TY - JOUR
T1 - Supporting carrier grade services over wireless mesh networks
T2 - The approach of the European FP-7 Strep CARMEN
AU - Azcorra, Arturo
AU - Banniza, Thomas
AU - Chieng, David
AU - Fitzpatrick, John
AU - Von-Hugo, Dirk
AU - Natkaniec, Marek
AU - Robitzsch, Sebastian
AU - Zdarsky, Frank
N1 - Funding Information:
The CARMEN Project is a three-year project partially funded by the EU’s 7th Research Framework Program and has a total budget of approximately €6 million. The CARMEN project focuses on developing a heterogeneous mesh backhaul solution to provide carrier grade services with greater flexibility and at lower cost than existing solutions. A primary concern for operators is to provide access to typical services via their existing radio access networks, thereby leveraging the capital already invested in these networks. Therefore, any backhaul solution must be capable of providing transport for voice, video, and data services. To achieve high system capacity at carrier grade quality and reliability while preserving flexibility and cost efficiency is a key challenge due to the inherent limitations of WMNs in throughput and scalability. This is a key objective of the CARMEN project. The following provides a detailed overview of the specific CARMEN goals: 1 Create a cost-effective mesh network that supports carrier grade services. This includes the following objectives: –Design and validation of an admis- sion control mechanism that consid- ers information from the end user access situation and data about the general capacity available in the mesh cloud in order to decide if new requests should be admitted –Development a framework for cross- layer self-configuration and management functions to support flexible wireless mesh deployments and operation –Design and validation of network monitoring techniques for heteroge- neous wireless mesh networks –Development of fixed and dynamic radio planning techniques for hetero- geneous wireless mesh networks 2 Support for mobile unicast and broad- cast services in a mesh environment. The following tasks are considered here: –Design and validation of a multipath routing solution for heterogeneous mesh networks, able to benefit from the abstract interface design and sup-porting multiple connections to the backhaul network (multihoming) –Design and validation of a broad-cast/multicast routing protocol and algorithm to provide broadcast ser-vices over a WMN –Design and validation of an algo- rithm and protocol to provide net- work-based mobility management 3 Support for heterogeneous radio access technologies by designing an interface to provide an abstraction of radio-based MAC layers for mesh networks. This involves the following objectives: –Development of an abstract inter- face to allow mesh network compo- nents to utilize different radio access technologies (e.g., IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16 or DVB) in a technolo- gy agnostic manner –Development of extensions to the current IEEE 802.11 family of MAC protocols to provide link quality met- rics in multihop environments, including algorithms to configure the various parameters in the current
Funding Information:
CARMEN is a three-year Specific Tar geted Research Project (STREP) funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Program. The CARMEN access network will complement existing access technologies by exploiting low cost mesh networking techniques, thus minimizing deployment and maintenance costs. The CARMEN architecture introduces an abstraction layer that hides the specifics of the underlying access technology providing an abstract interface on top of which higher layers can be easily developed. This allows for the integration of current and future heterogeneous wireless technologies to provide scalable and efficient mobile ubiquitous Internet access, able to adapt to different environments and user requirements. Following these goals, CARMEN aims to define, study and implement link and technology abstractions, mobility support, and quality of service. The architecture also includes advanced monitoring features that allow for dynamic self-configuration, thereby reducing the installation and operational costs.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are a very promising technology to provide an easily deployable and cost-efficient solution for access to packet-based services for metropolitan areas with high population densities. Thus, WMNs may be a key technology in future 4G wireless networks and are currently becoming attractive in situations where it is not convenient to deploy wired backhaul connectivity. For example, it is often impractical to deploy wired infrastructure cost effectively or under tight time constraints. This is particularly true if the deployment is only transient in nature. Another key feature of WMNs is that unlike wireless multihop relay networks, WMNs are not restricted to tree-shaped topologies rooted at the gateway to the wired network and hence do not suffer from the same performance bottlenecks. Instead, any mesh node may communicate with any other one over multiple paths, allowing more efficient utilization of network resources. In contrast to ad hoc networks, WMNs are operated by a single entity, and their components have far fewer restrictions in terms of energy, resilience, and processing power.
AB - Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are a very promising technology to provide an easily deployable and cost-efficient solution for access to packet-based services for metropolitan areas with high population densities. Thus, WMNs may be a key technology in future 4G wireless networks and are currently becoming attractive in situations where it is not convenient to deploy wired backhaul connectivity. For example, it is often impractical to deploy wired infrastructure cost effectively or under tight time constraints. This is particularly true if the deployment is only transient in nature. Another key feature of WMNs is that unlike wireless multihop relay networks, WMNs are not restricted to tree-shaped topologies rooted at the gateway to the wired network and hence do not suffer from the same performance bottlenecks. Instead, any mesh node may communicate with any other one over multiple paths, allowing more efficient utilization of network resources. In contrast to ad hoc networks, WMNs are operated by a single entity, and their components have far fewer restrictions in terms of energy, resilience, and processing power.
KW - Ad hoc networks
KW - IEEE
KW - Mesh networks
KW - Mobile communication
KW - Quality of service
KW - Routing
KW - Wireless communication
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67349121223&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/MCOM.2009.4907397
DO - 10.1109/MCOM.2009.4907397
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:67349121223
SN - 0163-6804
VL - 47
SP - 14
EP - 16
JO - IEEE Communications Magazine
JF - IEEE Communications Magazine
IS - 4
ER -
