Optimizing 802.11 Mesh Networks
Speaker: Dr. Theodoros Salonidis
Faculty Host: Professor Shivendra Panwar
Abstract
802.11 wireless mesh networks are currently deployed worldwide but suffer from severe performance degradations due to the poor synergy of the 802.11 CSMA MAC protocol with the higher layers. Several solutions have been proposed but they either involve significant modifications to the 802.11 MAC or to legacy protocols at higher layers.
In this talk I will present a framework for optimization of real-world 802.11 wireless mesh networks using rate control at the network layer. The framework can be implemented with standard, widely available traffic shapers and is based on a light-weight model that characterizes the capacity region of an operational 802.11 wireless mesh network. Unlike existing 802.11 modeling approaches, the parameters of this model can be measured and estimated with minimal overhead during network operation, using standard probing mechanisms at the network layer. The model validation and the performance evaluation of the resulting rate control optimization framework are shown on a 802.11 mesh network testbed for a wide range of topologies and traffic patterns.
About the Speaker
Theodoros Salonidis is a research staff member at Technicolor Research and Innovation in Paris, France. He has been a research staff member at Intel Research Cambridge, UK (2006) and a Post-doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University (2004-2006). He received the Diploma in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the Technical University of Crete, Greece in 1997 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1999 and 2004, respectively. During one year (1999-2000) he worked at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, New York.
His current research interests include high performance protocol design, distributed resource allocation mechanisms and performance analysis and optimization of wireless networks. For more: http://www.thlab.net/index.php