Understanding Wireless Mesh Networks: Part 2

While wireless mesh might exemplify the epitome of configuration flexibility and fault-tolerance, one significant and glaring challenges is the lack of standards.

The success of WLAN's grew out of the 802.11 standard and the Wi-Fi Alliance. Wireless metropolitan area networks (MAN's) seem to be following the same path with 802.16 and its subsequent amendments. But no IEEE standard has yet formed for mesh networks.

One of the concerns when creating a mesh product is choosing the right meshing algorithm or protocol. Major factors to consider include the number of potential nodes, convergence time, link discovery and route selection, routing overhead, and the amount of mobility between the nodes.