Physical indoor wireless network testbeds as well as outdoor wireless testbeds have the potential to accelerate the pace of research in the field of wireless ad hoc and mesh networking. They form part of a critical chain of steps needed to develop and test ad hoc networking protocols from concept to eventual uptake by industry. Current research in this area makes use of simulations or mathematical models which oversimplify the physical and Medium Access Control layer. In Africa specifically, wireless mesh networking has the potential to make a substantial impact on the lack of telecommunications infrastructure across the continent. A combination of good theoretical analysis, indoor test facilities and rural testbeds forms a perfect suite to carry out meaningful research in the field. A 7x7 wireless grid of closely spaced computers was constructed, making use of highly attenuated 802.11 radios running in ad hoc mode. Modelling and analysis revealed that a suitably attenuated environment was created with variation in signal strength between node pairs following a Gaussian distribution. This emulates a real outdoor network with normal signal propagation issues such as multi-path fading and lack of Fresnel zone clearance. This testbed was then used to evaluate 3 popular MANET ad hoc routing protocols, namely AODV, DYMO and OLSR. OLSR was tested with the standard hysteresis routing metric as well as the ETX routing metric. OLSR showed the best performance in terms of average throughput and packet loss for a medium size (21 node) and large (49 node) mesh network, with the hysteresis routing metric performing best in large networks and ETX performing best in medium sized networks. DYMO also performed very well, considering its low routing overhead, exhibiting the least amount of delay in a large mesh network (49 nodes). The AODV protocol showed the weakest performance in the grid with close to 60% of possible link pairs achieving no route in a 49-node grid. However, it did present the least amount of routing overhead compared with other routing protocols. Finally, a medium-sized rural mesh network testbed consisting of 9 nodes was built in a mountainous area of about 15 square kilometers around an AIDS clinic using the OLSR routing protocol with ETX as the routing metric. The network provided a good service to the satellite-based Internet with throughput rates ranging between 300 kbps for 4 hops and 11000 kbps for 1 hop and an average throughput rate of 2324 kbps. To encourage fair sharing of Internet connectivity, features were installed to limit each user to 40 MB/month of free Internet traffic. A local web server offers cached pages of Wikipedia and Linux repositories to reduce the need for Internet access. VoIP services were also installed between clinic infrastructure to reduce the the need for making expensive GSM calls. It was shown that a mesh network of this size provides a very satisfactory level of broadband service for users accessing a satellite-based Internet facility as well as local VoIP services. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

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Wireless Mesh Networks provide an organisation or a community with the means to extend or create a network independent of infrastructure. However, the network’s dynamic topology along with the fact that devices in the network might be mobile and move randomly, brings tolight various kind of problems on the network, with the most common being the routing. In this report, the problem of routing is examined in terms of throughput, routing overhead, end-to-end delay and packet delivery ratio on two chosen algorithms, namely the Dynamic MANET On-demand (DYMO) and the Better Approach To Mobile Adhoc Networking (B.A.T.M.A.N.). Furthermore, this thesis examines also a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection and compares it against several TCP congestion control mechanisms, two of which, were implemented, namely TCP-Illinois and TCP-FIT, to address the effects that different TCP congestion mechanisms have on an ad-hoc network, when reliable connections are needed. The results show that DYMO is more stable, performs good overall and has the lowest routing overhead, however in a situation with limited mobility or no mobility (as in high mobility they perform poorly) proactive protocols like B.A.T.M.A.N. are worthy protocols, should the extra penalty of routing overhead in the network traffic is not causing any problems. Furthermore, regarding the TCP results, it was observed that TCP congestion algorithms designed specifically for Wireless networks, do offer better performance and should be considered, when designing an ad-hoc network.

Le plan d’attribution du spectre présente un problème de déficit de ressources dans les réseaux sans fil. En 2002, la FCC (Federal Communication Commission) a rapporté que le spectre radioélectrique était de 20% à 85% sous-utilisé. L’utilisation inefficace du spectre est un problème majeur qui doit être résolu si l’on veut que les communications radio se développent. La FCC a ensuite changé la politique de gestion du spectre pour la rendre plus souple en s’interessant à l’approche radio cognitive (CR). La radio cognitive est un type de radio intelligente qui explore l’environnement de fréquences radio, apprend et décide d’utiliser la partie inutilisée du spectre. Les principales fonctions de la CR sont la détection, la prise de décision, et le partage. Cependant, ces radios doivent respecter les infrastructures sans fil standards en minimisant leur impact sur les appareils prioritaires, également appelés systèmes primaires. La coexistence entre les systèmes CR et les systèmes primaires nécessite des processus d’observation et de gestion des interférences dédiés. Dans cette thèse, nous nous sommes intéressés à la phase d’observation du point de vue CR. La zone de chevauchement entre un émetteur CR et l’émetteur primaire (PR) est analysée et prise en compte. L’impact de cette zone est appris par simulation et présenté dans le chapitre 4. En conséquence, des interférences potentielles sont envisagées. Durant la phase d’observation, nous étudions un mécanisme permettant de mieux prévenir la perturbation sur les dispositifs PR en utilisant le Grey Model et le filtre de Kalman comme modèle de prédiction de la densité des récepteurs primaires. En complément à cette observation, nous fournissons une stratégie visant à combiner les observations obtenues en une mesure qui pourra être utilisée par le routage dans le cadre de la coexistence entre réseaux radio cognitive (CRN) et réseaux primaires. La stratégie proposée utilise la logique floue et est présentée dans le chapitre 5. Dans ce chapitre, nous étudions comment la couche réseau réagit et prend les bonnes décisions pour maximiser l’utilisation des ressources du spectre, tout en évitant les interférences avec les récepteurs primaires. Par exemple, un noeud CR peut fonctionner dans une zone de recouvrement, si les récepteurs primaires sont inactifs dans cette zone. Ainsi, nous avons proposé un mécanisme de routage basé sur le protocole de routage DYMO qui prend en compte l’impact relatif observé. Dans ce même chapitre, nous avons également présenté des scénarios pratiques illustrant l’utilité de notre proposition. L’interconnexion des noeuds CR dans le CRN est aussi un problème crucial pour la mise en place du réseau. C’est pourquoi nous présentons un processus de diffusion par balises au chapitre 6. Dans ce chapitre, nous décrivons également un dispositif pratique conçu pour des expériences en radio cognitive. Même si notre travail se rapporte à différentes couches de la pile protocolaire, le cadre général que nous avons conçu est multicouches. En effet, les composants accèdent aux différentes couches pour récupérer l’information, la traiter et réagir en conséquence. Ainsi, notre travail constitue un environnement inter-couches pour un dispositif radio cognitive local visant à minimiser les interférences et à maximiser les ressources réseau dans les réseaux radio cognitive. / A fixed spectrum assignment scheme has a problem with resource deficiency in a wireless network. In 2002, the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) reported that the radio spectrum was 20% to 85% under-utilized. The insufficient use of the spectrum is a critical issue for radio communication; as communication grows, a fixed spectrum becomes more limiting. The FCC then changed its spectrum management policy to make it more flexible by investigating the cognitive radio (CR) approach. Cognitive radio is a type of intelligent radio that explores the radio frequency environment, learns, and decides to use the unused portion of the frequency. The main functions of a CR are sensing, decision making, and sharing. However, these radios have to respect the standard wireless infrastructures by ensuring the least impact with their devices, also known as primary radios. Coexistence between CR systems and primary systems requires dedicated observation processes and interference management. In this thesis, observation from a CR point of view is presented. The overlapping area between a CR transmitter and primary radio (PR) transmitter is analysed so that it can be taken into account. The impact of this area is learnt by simulation and presented in Chapter 4. As a consequence, potential interference is envisaged. Along with observation, we investigate a proper mechanism to better prevent perturbation on PR devices using the Grey model and Kalman filter as a prediction model for predicting the density of primary receivers. In addition, we provide a strategy to combine the obtained observations into a metric that can be used in routing design in the context of coexistence between Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs) and primary networks. The proposed strategy, using fuzzy logic, is presented in Chapter 5. In this chapter, we investigate how the routing layer reacts and makes the right decisions to maximise the spectrum resources, while avoiding interference with the primary receivers. For instance, a CR node can operate in an overlap region if primary receivers are inactive within this area. Also, we propose a routing mechanism based on the DYMO routing protocol that takes into account the observed relative impact. In the same chapter, we provide some practical scenarios illustrating the usefulness of our proposal. Interconnecting the CR nodes in CRNs is also a critical problem for the establishment of the network. We therefore present a beacon-based dissemination process in Chapter 6. In this chapter, we also describe a practical device designed for cognitive radio experiments. Even though our work affects different protocol layers, the designed framework is cross-layered. Indeed, the different components of the proposed framework access the various layers to retrieve information, process it, and react accordingly. Thus, our work constitutes a cross-layer framework for a local cognitive radio that aims to minimise the interference and maximise the network resources in cognitive radio networks.