Hybrid Wireless Mesh Network for Universal Access: Opportunities and Challenges

Broadband wireless networks are rapidly expanding over the world. Although wireless technologies like Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) provide broadband connectivity, they have been optimized for different usage models: WiMAX for high-speed metropolitan area network (MAN) connectivity and Wi-Fi for high-speed local area network (LAN) connectivity. Both uses Internet Protocol (IP) based technologies to provide connection services to the Internet. By combining WiMAX and Wi-Fi access technologies in a mesh mode, service providers can offer better usability of the networks infrastructure to provide universal access in a cost effective manner. In this paper, we give an overview of a system model of Hybrid Wireless Mesh Network (HWMN) that can be formed by integrating WiMAX mesh and Wi-Fi mesh. HWMN can be used to provide Universal Access to sparsely populated areas. This paper proposes the different possible deployment scenarios and discusses about some applications of HWMN. It also outlines some of the research issues that are to be investigated in HWMN.