Alliance pitches mesh WLAN standard to IEEE

By Jeff Berman, News Editor -- 7/19/2005

The Wi-Mesh Alliance presented a proposal for a global mesh WLAN (wireless LAN) standard today to the IEEE 802.11 Task Group S (TGs) at a meeting in San Francisco.

The Alliance's proposed standard will provide seamless WLAN coverage for users in large indoor and outdoor areas regardless of what type of equipment is utilized, according to the organization.

The IEEE 802.11 TGs is developing 802.11s, a standard that promises a scalable, fault-tolerant, and easily deployable mesh-network infrastructure based on 802.11 technologies. The group's objectives include adaptive, auto-configuring systems that support broadcast, multicast, and unicast transport over multihop mesh topologies. The group is working toward a draft standard in late 2006 or early 2007, and a ratified standard in 2008, said Bilel Jamoussi, director of strategic standards for Nortel Networks and a participant in the Wi-Mesh Alliance, in an e-mail.

Though the Wi-Mesh Alliance's proposal is just one of several, the group argues that it achieves the objectives of 802.11s while fitting in elegantly with other 802.11 developments. "[This] proposal builds on the existing and work-in-progress 802.11 protocols to maximize technology reuse and compatibility," Jamoussi said. "Its design intent is to be extensible with the future 802.11n High Throughput amendment. This approach ensures support for the existing worldwide Wi-Fi network installed base, while extending the Wi-Fi network deployments within the designated RF spectrum."

Key aspects of the Wi-Mesh Alliance proposal include an adaptive, auto-configuring system architecture, scalable wireless mesh points, autodiscovery and neighbor association, security with mutual authentication, extensible QOS (quality of service) routing, and radio-resource management, Jamoussi noted.

If the proposal gets signoff, Jamoussi said, the next step is a "down-select" process involving the various mesh proposals being discussed in San Francisco today.

"The wireless mesh standard will be a far-reaching and broad standard within IEEE," Jamoussi said. "The Wi-Mesh proposal will need to be evaluated with and against other proposals. Much detailed technical discussion will take place as the task group works through the standards setting process."

Wi-Mesh Alliance member companies include Nortel Networks, Thomson, InterDigital Communications, NextHop Technologies, and Philips, among others.

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