Towards Carrier-Grade Quality in Heterogeneous Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract

Current backhaul networks typically comprise a wired middle mile and a wireless last mile part. The wireless part is almost exclusively based on tree topologies. However, a lot could be gained by deploying mesh-based backhauls. Meshes allow better network capacity exploitation due to load balancing and offer inherent resilience to link degradations or failures. Yet meshes come with increased complexity in terms of radio configuration, routing, or mobility management. This chapter proposes architecture and mechanisms for carrier-grade mesh-based wireless backhauls. One special focus is that it supports heterogeneous backhauls, which encompass multiple different wireless technologies. The proposition has been successfully deployed in a test network.