Virtualization of 802.11 interfaces for Wireless Mesh Networks

Equipping wireless devices with multiple radio interfaces enables multi-channel communication that has attracted recent interest due to its significant benefits in terms of exploiting the available radios to increase the throughput and the creation of WLAN-based Mesh Networks. The usage of multiple network interface cards (NICs) demands higher cost, large physical space and more energy consumption. Instead of that, virtualization of NICs is a promising approach that gives a wireless device equipped with a single card the ability to connect to more than one network simultaneously. In this paper, we present two methods for NIC virtualization. With the increasing need for energy-efficient networking and for supporting a continuous delivery of real-time multimedia services (e.g. VoIP, video streaming) despite mobility in order to avoid packet loss and delay resulting from handovers, enhancements and mechanisms are needed. In this paper, we have conducted some simulations to show how virtualization of 802.11 NICs enables energy-efficient Wireless Mesh Networks and soft handover.