Led by Nortel Networks, the
Wi-Mesh Alliance has created a multi-company
proposal for the 802.11 "Task Group S" (TGs) that is charged with developing a standardized implementation of mesh networking for Wireless Local Area Networks that are based on the IEEE 802.11 WLAN standard.
While Wireless Mesh Networking is one of the hottest trends in Broadband Wireless Internet Access... the mesh technologies implemented to date are widely disparate, proprietary, and thus non-interoperable. It makes complete sense to try to develop a standard for 802.11 mesh. (The IEEE standards numbering system allocates "suffixes" in order of proposal, thus "802.11m" was already spoken for; it's a maintenance update for 802.11.)
Some background on 802.11 Task Group S (from the Quick Guide To IEEE 802.11 WG & Activities):
Scope of Project
To develop an IEEE 802.11 Extended Service Set (ESS) Mesh* with an IEEE 802.11 Wireless Distribution System (WDS) using the IEEE 802.11 MAC/PHY layers that supports both broadcast/multicast and unicast delivery over self-configuring multi-hop topologies.
Purpose of Project
To provide a protocol for auto-configuring paths between APs over self-configuring multi-hop topologies in a WDS to support both broadcast/multicast and unicast traffic in an ESS Mesh using the four-address frame format or an extension.
Status Active
Current members of Wi-Mesh Alliance are:
Notably absent from such an "Alliance of diverse industry leaders" are a number of companies that are actively and successfully deploying WLAN Mesh, such as
Strix Systems,
SkyPilot Networks,
BelAir Networks and
Tropos Networks. But they may well be participating independently with 802.11s (a request for information on companies represented in 802.11s didn't receive a reply in time for this article.)
One reason is that there is another group working within 802.11s, as this excerpt from a PCWorld.com article IEEE Starts Weaving Mesh Network Standard explains: "Another major proposal is from a group called SEEMesh (Simple, Efficient and Extensible Mesh), which includes heavy hitters such as Intel, Texas Instruments, Nokia, Motorola, and mesh network vendor Firetide, as well as Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo." (I was unable to find any definitive information on SEEMesh other than an internetnews.com article See Mesh? SEEMesh Proposed; the most likely web page for SEEMesh is not yet populated with any information.)
Then again, neither of these groups include some groups and companies that have made 802.11-based Wireless Mesh Networking very real. Despite their expertise, it doesn't seem likely that they're represented in the 802.11s discussions at all:
Reference:
Nortel Networks
Press Release on Wi-Mesh Alliance
Wi-Fi Planet article - Nortel Pushes Mesh Standard Proposal on Wi-Mesh Alliance
DeWayne-Net makes a very salient point... no chipset vendors represented in Wi-Mesh Alliance! Oops!
Note: Research for this article reminded me that listings of Broadband Wireless Mesh vendors is woefully under-represented in the Vendors section of my Broadband Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX weblog (this weblog). I made a few updates concurrent with this article, and I will be making the listing of Mesh vendors much more complete in the next few days. A brief reminder - if you're viewing this article via RSS/ATOM, there's a lot of solid reference information on Broadband Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX weblog (along with ads that I've tried mightily to keep relevant to the subject of BWIA).
(Kudos to Ranchero Software's MarsEdit weblog editor. It nearly rocks in v1.0.)
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2005 by Steve Stroh.