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Performance comparison of mesh routing protocols in an experimental network with bandwidth restrictions in the border router

Abstract:

In recent years, a new technology known as wireless mesh networks (WMNs) has emerged as an adaptable and economical extension of wired networks, which, in some scenarios and applications, may provide a more affordable and versatile solution than other wired or wireless technologies. In this paper, we propose to use WMNs to provide Internet access to low-income people living in Caracas city. Caracas has a geographical distribution such that almost every middle-class and wealthy neighborhood is located next to at least one poor neighborhood, so poor families may access the Internet via one or more Internet Service Providers contracted by a neighbor living in a surrounding middle-class or wealthy neighborhood. Computers in poor neighborhoods can connect to the mesh networks via wireless adaptors. As a first step, we investigate the performance of the mesh network for Babel, B.A.T.M.A.N., and OLSR routing protocols as a function of the throughput and packet loss rate for different test scenarios defined according to the number of mesh nodes and the bandwidth constraints applied by the border router. The results show that when the bandwidth is more limited, all the routing protocols provide similar values of throughput; as the bandwidth restrictions are relaxed, Babel and B.A.T.M.A.N., perform better than OLSR for large number of users. For small network sizes, the routing protocols behave similarly.