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Mesh networking has been hyped as the next big thing in wireless, but the current IEEE 802.11 standard does not define it. That hasn't stopped vendors from trotting out proprietary mesh gear to meet market demand, and the IEEE 802.11s Working Group was formed to address that. A draft standard is reportedly now feature complete.
Why the interest in mesh? There are four major benefits:
* Range extension is one of the primary arguments for mesh networks. In situations where wired access-point connectivity is too expensive to implement or impractical due to environmental conditions, the ability to deploy a node that can receive and forward traffic can make wireless mesh the only solution. Because wired infrastructure is not required, mesh can be set up faster, cheaper and with less expertise.* Mesh nodes can be deployed anywhere there is power, with the resulting network architecture providing better coverage. Nodes can be put in with no regard to the wired backbone. The only limitation is power and radio propagation. Due to the properties of radio-frequency propagation, higher capacity is an added benefit. The closer the radio links between nodes, the higher the modulation rate. The higher the modulation rate, the higher the effective network throughput.
Without mesh this can only be achieved with expensive and complicated antenna technology. In the mesh network, any standard off-the-shelf client is able to achieve the highest possible throughput.* A wireless mesh inherently...