Multihop MAC: IEEE 802.11s Wireless Mesh Networks

This chapter presents IEEE 802.11s, an emerging standard for wireless mesh networks (WMNs). IEEE 802.11s proposes multihop forwarding at the MAC level, which is a new approach for building WMNs. Traditional solutions for WMNs use network-level routing protocols to allow multihop forwarding among wireless mesh nodes. IEEE 802.11s species multihop MAC functions for mesh nodes using a mandatory path selection mechanism named HWMP (Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol) and also provides a path selection framework for alternative mechanisms and future extensions. This chapter discusses the emerging standard details and compares this new solution for WMNs to traditional ones.