Architecture and Evaluation of an Unplanned 802.11b Mesh Network

Bicket, Aguayo, Biswas, Morris

manet ad hoc networks roofnet etx routing path metrics

@inproceedings{bicket:mobicom-2005,
  title={Architecture and Evaluation of an Unplanned 802.11b Mesh Network},
  author={Bicket, J. and Aguayo, D. and Biswas, S. and Morris, R.},
  booktitle={International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking},
  pages={31--42},
  year={2005},
  organization={ACM New York, NY, USA}
}

Pretty good overview of Roofnet & some characterizations of its performance.

• 802.11b; notes on problems re. BSSID partitioning; omits IBSS beacons, BSSID mechanisms.
• 500--1300 meter links (200mW; omnidirectional antennas in use); avg. 160+Kbps even over multiple hops.

Not-IP based, IP carried in Roofnet packets; Roofnet & IP addresses based on low 24 bits of MAC + unused Class A address for high 8 bits.

Combination of link state and DSR-style routing---flood query if route unknown, eavesdrop on others' query results, link state info included in all packets.

Routing metric is "estimated transmission time," which tries to take into account that link's highest-throughput bit rate and the delivery probability at that rate.

• Prefers many short, fast links over slower links with lower hop count.

Pretty solid test/evaluation/performance section; of interest is comparison to infrastructure network.