Supporting Legacy Devices in Multi-Hop Ad-Hoc Wireless Networks

Multi-hop ad-hoc wireless networks need additional software at each node to provide routing functionality. There is significant benefit in supporting legacy devices (i.e., devices that do not have any additional routing software) in such networks. In this paper, we present a system and techniques for legacy device support in multi-hop ad-hoc wireless networks. One conceptual approach is to enable access point-like support at each multi-hop ad-hoc node that allows the legacy devices to associate in infrastructure mode. In contrast, we present a novel scalable architecture that extends the benefits of path redundancy inherent in multi-hop ad-hoc networks to legacy devices and also supports mobility. Using the legacy device as a message reflector in a transparent manner allows the system to make decisions in a light-weight distributed fashion. We describe our architecture, protocols and a prototype system. We also present some analysis and observations from the prototype.