Applications

• The ability to provide affordable residential broadband Internet access to stationary customers is perhaps the most popular application of Wireless Mesh Networks. The advantage of WMNs (over existing technologies, e.g., cable, DSL, WMAN) in this application are:
  • Reduced upfront investments,
  • Fast deployment,
  • Customer coverage, and
  • Reliability.
  The main customers of those companies are Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) that can provide relatively inexpensive last mile coverage, one neighborhood at a time.
• A second major application for WMNs is providing Wireless Local Area Network coverage (WLAN). An important drawback in WLAN deployments is the need to wire separately each access point (AP). WMNs eliminate this drawback by allowing access points to forward their data through other access points; in this case only one (or a few) access points have to be connected to the wired infrastructure, the rest just have to be plugged in a power outlet. The main drawback of the scheme is a reduced network capacity. Common methods of increasing the capacity include using directional antennas, multi-radio, multi-channel, multi-band wireless nodes.
• MeshNetworks has designed its products to optimize the Internet access for highly mobile units roaming in the coverage area of the WMN. Its main customers are governmental agencies (e.g., the police and/or the fire departments) in relatively small towns.
• Belair Networks aims to provide WLAN coverage of medium to large buildings with a few mesh nodes placed around the exterior of the building (interconnected using point-to-point wireless links).
• Firetide specializes in providing unobtrusive connectivity. Their products form a WMN cloud that can be seen from outside as an Ethernet switch: each WMN node has one (or several) Ethernet interface(s) allowing seamless connectivity of external devices (servers, printers, PCs, 802.11 access points, or an Internet-connected router).