UbiNeS

Ubiquitous Networked Systems Lab.

A Brief Overview on IEEE 802.11s


Young-Bae Ko, Ph.D., Associate Professor


Dept of Info & Computer Engineering, Ajou Univ. Korea
(Visiting Professor, CSL, UIUC)
2
Contents
Introduction and Backgrounds

Architectural and Usage Models in the 802.11s Draft

Framework of the 802.11s Mesh Network
Topology creation
MAC layer forwarding
MAC functionality enhancements
Potential Issues of the current 802.11s

References

3
Introduction & Backgrounds



4
Introduction (1/2)
Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless multi-hop infra networks, where a few nodes provide a
connection to the external world (e.g., Internet) through a cable

Alternative wireless access technology, which can replace the
traditional sets of IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs

Commercialized and managed ad hoc networks, which Introduce a
hierarchy in the network architecture with fixed, special routers and
mobile, general clients

5
Introduction (2/2)
Many vendors have developed their own WMN solutions
and put them on the market, because it is flexible and
more cost effective than the typical wired APs.
Motorola
Tropos
Belair
PacketHop

However, though most of them are based on the common
802.11 MAC, these products are not interoperable.
Need for defining a standard architecture for WMNs!
6
WMN Standardization Efforts in IEEE 802
IEEE has been playing a key role in the development of
wireless mesh standards [1].
IEEE 802.11s WLAN Mesh
IEEE 802.15.5 WPAN Mesh
IEEE 802.16a/d/j WMAN Mesh

Motivation of WLAN Mesh standards
Current 802.11 ad hoc mode is not sufficient for multi-hop mesh.

Recent efforts for the advance of 802.11 standards, such as 11e for
QoS support[2] or 11n for high data rates (>100 Mbps), are still
limited due to their inherent dependency upon the wired
infrastructure backbones and the last, single-hop wireless
communication.
7
WLAN (Layer 2) Mesh Networks
The 802.11 Task Group s (TGs)
Formed in May 2004 to design mesh networks consisting of
different WLAN devices performing routing at link layer (layer 2)
To be based on extensions to the current IEEE 802.11 architecture
and protocols:







Internet
STA
STA
STA
STA
STA
AP
AP
BSS
BSS
IBSS
ESS
DS
8
IEEE 802.11s: Meshed WLAN Networks

It will provide an IEEE 802.11 Wireless DS that supports
both broadcast/multicast and unicast delivery at the MAC
layer using radio-aware metrics over self-configuring
multihop topologies.

The objectives:
Increased range/coverage & flexibility in use
Possibility of increased throughput
Reliable performance
Seamless security
Power efficient operation
Multimedia transport between devices
Backward compatibility and interoperability for interworking
9
Current Status of IEEE 802.11s
802.11 TGs has defined the following:
Scale: up to 50 mesh nodes
Architectural model
Usage models: 4 usage scenarios
Functional requirements

Several standard drafts released since early 2006:
The initial proposal was released at 2006 March meeting [3].
Draft 1.0 (released in Nov. 2006) was failed to be approved in the
first trial of a letter ballot.
Draft 2.0 (May 2008) again failed in their 2
nd
letter ballot because
many issues still remain.
Draft 3.0 (March 2009) is the most recent one [4]!
The target releasing date of an official 802.11s standard is 2010.
10
Architectural & Usage Models in 802.11s



11
802.11s WLAN Mesh - Network Architecture
Mesh Portal: Acting as a gateway/bridge to external networks
Mesh STA (station): Relay frames in a router-like hop-by-hop fashion
Mesh AP (Access Point): Mesh relaying functions + AP service for clients
Mesh
STA
STA
STA STA
STA
External Internet
Mesh Portal
Mesh AP
Mesh
AP
Mesh
AP
Portal
Mesh
Mesh Links
Non-mesh STAs
12
Mesh Basic Service Set (MBSS)
Internal L2 behavior of WLAN Mesh is transparent to higher layers
An MBSS (Mesh Basic Service Set) appears as a single access domain.

13
Usage Models
Residential
Inside home or a residential building
High bandwidth application, such as multimedia content
distribution

Office
Small to medium sized enterprise buildings

Campus/Community/Public access
Out-door deployment environment
Seamless connectivity

Public Safety
Emergency sites

14
Functional Framework in 802.11s



15
Functional Requirements
The set of services provided by the WLAN Mesh that support the control,
management, and other operation, including the transport of MSDUs
between MPs within the WLAN Mesh.
PHYs
Mesh Topology
Learning, Routing &
Forwarding
Medium Access
Coordination
Discovery &
Association
802.11 service
integration
Mesh Configuration & Management
Mesh
Measurement
Mesh Security
Mesh Interworking with other 802 networks
LAN metaphor, 802.1 bridging support
802.11i link
security based
MAC
enhancements
Unmanaged,
autonomic
management
Legacy 802.11 a/b/g/n
Single-hop/multi-
hop neighbor
discovery,
Extensible path
selection &
forwarding
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Key Functionality of 802.11s Networks
Mesh Topology Creation
Self-configuring neighbor discovery , named as Mesh Peering
Channel selection

L2 Routing
MAC address based mesh path selection and forwarding
Radio-aware metrics for routing

MAC Enhancement
For supporting QoS, and increasing the network throughput
Power management, Multi-channel operation, and so on

Security
IEEE 802.11i as basis
17
Mesh Peering Mechanism
To discover peer Mesh STA devices and their properties:

MSTA performs passive scanning (via periodic beacons) or active
scanning (via probe messages)


The received beacon or probe response frame contains mesh related
information
Mesh ID: name of the mesh (SSID like string)
Mesh configuration element (including version and support functions)

A discovered MSTA will become a peer MSTA after peering
processes by 4-way handshaking.
2-way handshaking with peering-open-frame/peering-confirm-frame
exchange in each direction

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Channel Selection
Support for single & multiple channels/interfaces
Each logical interface on one RF channel, belongs to one Unified
Channel Graph (UCG)







MP specifies one of the two channel selection modes for
each interface:
Simple Unification mode enables the formation of a fully connected
UCG
Advanced mode not fully defined in the proposal (opened to the
venders)
Example Unified Channel
Graphs
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Mesh Path Selection and Forwarding
To select single/multi-hop path(s) and to forward data
frames across these paths between MPs at the link layer.

Extensible path selection framework
A WLAN Mesh may include multiple path selection metrics and
protocols for flexibility.

A mandatory protocol and metric for all implementations are
specified.
Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP)
Airtime link metric function
Only one protocol/metric will be active on a particular link at a time.

A particular mesh will have only one active protocol at a time.
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Airtime Link Metric Function
A default link metric to be used by a path selection protocol
to select the best paths.
Other metrics can also be used.

Its cost function is based on airtime cost (Ca), which reflects
the amount of channel resources consumed by transmitting
the frame over a particular link.


f
t
a
e r
B
O c

+ =
1
1
Parameter Description
O Channel access overhead including frame
headers, training sequences, access protocol
frames, etc (depending on PHY)
B
t
Test frame length in bits (Constant)
r Transmission data rate in Mb/s for the test
frame size Bt
e
f
Test frame error/loss rate for Bt
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Example


48Mb/s,
10% PER
54Mb/s,
8% PER
12Mb/s,
10% PER
54Mb/s,
2% PER
54Mb/s,
2% PER
48Mb/s,
10% PER
This path having the minimum airtime cost is the Best!
Unicast Cost Function based on Airtime Link Metrics
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Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP)
A default path selection protocol for interoperability.

To combine the flexibility of on-demand route discovery
with extensions to enable efficient proactive routing to
mesh portals.

On-demand mode
Used in intra-mesh routing for the route optimization
When a root portal is not configured or it can provide a better path
even if root is configured.

Proactive, Tree based mode
If a root portal is present, a distance vector routing tree is built.
Tree based routing avoids unnecessary discovery flooding during
discovery and recovery
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HWMP: On-demand Path Selection Mode
1. Source broadcasts PREQ (path request) with the destination and metric
initialized.

2. Upon receiving PREQ, MPs update the path to source if sequence number is
greater and offers a better metric

3. If a new path is created or the existing one is modified, PREQ is forwarded
further.

4. PREQ provides Target only (TO) and Reply and Forward (RF) flags.
If TO=1: Only destination sends PREP (path reply) after selecting best path.
If TO=0 and RF =0: Intermediate node with path sends a unicast PREP to
the source MP and does not forward PREQ
If TO=0 and RF =1: The first intermediate node with the path to the
destination sends a PREP and forwards PREQ setting TO =1 to avoid other
intermediate nodes to send back PREP.

5. When source receives the PREP, it creates a path to the destination.

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HWMP Proactive tree building mode
Proactive PREQ mechanism

Root MP periodically broadcast PREQ

To create paths between the root mesh and all mesh nodes in
the network proactively (2-way handshaking)

Proactive RANN mechanism

Root MP periodically broadcast RANN

Distribute path information for reaching the root mesh but the
actual paths to the root mesh can be built on-demand
(3-way handshaking)
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Example Proactive PREQ mechanism
1) The root MP periodically propagates a PREQ
into the network
- Destination Address set to all ones
- The TO flag set to 1 and the RF flag set to 1
2) Upon reception of a PREQ, each MP has to
create or refresh a path to the root MP
3) The recipient MPs action
- If Proactive PREP bit set to 0, MP may
send a proactive PREP if required.
- If Proactive PREP bit set to 1, MP
shall send a proactive PREP.
4) Tree path construction is completed
R
PREP
PREQ
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Example Proactive RANN mechanism
R
1) The root MP periodically propagates a RANN
into the network.
2) Upon reception of a RANN, each MP has to
create or refresh a path to the root through
sending a unicast PREQ to the root MP.
3) The root MP sends a PREP in response
to each PREQ.
4) Tree path construction is completed
PREP
PREQ
RANN
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The existing 802.11 MAC layer is being enhanced for

Supporting QoS:
EDCA(Enhanced Distributed Channel Access) specified in 802.11e, as
the 802.11s basic operation mechanism
Other features of 802.11e, like HCCA, are not considered.

Improving the network capacity:
The usage of multiple channels and multiple radios
Efficient handling of the two different kinds of traffic (BSS traffic &
Forwarding mesh traffic)
Intra-mesh congestion control
Mesh coordinated channel access (optional)
802.11s MAC Enhancements
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Handling BSS and mesh traffic by Mesh AP
Giving priority to mesh traffic may starve STAs
Giving priority to STAs might waste resource utilized by mesh traffic
Advanced solutions: separate radio for mesh and BSS traffic

Intra-mesh congestion control
A simple hop-by-hop congestion control implemented at each MP
Local congestion monitoring Congestion control signaling Local rate
control

Mesh Coordinated Channel Access (MCCA)
Optional scheme based on the reservation of contention free time slots
Lower contention (more deterministic) mechanism for improved QoS for
periodic flows

MAC Enhancements More Details
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Mobility is of little concern (do not support seamless handover).

No mechanism for multi-channel operation
One proposal called CCF (Common Channel Framework) was adopted in
the early version of the draft (before draft 1.0), but removed from the draft.

Limitations caused by the EDCA
Performance limitations in multi-hop environments
End-to-end QoS limitations

And many more
More reliable and stable metric for link quality measurement and routing?
Better solutions for power management?
More robust approaches than its current security solution inherited from
802.11i, in terms of routing security or end-to-end security?
IEEE 802.11s MAC Remaining Issues [5,6]
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References

[1] Emerging standards for wireless mesh technology, by M.-J. Lee, J. Zheng,
Y.-B. Ko, and D.M. Shrestha, IEEE Wireless Comm., Apr. 2006.

[2] Wireless LAN MAC and PHY specifications, Amendment 8: Medium Access
Control (MAC) Quality of service Enhancement, IEEE std 802.11e-2005.,
Nov. 2005.

[3] Joint SEE-Mesh/Wi-Mesh Proposal to IEEE 802.11 TGs, Feb. 2006.

[4] Draft Amendment to Standard for Information Technology -
Telecommunications and Information Exchange Between Systems -
LAN/MAN Specific Requirements - Part 11: Wireless Medium Access
Control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) specifications: Amendment: ESS
Mesh Networking, IEEE P802.11s/D3.0, March 2009

[5] IEEE 802.11s wireless mesh networks: Framework and challenges, by X.
Wang and A.O. Lim, Ad Hoc Networks, vol. 6, 2008.

[6] IEEE 802.11s: WLAN Mesh Standardization and High Performance
Extensions, by G.R. Hiertz, et. al., IEEE Network, May/June 2008.
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Thanks !

Q&A youngko@illinois.edu


http://uns.ajou.ac.kr