ANALYSIS OF THE STATUS AND PROBLEMS OF THE OPERATION OF WIRELESS AD HOC AND MESH NETWORKS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28925/2663-4023.2025.30.914Keywords:
ad hoc network, mesh network, self-organization, multi-hop routing, bandwidth, latency, energy efficiency, resource optimization, MANET, VANET, WSN, FANET, WMN, IEEE 802.11s, interference, load balancing, QoS, IoT.Abstract
The article presents a comprehensive analysis of the state and problems of wireless ad hoc and mesh networks, with an emphasis on their architectural features, classification, application areas, and key challenges. Wireless ad hoc networks, such as MANET, VANET, WSN, FANET, UWVANET, SANET, and HANET, are characterized by self-organization, multi-hop routing, and high mobility of nodes, which makes them ideal for scenarios without fixed infrastructure, such as military operations, disaster response, intelligent transportation, and environmental monitoring. At the same time, mesh networks provide a static backbone with gateways, multi-radio interfaces, and integration with other networks, offering improved throughput, stability, and scalability, but necessitating careful resource management. The analysis of recent research encompasses the architectures of wireless mesh networks, routing protocols (such as HWMP, OLSR, and BATMAN), multi-channel designs, and hierarchical models. The research methodology is based on theoretical models, empirical analysis of problems (including interference, energy constraints, and topology instability), and comparative analysis. The results demonstrate that classical theory shows a drop in throughput in large networks due to interference and channel sharing. At the same time, the delay accumulates as the sum of hop times, taking into account queuing and processing. Special attention is paid to the role of intermediate nodes in multi-hop networks, as they provide routing, load balancing, resilience, and coverage extension, but also create challenges such as overhead and risks of malicious behavior. Efficiency issues include interference, energy trade-offs, deployment complexity, and technological limitations (e.g., LoRa duty cycle). The bandwidth and delay constraints are analyzed using Shannon's and cumulative delay formulas, with examples illustrating degradation in mobile scenarios. Topology instability due to node mobility is modeled by the probability of link breakage, and energy constraints are modeled by the energy consumption per transmission.
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