Simulation-Based Performance Evaluation of the SNDP Protocol for Infrastructure WMNs

An Infrastructure Wireless Mesh Network (IWMN) is a multi-hop network that consists of stationary mesh routers, strategically positioned to provide a distributed wireless infrastructure for stationary or mobile mesh clients over a mesh topology. In this paper, we evaluate a scalable neighborhood discovery protocol, called SNDP, which has been specifically designed to detect the presence and status of neighbor nodes in IWMNs. SNDP adopts a hybrid, collaborative signaling strategy, in which mesh routers and clients adopt distinct signaling approaches and work together to detect neighbor nodes. The performance evaluation is conducted based on simulation results. Performance is evaluated with respect to signaling load, power consumption and neighborhood discovery time. By contrasting SNDP and OSLR, it is observed that SNDP has the potential to become a better choice than the current work in progress proposed by the IETF MANET working group.