Routing internal traffic in multiple gateway Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are primarily viewed as access networks, with traffic flowing in and out of the mesh via gateways. However, in many scenarios, point-to-point (P2P) traffic within the WMN is also important, with the approach used to handle this traffic affecting the performance of not only the P2P flows, but all other traffic as well. This work studies the handling of P2P traffic in the presence of multiple gateways and gateway-centric traffic. Through extensive simulations, the relationships between the two traffic types are studied. The need to route P2P traffic appropriately is illustrated, motivating the creation of the Peer-to-Peer Aware Wireless Mesh Protocol (PAWMP), an extension of existing mesh routing, that determines the strategy to be used.