On indoor multi-hopping capacity of wireless ad-hoc mesh networks

The capacity and multi-hopping performance of ad hoc mesh networks in dynamic environment still remains an open research issue. Previous theoretical studies suggest that they do not scale in densely distributed networks. However, a study has shown that scalability and hence the multihopping capacity of mesh network is not only bound by the number of nodes in the network but also the number of hops [3]. In this paper we investigate the performance of multihop ad hoc mesh networks, using both simulation studies and an experimental test-bed, and monitor the performance of the network as the number of hops in the network increases. Our results show that the drop in performance in multi-hopping is much more significant when the traffic levels are high. Furthermore our test-bed study shows that ad hoc mesh networks can maintain high levels of packet delivery and throughput when traffic levels are low, however, the delay experienced continues to increase after each hop.