Supply and demand, a dynamic topology control method for mesh networks

This work describes a distributed and flexible mechanism to perform network admission control and topology management for wireless mesh networks. The proposed method uses the concept of supply and demand to dynamically organize the wireless network. Mesh networks deployment and topology control is an interesting problem since the needs of two sites, even though using the same kind of equipment and protocol stack, may vary significantly. A network structure that suits perfectly to one site may be unacceptable to other. Typical examples of this are Safety Networks (PSNs). The number of nodes, movement pattern, traffic requirements and interconnections vary significantly from one site to another, even though the equipments, protocols and attending people are basically the same. Having one set of algorithms and protocols for each situation is not an option, giving its cost and deployment complexity. The technique, described here, successfully manages to maintain the desired topology and handle the different requirements, relying only upon a cost function to dynamically control the topology.