.FLYINGHEAD WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE
.TITLE Connection stability in wireless ad-hoc networks
.AUTHOR Humayun Bakht
.OTHER
.SUMMARY What happens when a wireless network grows? Contributing Editor Humayun Bakht explains some of the issues you may need to consider if you’re planning for a growing wireless network.
It’s been more than thirty years since the term "network" first reached widespread use, and now networks are in use in practical forms at various platforms. A computer network is the collection of two or more computer devices, connecting to each other to share various resources. One of the main objectives in establishing a network is to ease communication among various computer users.
Forming a computer network involves one of many steps and different topologies; here we will focus on a simple client server model. In this client server architecture, there is one server and many clients. As the name implies, a server provides different services to the clients by allowing them access to various stored applications. Clients send a request to the server, and the server full-fills this request.
A wireless cellular network is one of the advanced forms of today’s communication network systems. The current cellular network has been in use since the 1980’s and has evolved from first- to third-generation wireless systems. The technology is expanding from developed areas to the non-developed areas. Wireless communication networks have proven their real impact on our day-to-day routine life.
The above discussed client server architecture, with some modification, has proven its effectiveness in present wireless communication networks. In the present wireless network, each wireless client is attached with a base station. This base station provides wireless communication services to all clients within its service range. The present wireless system is very much dependent on the availability of the right hardware and software. We may not be able to deploy a wireless system in its current form at places where no centralized controller is available.
Bluetooth technology has brought a dramatic revolution by introducing a new type of wireless communication network commonly known as peer-to-peer or wireless ad-hoc network. This newly revised concept offers networking capability at places where it is not possible otherwise.
The idea of ad-hoc or on-the-fly networks goes back to the 1970’s, when they were first tested for various military operations. A wireless ad-hoc network is a short lived network of two or more wireless devices connecting to each other in the absence of a fixed infrastructure. Absence of a fixed infrastructure introduces a number of different challenges in this field. Typical challenges in this area range from routine network controls such as routing and security to bandwidth constraints and limited power supply.
Connection stability plays a very important role in the successful deployment of any network. It may be regarded as one of the most important aspects, since without connection, you don’t have a network. Overall efficiency of any communication network is measured in terms of many different factors; connection stability is one of them. If a network technology offers a secure routing mechanism along with stable connection among the various participants, then we might be right to term this network a reliable one. One the other hand, missing of any of these factors could lead toward an unstable network environment.
Each wireless device in a wireless ad-hoc network functions as a router, forwarding data packets for all participating devices in the network. As there is no pre-specified mechanism of handling clients’ requests, there is a very high probability of getting poor connection services in wireless ad-hoc networks. Moreover, connection or topology changes are quite common in these networks. Establishing effective strategies for various network controls is one of the fundamental requirements of a wireless ad-hoc network.
The wireless ad-hoc network is a vulnerable technology. It has potential to replace present fixed wireless network systems and is widely be regarded as one of the crucial technologies in the deployment of forth generation wireless systems. Having stable and secure connections among various wireless devices is one of the key aspects of a wireless communication network; not having enough strategies makes it difficult to accomplish this task in a wireless ad-hoc network.
In order to have a successful technology both for the vendor and for the supplier, we have to take into account different technical aspects of wireless ad-hoc networks, without which, we may not be able to come out with a technology that can cope with the communication needs of today’s world.
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