Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are an emerging technology that is expected to play a key role in the next-generation wireless networking. WMNs consist of mesh routers, which have limited or no mobility and provide the backbone, and mesh clients, which are relatively lightweight and mostly mobile. Although WMNs have some degree of infrastructure, nodes in the WMNs are in general act as routers besides being sources and destinations of the data flows, similar to wireless ad hoc networks having no infrastructure. But different from wireless ad hoc networks, WMNs possibly include almost any type of wireless networking approach and furthermore they may provide access to the wired networks such as the Internet. Quality of Service (QoS), which refers to the control mechanisms used in order to prioritize network flows and provide certain level of performance guarantee, has an important role in WMNs, since they employ numerous types of applications each having different performance requirements such as throughput, delay, delay jitter, loss rate. Existing QoS mechanisms designed for wired networks and wireless ad hoc networks cannot be applied to WMNs, which have unique characteristics, as they are. This study aims to elaborate on those characteristics, which may prevent applying some existing methods, and on the other hand, may provide opportunity for the new ones.

DATE: 14 May, 2007, Monday@ 16:40
PLACE: EA 409