Evaluation of Wireless Mesh Network Implementation for Backup Network Access

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) could feasibly be used as an organization’s secondary backup network due to their properties such as dynamic self-organization, self-configuration, self-healing, decentralized management, and inexpensive implementation. This backup network could help allow an organization's business to continue in case of an extended main network outage. This paper involved the study and implementation of WMNs to evaluate the feasibility of a WMN as a backup network. A variety of devices were used in this research including Raspberry Pi 3 devices, network switches, and Wi-Fi adapters. The key devices were the Raspberry Pi’s which were used as mesh routers (MRs). Three Local Area Network (LAN) topographies were provided via the MRs using external Wi-Fi adapters. We tested the three topologies using an extension of the Optimized Link State Routing Protocol (OLSR). We measured three network performance parameters from the MRs and LAN clients to Mesh Router 3 (MR3), a gateway node. The measured parameters were throughput, delay/jitter, and a proportion of lost datagrams out of total datagrams sent. The parameter results were analyzed to evaluate the performance of the mesh networks. Several factors that may affect the measured parameters are discussed such as physical obstacles, wireless interference, inter-node distance, and multiple hops.