Wireless Mesh Network 

Abstract—Wireless mesh networks(WMN) has become a key technology for next

generation wireless networking. ​Designing efficient WMNs has become a major task for
networks operators​. The benefits and usage of the 802.11s standard is limitless and ever
growing by leaps and bounds. Swarm Robotics is an emerging field where effective
communication can be brought about by exploiting the possibilities of mesh networking.
This report aims to discuss the wireless mesh networking framework and its
implementation on a 3-nodes network and a proposal on a swarm robotics model.

1. INTRODUCTION
In a wireless mesh network, the network connection is spread out among hundreds of wireless
mesh nodes that ”talk” to each other to share the network connection across a large area. Only
a fraction of nodes have direct access to the internet. That wired node shares the internet
connection wirelessly with the nearest cluster of nodes, which then shares it with the nearest
cluster of nodes and so on. Apparently all nodes are ​directly, and non-hierarchically connected to
each other. Mesh networking is the most efficient solution for the problem that only a limited number
(usually fewer than 32) of nodes can directly connect to the same router. With the official support for
mesh networking on ESP8266 released recently, the very popular NodeMCU can be used to
achieve mesh networking.

2. NETWORK ARCHITECTURE
802.11s wireless mesh networks consist of access points, stations and gateways. ​Mesh network
supports auto-networking which means that when the user sets up a mesh network, any node
can scan this access point and can connect easily. Most local area networks (LANs) today use
a star topology in which every network node is connected to a switch , but in mesh networks as
long as a node is connected to at least one other node in a mesh network, it will have full
connectivity to the entire network because each mesh node forwards packets to other nodes in
the network as required​.
3. TECHNICAL FEATURES
● FLEXIBILITY
As all access points are connected with each other by multiple paths due to which it
provides greater flexibility and the chances of disconnection from the network is minimal.
It not only provides the wireless availability but also selects the best possible redundant
path in case of failure.

● SELF - EVOLVING
In all mesh access points there is an algorithm embedded that detects the best path to
be taken for wired and wireless networks.

● SELF - HEALING
With this feature, if one wireless access AP went down the other redundant AP within its
surrounding suddenly detects the failure and again organizes the election process on the
base of its embedded protocol.

● WIRELESS BACKHAUL
The possibility of connecting several AP’s and providing multiple redundant connections
in which the multiple inter-link mesh AP’s topology is formed is called Back-haul. When
moving to the next working area, no sooner had the set-up location been chosen than
the network backhaul can be constructed quickly.
4. IMPLEMENTATION

4.1 A basic 3-nodes system

A 3-nodes wireless mesh network is implemented using Node MCU.In this project we are mainly
concerned with the collection of information regarding room temperature using a DHT 11
sensor. The DHT 11 sensor outputs the temperature as serial data .This information is shared
among two other nodes, one representing a heater and another for a cooler. If the temperature
is below 30 degrees Celsius, the relay on the heater is turned on, else the relay on the cooler is
switched on.(​https://github.com/johnjohnsonv/MESH-NETWORKING/tree/master/Sample_test​)
Keeping this code as a backbone several other scopes of Mesh Networking were exploited, like
all the switches were connected to one node, distributing relays, LEDs, motors and sensors
across other nodes and data in a wide variety of forms were exchanged successfully. In yet
another experiment we developed a system suitable for hospitals in which the nodes consist of
wearable sensors on patients, and monitoring systems at nursing stations. We also came up
with a lot of socially relevant applications like
● Extension of Internet Service to remote areas
● Intelligent Traffic Management System
● Smart Electric Meters
● In factories, where assembly lines need coordination and information-exchange between
several robotic systems, mesh networking can be utilised to ensure efficient production.

4.2 Application on Swarm Robotics

Our previous project dealt with a swarm robotics model used as a maze solver. We used a
client-server model of communication between the master and slaves, using HTTP GET
requests and appropriate response. One of the major issues faced was that all the slaves were
to be near the master to get the information and also exchange occurred quite slowly. Also the
HTTP model couldn’t transfer arrays which were really crucial for an easier and more efficient
implementation of our maze solving algorithm. But the whole idea of this server-client
communication could be very effectively replaced by mesh networking. Though a bit
complicated mesh networking puts forward a way to transfer arrays between nodes. Applying
the idea of swarm robotics in a large scale level definitely requires fast and uninterrupted
communication which is only possible with the help of mesh networking, be it the case of a vast
range of operation or even a failure of one of the nodes.