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The Wireless Paradigm
for Mobile Ad Hoc
and Mesh Networking
John A. Stine
November 16,
2005
Abstract
Most challenges in
wireless ad hoc networking can be traced to solutions based on mapping
wireless networks to a wireline paradigm of nodes and links. We contend
that this paradigm is not appropriate since links are not physical entities
but merely states of wireless networks. We propose that the alternative
paradigm should match the physics of the network and manage electromagnetic
spectrum in space. This presentation will provide an overview of protocol
approaches for access and routing that seek solutions within this paradigm.
Access is arbitrated using synchronous signaling and topology is resolved
through the dissemination of node states. These protocol approaches provide
an intuitive framework which enables many benefits. We will discuss its
contributions to solving the challenging problems of quality of service,
channelization, CDMA use, energy conservation, smart antenna/MIMO use,
multicasting, and spectrum management. However, this functionality is
all implemented below the Internet Protocol. A goal of this presentation
is to make the case that there is a pressing need to change the current
standardization approaches that isolate the link and physical layer from
the routing protocols through IP to combining the three in the wireless
devices and then creating new IP routing protocols that communicate with
the device to learn topology rather than trying to discover it. This approach
is especially ideal for mesh networking.
PDF
presentation of talk
Speaker Bio
John received a BS
in General Engineering from the United States Military Academy in 1981,
and MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the University of
Texas at Austin in 1990 and 2001 respectively. He served 20 years in the
U.S. Army which included an assignment as an assistant professor of electrical
engineering at West Point and as the coordinating analyst in the Armys
Task Force XXI experiment which was the Armys first attempt to wirelessly
network a brigade sized organization. He has been with The MITRE Corporation
for four years and has spent most of that time doing research in mobile
ad hoc networking. He has been funded by MITRE to continue this research
for the next two years. John has authored several papers and has patents
pending covering his ad hoc networking protocol work.
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