Mobility Management for Heterogeneous Networks

This three year project (FY01 - FY03) was recently extended in order to facilitate development of DBS-802.11 into an Amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard and has been designated the ESS Mesh task group with letter designation 's' (TGs). The incorporation of ad hoc networking capability directly into 802.11 Access Points (APs) has application to civilian as well as to military communication needs. DBS-802.11 mobile APs can be used for any application that IETF MANET nodes running over 802.11 radios can be used for. DBS-802.11 supports the additional hierarchy afforded by 802.11 infrastructure networks that permits ordinary 802.11 stations to associate with a mobile AP. Moreover, DBS-802.11 fits seamlessly within the IP architecture, appearing to behave as if it were an Ethernet even though it is an automatically maintained, multi-hop wireless network. Some of the commercial uses are provisioning public spaces, such as airports or hospitals, with 802.11. Running cables to connect 802.11 APs in some situations can be very difficult. Providing coverage extension via a wireless 802.11 Distribution System (DS), as is provided by DBS-802.11, eliminates the need for running cables. The same approach may also have use in intra-home communication scenarios, especially as 802.11 information bandwidths increase to 100's Mbps and communication ranges correspondingly decrease, thus requiring some method of range extension. Of course, the military has very similar needs, e.g., wireless extension of coverage on board Navy vessels as well as the land-based mobile communication requirements of the littoral operational scenario.

Relevant Publications

“Material contained herein is made available for the purpose of peer review and discussion and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.” (Ref (b), encl. (1)).

Dynamic Backbone Subnets - DBS/802.11

Tutorial on Mobile 802.11 Extended Service Sets using the Dynamic Backbone Subnet Architecture

For more information, contact 802.11_ESS_MeshStaff @itd.nrl.navy.mil