SN-protected network entry process for WiMAX mesh networks

To meet the huge need for broadband wireless access (BWA), the IEEE 802.16 standard, also known as WiMAX, was proposed by the workgroup of IEEE 802. The standard supports two operational modes, one is popular PMP mode, and the other one is optional mesh mode. In the IEEE 802.16 mesh mode, the network entry process-NetEntry is the pivotal procedure for mesh network topology formulation and thus influences the accessibility of whole mesh network. Unfortunately, the NetEntry process suffers from the hidden neighbor problem, in which new neighborship emerges after a new node comes in and results in possible collisions. In this paper, we propose a new SN-protected NetEntry process to address the problem. Simulation results show that the new proposed NetEntry process is more stable compared with the standard-based NetEntry process.