An Overview of Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol in Wireless Networking

Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol is a type of wireless networking technology that combines the benefits of both wireless mesh and wireless local area network (WLAN) protocols.

It's designed to provide a more efficient and reliable connection, especially in areas with dense obstacles or high user traffic.

This technology works by using a combination of mesh routers and access points to create a network of interconnected nodes that can communicate with each other and with devices on the network.

Mesh routers are typically placed in a central location to provide coverage to a wide area, while access points are used to extend the network to remote areas or to provide additional coverage in high-traffic areas.

Related reading: Tmobile Us Coverage Map

The Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol has three main components that work together to manage peer links and ensure efficient communication within the network.

The first component is the Peer Management Protocol, which is responsible for keeping track of active peer links on interfaces and notifying the routing protocol about link failures.

The Peer Management Protocol consists of three main parts: the protocol itself, the MAC plug-in, and the peer link.

Here are the three main parts of the Peer Management Protocol:

The peer link keeps a finite state machine of each peer link, a beacon loss counter, and a counter of successive transmission failures.

Additional reading: Link Bluetooth Headset to Pc

Peer management is a crucial aspect of IEEE 802.11s WLAN mesh networks. It's a protocol that helps manage peer links, which are essential for maintaining connectivity within the network.

The peer management protocol consists of three main parts: the protocol itself, the MAC plug-in, and the peer link. These components work together to keep track of active peer links, handle state changes, and notify the routing protocol about link failures.

The protocol itself, ns3::dot11s::PeerManagementProtocol, is responsible for keeping all active peer links on interfaces. It also handles all changes of their states and notifies the routing protocol about link failures.

See what others are reading: Tp Link Wifi Receiver for Pc

The MAC plug-in, ns3::dot11s::PeerManagementProtocolMac, drops frames if there is no peer link. It also peeks all needed information from management frames and information elements from beacons.

The peer link, ns3::dot11s::PeerLink, keeps a finite state machine of each peer link. It also keeps a beacon loss counter and a counter of successive transmission failures.

There are two ways to close a peer link: beacon loss and transmission failure. Beacon loss occurs when a predefined number of beacons are lost, while transmission failure happens when a predefined number of successive packets fail to transmit.

Here are the three main components of the peer management protocol:

The peer management protocol is also responsible for beacon collision avoidance. It keeps beacon timing elements from all neighbors, which helps prevent collisions and ensures reliable communication.

Route discovery is a critical component of wireless mesh network protocols. It involves the process of finding the best path between a source and a destination node in the network.

The HWMP routing protocol uses a path discovery process that relies on cryptographic methods and authentication of NMFs and MFs of the frame. This is accomplished by adding message extension fields to the HWMP path selection frame elements such as PREQ, PREP, GANN, RANN, and PERR.

The mesh station receiving the frame will be able to identify if the frame is accompanied by an extension by observing the flags field of the corresponding type of element. For example, PREQ element format has a Flags field which is 8 bits long (B0:B7).

Table 1 lists the HWMP routing message extension fields proposed in this paper. PREQ, PREP, and RANN message extensions are the same as listed in the table. PERR message extension is the same as PREQ message extension except that PNM, Top Hash, and Hash fields are not required. GANN message extension is the same as PREQ message extension except that PNM is not required.

In the path reply phase, intermediate nodes are not broadcasting the frames where a one-hop group key is used to secure the frame. This is because the two communication nodes do not interact, which greatly reduces the requirement of computation time and storage of keys in a mesh station.

You might like: Interface Message Processor

Each node is assumed to have a unique ID and a unique secret that is not shared with any other node. Two nodes that wish to authenticate each other would use this secret to derive a mutual key to encrypt the communication.

Research has shown that using a non-interactive scheme can greatly reduce the requirement of computation time and storage of keys in a mesh station. This is a great advantage for resource-constrained environments such as the WMN.

A routing protocol for LoRa mesh networks was proposed by Dan Lundell et al. in 2018. The protocol uses a path discovery process that relies on cryptographic methods and authentication of NMFs and MFs of the frame.

The path discovery process involves the use of message extension fields to authenticate the NMFs and MFs of the frame. The mesh station receiving the frame will be able to identify if the frame is accompanied by an extension by observing the flags field of the corresponding type of element.

The following table lists the HWMP routing message extension fields proposed in this paper:

In the scenario where node B finds a broken link to node C, it will generate a PERR to its precursor mesh station, informing of the unreachability to node C through B. The PERR message extension field attached by node B to its PERR frame before sending it to node A includes the NMFs of the PERR element and reason code [16], which are signed using an offline-online signature scheme.

In a Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol, path establishment is a crucial step in ensuring reliable and efficient data transmission. The protocol uses a combination of routing metrics to determine the best path for data to travel through the network.

The path establishment process in a Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol involves calculating the cost of each possible path using a combination of metrics such as ETX, ETT, and ERX. ETX measures the packet loss rate, ETT measures the average transmission time, and ERX measures the expected transmission count.

A path with a lower cost is considered the best path for data transmission. The protocol continuously monitors the network and updates the path costs in real-time to ensure the best possible path is always chosen.

The Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol uses a routing algorithm to select the best path based on the calculated costs. This algorithm takes into account the current network conditions and adjusts the path accordingly.

In a dynamic network, the path establishment process must be able to adapt quickly to changes in the network topology and traffic patterns. The Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol is designed to handle such changes and ensure continuous data transmission.

Consider reading: Internet Routing Protocols

A typical wireless mesh network (WMN) architecture is used in the proposed Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol, consisting of mesh stations with mesh network capabilities and access point functionality, known as Mesh Access Points (MAPs). These MAPs allow mesh clients to connect to the Internet through them.

Mesh Portal (MP) acts as a gateway between the WMN and other 802.11 networks. Each station in the network is represented as a vertex of the graph, and the communication links between nodes are assumed to be bidirectional.

The WMN is modelled as an undirected labeled graph G(V, E), where V is the set of vertices and E is the set of edges (links) of the graph. An edge exists between two mesh stations if they are within the communication range of each other.

For your interest: Wireless Access Point

A typical wireless mesh network (WMN) architecture consists of mesh stations with mesh network capabilities, which are essentially routers. These mesh stations are equipped with access point functionality, known as Mesh Access Points (MAPs), allowing mesh clients to connect to the Internet through them.

Worth a look: Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points Protocol

Mesh stations are essentially vertices in the network graph, and communication links between them are considered bidirectional.

In the proposed scheme, the WMN is modeled as an undirected labeled graph G(V, E), where V is the set of vertices and E is the set of edges (links) of the graph.

An edge is considered to exist between two mesh stations if they are within the communication range of each other.

The Mesh Portal (MP) acts as a gateway between the WMN and other 802.11 networks.

A simulation environment is a crucial component of a network model, allowing researchers to test and validate their models in a controlled setting. The simulation environment can be a physical or virtual space, where the network model is implemented and executed.

The simulation environment can be customized to mimic real-world network scenarios, such as traffic flow or communication networks. This is achieved by incorporating realistic parameters and constraints into the simulation.

In the context of network modeling, the simulation environment can be used to study the behavior of complex systems, such as traffic congestion or network failures. By analyzing the output of the simulation, researchers can gain valuable insights into the underlying dynamics of the system.

The simulation environment can be designed to accommodate different types of network models, including static and dynamic models. Static models are used to analyze the behavior of networks under steady-state conditions, while dynamic models are used to study the behavior of networks over time.

The simulation environment can be used to test the performance of different network models, allowing researchers to compare and evaluate their effectiveness. This is particularly useful in the development of new network models, where the simulation environment can be used to identify areas for improvement.

Intriguing read: South African Wireless Community Networks

Wireless Network Routing Optimization is a crucial aspect of network modeling. Research has shown that optimizing wireless mesh network routing protocols can significantly improve network performance.

Akyildiz and Wang's research in 2005 demonstrated the importance of considering multiple criteria when optimizing wireless mesh network routing protocols. This approach can lead to more efficient network routing.

Perkins, Belding-Royer, and Das proposed a routing protocol in 2003 that is still widely used today. Their work focused on improving network routing in wireless mesh networks.

Here are some key findings from recent research on wireless mesh network routing optimization:

Perkins and Belding-Royer's work in 1999 focused on proposed routing for IEEE 802.11s WLAN mesh networks. Their research has contributed significantly to the development of wireless mesh network routing protocols.

Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP) is a robust routing protocol, but it's not immune to attacks. External attacks can be prevented by implementing security services such as Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) and 802.1x authentication protocols.

These services generate authenticated keys to authenticate frames, protecting the network from unauthorized access. Integrity of the contents of the frame can be protected by including a message integrity code, while confidentiality can be protected by encrypting the frames with algorithms such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

You might enjoy: Advanced Wireless Services

However, internal attacks are a more significant concern for HWMP. Malicious nodes can exploit the routing protocol to create a path diversion into a black hole or pretend as the root mesh station and spy on frames being sent by other mesh stations.

Link-to-link security is needed to address the security concern of MFs' modification through which a receiver can verify that the frame from the sender has not been modified by attackers. This is especially important for mutable fields of frames, which can be easily modified by malicious nodes.

The proposed security framework for HWMP protocol addresses the security concerns of both mutable and non-mutable fields of frames. NMFs of the HWMP frame remain constant from the source node to the destination node in a WMN, making them less vulnerable to attacks.

Explore further: Aawireless - Wireless Android Auto Dongle

The proposed scheme provides integrity assurance from the source node to the destination node to protect against NMF modification attacks, security features for PERR frames and robustness against internal attacks which are not provided by SHWMP.

In a densely populated 5 × 5 grid, the throughput of the proposed approach suffers only 29% decrease compared to the standard HWMP.

The proposed scheme sacrifices slight performance degradation when compared to SHWMP and the standard HWMP, but this degradation is worthwhile considering the seriousness of the security concerns of WMNs.

The worst case packet delivery ratio from the simulation results is approximately 48%, which is still a significant achievement given the security features incorporated into the proposed scheme.

In a 6 × 6 grid, the end-to-end delay suffers a worst case 30% decrease, demonstrating the efficiency of the proposed approach despite the security mechanisms involved.

The proposed version of HWMP protocol (SecHWMP) performs significantly well even with multiple security mechanisms involved, which are employed to protect both the mutable and non-mutable fields of the HWMP routing frames.

A fresh viewpoint: What Is Wifi 6

The Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP) has been evaluated for its security concerns, and a proposed security framework has been put forward.

The proposed approach integrates two security schemes: offline/online signature scheme and non-interactive key agreement scheme coupled with broadcast encryption scheme.

The offline/online signature scheme provides end-to-end authentication to non-mutable fields of HWMP.

Non-interactive key agreement scheme coupled with broadcast encryption scheme provides point-to-point security to mutable fields of HWMP.

Extra fields are embedded into the existing routing frames of HWMP to carry additional authentication information for nodes to verify before processing or forwarding the frames.

The performance of the proposed secure version of HWMP is evaluated through simulations in the ns-3 simulator.

The simulation results suggest that the proposed approach has reasonable performance degradation due to the additional security mechanisms employed.