Efficient and secure group communications in wireless mesh networks

在无线网状网络（WMN）中，无线路由器提供从主机到同一网络或因特网中的其它主机的多跳连接，从而实现有线基础设施不可用或部署昂贵的联网能力（例如，农村地区、水面、难以布线的建筑物）。 组通信（或多播）是一种通信形式，它以有效的方式将信息从源同时传递到一组目的地。 组播支持许多重要的应用，如股票报价、财务数据、账单记录、软件、报纸、按次付费电影的分发;音频/视频会议;远程学习;以及分布式在线游戏。 尽管多播在这些应用中扮演着重要的角色，但在无线网状网中多播的研究仍处于起步阶段。 目前很少有设计良好、测试良好的解决方案，它们只关注通信的一个方面（例如，路由）。 在这个长期的项目中，我们提出了一套全面的协议，以支持高效和安全的组通信的WMN，它解决了以下主要问题：路由;流量/拥塞控制;服务质量保证实时和多媒体应用;可靠的组播;网络安全规定;主机移动性管理;和互联网和其他类型的无线网络的互操作。 无线网状网络已被证明是下一代无线网络的关键技术。 该项目完成后，将使多播服务扩展到无线网状技术服务的地区，如偏远地区，小城镇，水面和运输系统。 该项目的成功不仅促进了无线网络的发展，而且对加拿大的经济产生了重大影响（财务数据的分发、广告）、医疗保健系统（远程医疗诊断），技术（分布式交互仿真，多媒体通信），教育系统（远程学习），社会通信（新闻发布，电话会议）和娱乐业（按次付费电影，在线游戏）。

In a wireless mesh network (WMN), wireless routers provide multi-hop connectivity from a host to either other hosts in the same network or the Internet, enabling networking capability where a wired infrastructure is unavailable or expensive to deploy (e.g., rural areas, water surfaces, hard-to-wire buildings). Group communications (or multicast) are a form of communication that delivers information from a source to a set of destinations simultaneously in an efficient manner. Multicast supports many important applications such as distribution of stock quotes, financial data, billing records, software, newspapers, pay-per-view movies; audio/video conference; distance learning; and distributed online games. Although multicast plays an important role in these applications, research on multicasting in WMNs is still in its infancy. Few well-designed and well-tested solutions are currently available, and they focus on only one aspect of communications (e.g., routing). In this long-term project, we propose a comprehensive suite of protocols to support efficient and secure group communications in WMNs, which addresses the following main problems: routing; flow/congestion control; quality-of-service guarantees for real-time and multimedia applications; reliable multicast; network security provision; host mobility management; and inter-operations with the Internet and other types of wireless networks . Wireless mesh networking has proven to be a key technology for next-generation wireless networks. This project, upon completion, will enable multicast services to be extended to areas served by wireless mesh technologies such as remote areas, small towns, water surfaces, and transporation systems. The success of the project not only contributes to the advancement of wireless networking, but also makes significant impacts on Canada's economy (distribution of financial data, advertising), health care system (remote medical diagnosis), technology (distributed interactive simulations, multimedia communications), education system (distance learning), social communication (news distribution, tele-conferencing), and entertainment industry (pay-per-view movies, online games).