protocol that enhances the performance of WMNs.
Moreover, this study attempts to answer the ff. questions:
1. What are the available routing protocols today?
2. What are the features of each routing protocol? What is its background and how was it developed?
3. Compared to other protocols, what are the underlying common features and development methods to come up with an efficient routing protocol?
4. What are the factors to determine an efficient routing protocol?
Methods
The study intends to investigate the routing protocols that are mostly used. As far as the practical part concerns, for the performance analysis it is better to make a simulation with one of the most known and approved simulators like OPNET and then getting and comparing results for major parameters of the routing protocols of Wireless Mesh Networks. By taking in consideration different factors during the simulation you could determine the appropriate characteristics of a certain protocol that enhances the performance of Wireless Mesh Networks.
As the routing protocols are simulated, we will soon have a demonstrative evidence which will then be presented in tables. Each recurring feature will be discussed in details as to its efficiency. The factors/features will be discussed in comparison.
The simulated models will be showed and presented with the tables and the comparison results. The results will show us which factors are best utilized to identify efficient routing protocols.
Resource Requirements
There will be basically no respondent for the study as no interviews will be conducted. However, the researcher is of enough importance for the completion of the research.
As for the research method itself, the research will be conducted through a simulation or modeling process. A simulation is an effort to represent a real-life situation on a computer so it can be studied to see how the system works. By changing variables, it is possible to do predictions about the behaviour of the system. Also, through simulation, the researcher will have an actual and instant access to the activity of a particular network. This way, information gathering will be fairly accurate and easy.
Moreover, the commercial network simulator OPNET will be used. A network simulation is a method where a program simulates the behavior of a network. The program executes this simulation by either calculating the contact between the different network units (data links, hosts/routers, packets, etc.) by actually playing back and capturing network parameters from a production network, or by using mathematical formulas. Through this input, the various application and services a network supports and the behavior of the network can be observed. A variety of attributes of the environment can also be customized in a controlled way to evaluate these behaviors under different circumstances. Whenever a simulation program is used in combination with live applications and services to observe end-to-end performance to the user desktop, this technique is also called network emulation.
Network simulators are used to calculate the behavior of networks and applications under various circumstances. To see how protocols behave when deployed, researchers use network simulators. It is possible to use network simulators to test routing protocols.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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