WiFIX+: A multicast solution for 802.11-based Wireless Mesh Networks

IEEE 802.11 is currently one of the main wireless technologies enabling ubiquitous Internet access. With the growing demand for wireless Internet access and the limited 802.11 radio range, 802.11-based Wireless Mesh Networks have been proposed as a flexible and cost-effective solution to extend the radio coverage of existing network infrastructures. Many solutions have been proposed to create Wireless Mesh Networks automatically. However, they are either too complex or deal with multicast traffic inefficiently using pure flooding. We propose a simple and efficient solution, called WiFIX+, to forward multicast traffic over 802.11-based Wireless Mesh Networks. It is based on WiFIX, an existing solution targeted at unicast traffic and extends it with new mechanisms. WiFIX+ was implemented and evaluated in a laboratorial test-bed. The experimental results obtained show that it outperforms IEEE 802.11s, the reference solution for 802.11-based Wireless Mesh Networks, as far as data throughput, delay, and packet loss are concerned.