Experiences from the design, deployment, and usage of the UCSB MeshNet testbed

Author

Lundgren, Henrik ; Ramachandran, Krishna ; Belding-Royer, Elizabeth ; Almeroth, Kevin ; Benny, Michael ; Hewatt, Andrew ; Touma, Alexander ; Jardosh, Amit

Author_Institution

California Univ., Santa Barbara, CA

Volume

13

Issue

2

fYear

2006

fDate

4/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

18

Lastpage

29

Abstract

In this article we report on our effort and experience in designing, deploying, and using our 30-node wireless mesh testbed, the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) MeshNet. Compared to simulation, the construction and utilization of a wireless mesh testbed poses many new challenges. We discuss the challenges with distributed testbed management, nonintrusive and distributed monitoring, and node status visualization. These are vital components in a sustainable wireless mesh testbed, but at the same time nontrivial to design and. realize. As a case study, we present the UCSB MeshNet architecture, including its management, monitoring, and visualization systems. We share our lessons learned from this effort and believe that they are valuable to other researchers who develop experimental wireless mesh networks

Keywords

telecommunication network management; wireless LAN; Santa Barbara; UCSB MeshNet testbed; University of California; distributed monitoring; distributed testbed management; node status visualization; nonintrusive monitoring; Computer architecture; Hardware; Linux; Mesh networks; Personal communication networks; Remote monitoring; Routing protocols; Software design; Software testing; Visualization;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Wireless Communications, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1536-1284

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MWC.2006.1632477

Filename

1632477