Suporte \`a Mobilidade em Redes Mesh Sem Fio: estrat\'egias comuns versus SDN

TL;DR

This paper compares traditional routing protocols with SDN-based approaches in wireless mesh networks, demonstrating that SDN offers better performance, flexibility, and adaptability for supporting node mobility.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified SDN-based mobility support implementation in OpenWiMesh and evaluates its performance against classic protocols under various mobility and traffic models.

Findings

SDN approach outperforms traditional protocols in packet loss and delay

SDN provides greater flexibility and programmability in mesh networks

Simulation results confirm SDN's advantages in mobility scenarios

Abstract

Wireless mesh networks have been presented as a robust, scalable and low cost solution to provide connectivity in long distance areas. However, given its nature, routing strategies must support seamless mobility of nodes while enabling operation with a good performance and fast self-recovery from links fault. The routing approaches that meet these requirements are based on protocols usually used in ad-hoc networks (e.g. OLSR and B.A.T.M.A.N.) and, more recently, in the SDN paradigm (e.g. OpenWiMesh), each one of them having its own pros and cons. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the benefits and impacts of each approach, taking into account models and metrics inherent to the mobility. In this paper, we propose a simplified implementation of mobility support in OpenWiMesh and evaluate its performance compared to other protocols, using differents mobility and data traffic models. The chosen metrics are based on packet loss, occupation of the links with control traffic and delay. Simulated results show that the SDN approach perform better than the classic protocols, beyond flexibility and programmability of SDN itself.