An IEEE 802.21-based approach for seamless wireless mobile integration using QoS-aware paths supporting unidirectional links

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) research has matured in recent years and implementations are being tested around the world. In a WMN, participating nodes are automatically configured allowing them to communicate among their peers via multiple hops when no direct physical connectivity exists. Increasing demand for real-time multimedia content poses a challenge for the typical WMN routing protocols such as Optimised Link State Routing (OLSR) which lack Quality of Service (QoS) support. Although, numerous solutions have been proposed to introduce QoS awareness, those WMNs fail to meet commercial wireless operator requirements in term of reliability and QoS guarantees. In this paper we propose a novel IEEE 802.21-based approach seamlessly integrating unidirectional broadcast technologies such as Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) into a heterogeneous multi-radio Carrier-grade Wireless Back-haul Network (CG-WBN) architecture in order to provide support for high-bandwidth multi-media services to mobile devices.