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Wireless mesh networking: theories, protocols, and systems

ireless mesh networking has become an indispensable technique for next-generation wireless networks. It is a critical solution to deploying large-scale wireless networks without relying on preexisting infrastructure. It also enables quick and easy extension of local area networks into a wide area. Prior efforts on wireless networks, especially multi-hop ad-hoc networks, have led to significant research contributions that range from fundamental results on theoretical capacity bounds to various flavors of medium access control (MAC), routing, and transport layer protocols. However, the state-of-the-art work is still insufficient for deploying sizable wireless mesh networks. Important aspects such as network radio range, network capacity, scalability, manageability, and security remain open problems. We are pleased to report that our special issue covers a variety of topics related to wireless mesh networking, including testbed experience, new techniques for performance enhancement, security issues, and emerging mesh standards. We received about 48 articles, of which six have been selected for publication in this special issue. The first article by Faccin et al. gives an introduction to wireless local area network (WLAN)-based mesh networks by addressing both concepts and system design. Today, IEEE