The impact of topology in robust routing on wireless mesh networks

Topology is an essential consideration in the performance of a Wireless Mesh Network, going hand-in-hand with routing. Existing works on routing typically assume topology is a known input which is given in advance and compute routes accordingly. However, in reality considerable freedom exists in node placement with the possibility of creating topologies of varying performances. As the joint topology and routing problem is largely an open issue for conventional wireless mesh networks, these choices may harbor a significant unrealized potential for improvements. In this paper, we explore the impact of node distribution on routing performance in a wireless mesh network by using a novel model to parameterize node placement in a topology. We then evaluate our model using a simulation study and discover a strong correlation between parameter choice and network performance.