The reliability and availability of wireless backhaul mesh networks

When planning the structure of a backhaul mesh network for public access, it is common to introduce redundant nodes in the mesh network. These are called redundant, because they do not increase the network capacity under normal operation, due to the shortest-path metric of the routing protocol. Instead, their sole purpose is to increase the network reliability by providing failover links when a link in the shortest-path fails. This paper shows how to estimate the additional network reliability that results from introducing a redundant node. The best location of a redundant node, i.e. where to locate the node in order to maximise the additional network reliability, can also be found.