Routing Protocols in Wireless Mesh Networks

Pham Van Thanh-s1180246

Abstract: Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have emerged as one of the key technologies in wireless networking
in the future with ZigBee and Wifi IEEE 802.11s standard. As any of communication networks, the routing protocol in WMNs is required for transferring information within the mesh network. This report will provide an overview of routing protocols in WMNs.

1.

Overview of WMNs

WMN is a communication network created through the connection of wireless access points installed at each users locale. A WMN is dynamically self-organized and self-configured, with the nodes in the network automatically establishing and maintaining mesh connectivity among themselves. WMNs consist of two types of nodes: mesh routers and mesh clients. Mesh router contains additional routing functions to support mesh networking. To further improve the flexibility of mesh network, a mesh router is usually equipped with multiple wireless interfaces built on either the same or different wireless access technologies. Mesh clients also have the necessary functions for mesh networking, so can also work as a router. Mesh router have more variety of devices than mesh router. They can be PC, PDA, Wi-Fi IP phone For any of communication networks, routing protocol is required. The Wireless Mesh Networks routing protocols can be divided into three types: proactive routing, reactive routing and hybrid routing protocols. In proactive protocols, the routing paths from source node to all destination nodes are established before any traffic flow is initiated between them regardless of whether or not the routes are needed to transfer data. To implements this, proactive protocols maintain a table for each node representing the entire of network topology. Hence, the main advantage of proactive protocols is that node can quickly obtain route information and quickly establish path. However, because of maintain a table and must be regularly update information about routing, proactive protocols are deployed with high overhead. Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV), Cluster Head Gateway Switch Routing (CHGSR) and Scalable Routing using HEAT protocol are some proactive routing protocols. In reactive routing protocols, the routing paths are established for two nodes only after traffic is generated between these two nodes. In other word, routes are established on demand. Reactive routing protocols find the route by flooding network with route request. So, this leads to higher latency in discovered path, but it minimizes traffic overhead. The finding path procedure terminates when a route has been found or no route available. Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), Link Quality Source Routing Algorithm (LQSR), Adhoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV) are some reactive routing protocols. Hybrid routing protocols are mixing of two types protocols above: proactive and reactive routing protocols. This protocols use a proactive approach for node within the vicinity of the source. But for the nodes beyond the vicinity area, the protocols like a reactive routing protocol. Zone Based Routing Protocol (ZBR) is one of the hybrid routing protocols. This report is going to explain about some characteristics of Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector Routing protocol- a proactive protocol in WMNs.

2. Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector Routing Protocol (DSDV)

2-1. Distance Vector Routing
Firstly, we will talk a little about Distance Vector and Distance Vector Routing in computer network. Distance Vector (DV) means that routers are advertised as vector of distance and direction. Direction is the next hop address and distance is the hop count, from source to destination. Distance Vector Routing protocols (DVR) use two method for finding path: 1. 2. Direction in which routers should be forwarded Distance from source to destination.

In DVR protocols, the least cost route between any two nodes is the minimum distance. In this protocol, each node maintains a table of direction and minimum distance to every available node in network. The cost from source to destination is calculates by using various routing metrics such as hop count or node delay metric.

2-2. Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector Routing Protocol (DSDV)

As the name suggests, Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector Routing Protocol (DSDV) is a type of Distance Vector Routing. In DSDV, each node of WMNs maintain a routing table, which contains all possible destinations, the metric (DSDV protocol uses Hop-Count routing metric to calculate the cost from source to destination) and next hop to each destinations as in DVR. In addition, DSDV adds a new attribute, sequence number which generated by the destination node. The sequence number is an even number to indicate that link is present; else an odd number is used. With the sequence number, the WMNs node can distinguish stale route information from the new one and thus avoid routing loop.

1 3 2

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Figure 1. Example of Wireless Mesh Network Destination Net Hop Metric 1 1 0 2 3 2 3 3 1 4 4 1 5 5 1 6 5 2 7 4 2 Table 1. Routing table of node 1 Seq. No. S256_N1 S182_N2 S324_N3 S638_N4 S130_N5 S212_N6 S344_N7

Figure 1 shows an example of a WMN with 7 nodes. Table 1 is the routing table of node 1. 2-1. Packet Routing

Destination Next Hop 1 1 2 2 3 2 4 1 5 5 6 6 7 6 Table 2. Routing table of node 5 with Dest. and Next Hop field. We will take a simple example to understand how DSDV protocol sends a packet from one node to another node in WMNs. In which, we want to send the packet from node 1 to node 6. First, the node 1 checks its routing table (Table 1) and determines that the next hop for routing the packet is node 5. Then node 1 sends the packet to node 5. Node 5 looks up its routing table (Table 2) and find that the next hop for sending is node 6. And its also the destination. Node 5 forwards packet to node 6 and routing procedure is finished.

2-2. Routing update

Periodically or immediately when network topology changes are detected, each node in WMNs advertises routing information using broadcasting or multicasting a routing table update packet. In the routing information updating process, the original node tags each update packet with a sequence number to distinguish stale updates from the new one. The sequence number is a monotonically increasing number that uniquely identifies each update from a given node. If a node receives an update from another node, the sequenced number must be equal or greater than the sequence number of the corresponding node in the routing table, if not the received information in the update packet is stale and will be ignore. If the sequence number of one node in received information in the update packet is same with the corresponding sequence number in the routing table, the metric will be compared and the smallest metric will be used. Now, let take a simple example to understand this process. 1 3 2 5

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Figure2: Networks topology change Figure 2 shows the change of networks topology. In which, the link (4:7), (3:7) and (7:6) are broken. Node 7 creates a new link with node 1. Node 1 detected this change and sent update packet to its neighbor (Interim, we do not consider about update routing when link broken).

Dest. Next Hop Metric Seq. No. 1 1 1 S256_N1 2 2 1 S182_N2 3 2 2 S324_N3 4 1 2 S638_N4 5 5 0 S130_N5 6 6 1 S212_N6 7 6 2 S344_N7 Table3. Routing table of node 5after topology change Dest. Next Hop Metric 1 1 0 2 3 2 3 3 1 4 4 1 5 5 1 6 4 3 7 7 1 Table4. Advertised table of node 1 Seq. No. S256_N1 S182_N2 S324_N3 S638_N4 S130_N5 S212_N6 S356_N7

Here, we consider node 5. Node 5 receives the advertised table (update packet) of node 1 and updates its routing table as below: Dest. Next Hop Metric 1 1 1 2 2 1 3 2 2 4 1 2 5 5 0 6 6 1 7 1 2 Table5. Updated routing table of node 5 Seq. No. S256_N1 S182_N2 S324_N3 S638_N4 S148_N5 S212_N6 S356_N7

When node 5 receives the update packet, it checks the routing information in both the update packet and its routing table and then update the routing table. The entries with greater sequence number are input in newly routing table. According this example, the sequence number of node 7 in update packet is greater than the its sequence number in routing table , so the entry of node 7 is entered in updated routing table as table 5. Now, we will explore how DSDV protocol updates information when a new node is added into network as Figure 3 1 3 2 Figure 3. Node 8 is added into WMNs 5

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Dest. Next Hop Metric Seq. No. 1 5 2 S256_N1 2 2 1 S182_N2 3 2 2 S324_N3 4 1 2 S638_N4 5 5 0 S130_N5 6 6 1 S212_N6 7 6 2 S344_N7 Table 6. Routing table of node 6 before node is added into network. Dest. Next Hop Metric Seq. No. 1 3 2 S256_N1 2 3 2 S182_N2 3 3 1 S324_N3 4 4 1 S638_N4 5 6 2 S130_N5 6 6 1 S212_N6 7 7 0 S344_N7 Table 7. Routing table of node 7 before node 8 is added into network Table 6 and 7 are present routing table of node 6 and node 7 before node 8 is added into network. When node 8 is added, node 8 broadcast to its neighbor node for first time and its sequence number will be setting is S000_N8. The routing table of node 6 and 7 insert entry for node 8 with this sequence number. Then the sequence number of node 6 increases from S212_N6 to S214_N6 and from S344_N7 to S346_N7 with node 7. Dest. Next Hop Metric Seq. No. 1 5 2 S256_N1 2 2 1 S182_N2 3 2 2 S324_N3 4 1 2 S638_N4 5 5 0 S130_N5 6 6 1 S214_N6 7 6 2 S344_N7 8 8 1 S000_N8 Table 8. Routing table of node 6 after node 8 is added into network. Dest. Next Hop Metric Seq. No. 1 3 2 S256_N1 2 3 2 S182_N2 3 3 1 S324_N3 4 4 1 S638_N4 5 6 2 S130_N5 6 6 1 S212_N6 7 7 0 S346_N7 8 8 1 S000_N8 Table 9. Routing table of node 7 after node 8 is added into network. Node 8 gets routing information from node 6, node 7 and make its routing table as below

Dest. Next Hop Metric 1 7 3 2 6 2 3 7 2 4 7 2 5 6 2 6 6 1 7 7 1 8 8 0 Table 10. Routing table of node 8

Seq. No. S256_N1 S182_N2 S324_N3 S638_N4 S130_N5 S214_N6 S346_N7 S000_N8

Next, node 6 and 7 send their advertise table to each neighbor node to update information. According this example, node 6 sends it advertise table to node 7 as table 8 and node 7 will update its routing table Dest. Next Hop Metric Seq. No. 1 3 2 S256_N1 2 3 2 S182_N2 3 3 1 S324_N3 4 4 1 S638_N4 5 6 2 S130_N5 6 6 1 S214_N6 7 7 0 S346_N7 8 8 1 S000_N8 Table 11. Routing table of node 7 after updated Similarly, other nodes in WMNs will update their routing tables. We have discussed about routing update when a new node is added into network. Now, we will consider how DSDV protocol updates information when the link to one node broken. When the link to node broken, the metric is assigned infinity and the sequence number of this node is increased by 1. We assume that the link with node 7 and node 8 is broken. Node 7 detects the link to node 8 broken. Then they send their update packet to their neighbor. For simplicity, we consider node 7 send its update packet to node 4. Dest. Next Hop Metric 7 7 0 1 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 1 4 4 1 5 6 2 6 6 1 8 8 Table12. Update packet of node 7 Seq. No. S346_N7 S256_N1 S182_N2 S324_N3 S638_N4 S130_N5 S214_N6 S001_N8

Dest. Next hop Metric 1 1 1 2 3 2 3 3 1 4 4 0 5 1 2 6 7 2 7 7 1 8 7 2 Table13. Routing table of node 4

Seq. No S256_N1 S182_N2 S324_N3 S638_N4 S130_N5 S214_N6 S346_N7 S000_N8

Dest. Next hop Metric Seq. No 1 1 1 S256_N1 2 3 2 S182_N2 3 3 1 S324_N3 4 4 0 S638_N4 5 1 2 S130_N5 6 7 2 S214_N6 7 7 1 S346_N7 8 7 S001_N8 Table14. Updated routing table of node 4

2-3.The Advantages of DSDV

DSDV is an efficient protocol to route discovery. DSDV maintains only the best path instead of maintaining multiple paths to every destination. Thus, the amount of space in routing table is reduced. Whenever a path to new destination wants to establish, it already exists at the sources routing table. So, latency for route is very low. DSDV also guarantee loop-free routes.

2-4.The Disadvantages of DSDV

Because of regular updates its routing table, DSDV use much battery power and a small amount of bandwidth even when network is idle. In addition, its difficult to maintain the routing table for large network. Every node in network should maintain routing table, so in the large network this would lead to overhead. Moreover, whenever the topology of network change, a new sequence number is required, thus DSDV is not suitable for highly dynamic network.

2-5. Evaluation of DSDV

Complexity In DSDV, the time complexity is O(d), in which d is network diameter (network diameter is the greatest distance between any two node in network) and the communication complexity is O(N), in which N is number of nodes in the network.

Performance

DSDV requires each node maintain its two tables. The mainly complexity in DSDV is generate and maintain these tables. The update packets are transmitted to neighbors periodically or immediately. If the mobility of nodes is high and the bulk of node in network, the size of bandwidth and the routing tables required to update these tables also increase. Thus, the overhead for maintaining and updating these tables will increase correspondingly. It will degrade the performance of the network.
Stability and scalability DSDV guarantees loop-free routes in routing packets. Its uses incremental and full dump for updates. The incremental update is used so the entire routing table needs not to be transmitted for every change in the network topology. However, DSDV requires the full dump update periodically, regardless of the number of changes in the network. In this aspect, DSDV is not efficient in route updating. It also limits the number of nodes that can join in the network. Moreover, whenever the topology of a network changes, DSDV is unstable until update packets propagate throughout network.