Context-based connectivity and characterization of Wireless Mesh Networks: Simulation study

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are promising networks to enable personalized access over wireless environments. On the other hand, network virtualization brings well-known advantages, such as, flexible, programmable, and isolated management of network resources. Therefore, we propose a multi-virtual architecture for WMNs to deal with the huge heterogeneity of context requirements of mesh clients, e.g., cost or security preferences, mobility patterns, and applications' Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements. In this approach, a WMN is split into a different number of Virtual Networks (VNs), each one specific to a set of context features. Among several challenges raised by this context-aware approach, this paper focus on the mapping of different requirements of users into appropriate VNs' topologies and assigned resources. Moreover, it defines local and global control mechanisms to discover, extend, and update the VNs that best fit users' and services' requirements. The specified mechanisms are the base support for a distributed and scalable control of the architecture. The simulation results show the potential of network virtualization to enable the context-based characterization of WMN communications. Moreover, the proposed control mechanisms present acceptable delays, even in the presence of mobility of mesh clients.