Wireless Mesh Network Monitoring: Design, Implementation and Experiments

Abstract

Mesh networks conveniently complement infrastructure- based networks, allowing devices to spontaneously form a network and connect with other networks. However, effective service provisioning requires a network monitoring solution with adequate support for topology data dissemination and diagnosis, due to the underlying network dynamics and the absence of pre-existing network infrastructure. In addition, monitoring systems have to face a number of challenges relating to autonomy, robustness and scalability. To this end, we have created a self-organised management overlay that homogeneously and dynamically organises devices into a cluster-based hierarchy on which monitored data is dis- seminated. Scalability of the monitoring system is achieved through the minimisation of the generated traffic, as a result of the optimised design. We have implemented the proposed monitoring system and evaluated through experiments the resulting performance.