Context-based connectivity and characterization of Wireless Mesh Networks: Simulation study

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are promising networks to enable personalized access over wireless environments. On the other hand, network virtualization brings well-known advantages, such as, flexible, programmable, and isolated management of network resources. Therefore, we propose a multi-virtual architecture for WMNs to deal with the huge heterogeneity of context requirements of mesh clients, e.g., cost or security preferences, mobility patterns, and applications´ Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements. In this approach, a WMN is split into a different number of Virtual Networks (VNs), each one specific to a set of context features. Among several challenges raised by this context-aware approach, this paper focus on the mapping of different requirements of users into appropriate VNs´ topologies and assigned resources. Moreover, it defines local and global control mechanisms to discover, extend, and update the VNs that best fit users´ and services´ requirements. The specified mechanisms are the base support for a distributed and scalable control of the architecture. The simulation results show the potential of network virtualization to enable the context-based characterization of WMN communications. Moreover, the proposed control mechanisms present acceptable delays, even in the presence of mobility of mesh clients.