Experimental evaluation of two open source solutions for wireless mesh routing at layer two

The paper reports the outcome of an experimental evaluation of two open source solutions for realising a Wireless Mesh Network (WMN). Both works at layer two of the ISO/OSI stack and are transparent to the IP layer, i.e. they allow keeping the existing TCP/IP stack unchanged and avoid dealing with the complex IP configuration and management tasks. The first solution is the upcoming IEEE 802.11s standard, as implemented by the open 80211s project, and the other is the B.A.T.M.A.N. routing protocol, in its layer-2 version. We compared them in a small experimental testbed, with main focus on their behaviour in typical mesh situations. We found that both have strengths and shortcomings, but none can be claimed to be completely mature.