Challenges and recent advances in QoS provisioning in wireless mesh networks

AbstractWireless mesh networks (WMNs) comprising of mobileand static nodes connected wirelessly are emerging as akey technology for future generation of wirelessnetworks. WMNs self-organize, self-configure and selfhealthemselves and can increase the coverage ofconventional infrastructure-based wireless LANs andMANs without significant additional infrastructuredeployments. Due to these unique features, WMNs arebeing used in many applications ranging from emergencyresponse situations to wireless metropolitan areanetworks. Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning inWMNs is of utmost importance in order to support realtimeaudio and video communications. However, QoSprovisioning in highly mobile wireless networks such asWMNs is a very challenging problem compared toprovisioning of QoS in wired IP networks. The mainreasons for this are unpredictable node mobility, wirelessmulti-hop communication, contention for wirelesschannel access, limited battery power and wireless rangeof mobile devices, as well as the absence of a centralcoordination authority in WMNs. This paper describesthe challenges and the state of the art in provisioning ofQoS over WMNs.6 Halama