A comparison of wi-fi and wimax with case studies - Florida State ...

In the AP operation system, Nortel developed a critical scheme called Nortel’s Adaptive
Mesh Management Protocol. This protocol can simplify the deployments and optimize the
overall performance of the mesh network. There are several important functions in this protocol:
auto-discover the neighbor APs, auto-configuration and system synchronization, radio resource
management, smart antenna management, dynamic mesh routing, and fast fault recovery. With
these technologies, the Nortel Wireless Mesh Network can solve many technical problems such
as interference, security, system scalability and reliability, QoS, simplifying installation and
lower the cost. [75] Table 5-6[75] is the features of Nortel Wireless Mesh Network.
While dealing with interference, Nortel uses three schemes, Nortel’s Adaptive Mesh
Management Protocol, smart antenna mechanism, and dual radio design. The dual radio design
uses different spectrums for transmission and reception to avoid self-interference. Nortel’s
Adaptive Mesh Management Protocol can sense the status of nearby channels to achieve the
maximum usage of channels. With the smart antenna mechanism, data is transmitted in a
beamform and directional way, so the data streams do not affect or be affected by other beams.
[75]
In the security field, because the wireless network is easier to be attacked by hackers than
wired network, to enhance this defect, Nortel’s mesh network adopts WEP/WAP/WAP2 and
IPSec (IP Security Protocol). IPSec is derived from VPN (Virtual Private Network) technology.
It uses a firewall to filter the incoming data stream before entering the wired network. For
extending the network capacity, the mesh network allows the network designers to add new
WAPs into the network at any locations in the covered area. This is the scalability of the Nortel
Wireless Mesh Network. With the Nortel’s Adaptive Mesh Management Protocol, a new WAP
can auto-discover the surrounding WAPs and establish the new optimized transmission path.
Similarly, when an AP or more APs are malfunctioning, the Nortel’s Adaptive Mesh
Management Protocol can re-route a substitute path to keep the network functional. [75]
Nortel’s Wireless Mesh Network solution can be integrated with WiMax BS. With the
indoor/outdoor APs and the mesh network features, this solution gives network designers a lot of
freedom to build up a low-cost and network that is also fairly simple. [75]
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