RODEO: Robust and rapidly deployable TDM mesh with QoS differentiation

We present RODEO, a RObust and rapidly DEplOyable wireless mesh network designed for applications such as disaster management. Natural disasters often destroy existing communication infrastructure, thus forcing rescue teams to deploy their own networks for communication. Such networks must be rapidly deployable, capable of recovering from node failure, have a large coverage area, and at the same time meet the stringent QoS requirements of voice, video and data. RODEO employs TDM scheduling for efficient and predictable use of resources. By employing multiple frequency channels in different clusters, it simplifies synchronization and scheduling, and also trivially allows simultaneous concurrent transmissions in the network. With the help of a fast network entry protocol, it self-configures quickly and also recovers from node failure. In addition, RODEO provides differentiated QoS for various applications. We validate RODEO through experiments conducted on a 4-node prototype built on the Wireless Open Access Research Platform (WARP) platform and present results for throughput, jitter, QoS differentiation, and failure recovery.