A Survey on Routing Protocols that really Exploit Wireless Mesh Network Features

Abstract — The design of a routing protocol that really exploits the specific features of a Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) still remains a challenge. The expected additional benefit, with respect to those that do not or cannot exploit them, is an increase in overall throughput supported by the network. The static and non-power constrained nature of backbone nodes allow offering some exploitable features towards this goal, such as multi-radio and multi-channel support, stability, and increased CPU and storage capabilities. Such features have a strong impact on the design of the routing scheme, which makes inefficient to port existing solutions from wired and other wireless networks. As a consequence, in recent years, many alternative routing protocols have been proposed for WMNs. This survey paper presents the current state-of-the-art of routing protocols specifically designed for WMNs that try to maximize the throughput transferred by the network. First, a classification of routing protocols is provided. Second, the routing architecture is decomposed into three major building blocks. Open research issues related to each building block are also discussed. And finally, the main characteristics of the building blocks for each relevant routing protocol in the taxonomy are summarized. Index Terms—routing, wireless mesh network, multi-radio, multi-channel, multi-rate, opportunistic routing, overview, network coding I