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互联网中的其他主机的多跳连接，从而在有线基础设施不可用或部署成本高昂(例如，农村地区、水面、难以布线的建筑物)的情况下实现联网能力。组通信(或多播)是一种通信形式，它以高效的方式同时将信息从源传送到一组目的地。多播支持许多重要的应用，如股票行情、金融数据、账单记录、软件、报纸、按次付费电影、音频/视频会议、远程学习和分布式在线游戏。尽管组播在这些应用中扮演着重要的角色，但在无线网状网中对组播的研究还处于起步阶段。目前几乎没有设计良好和经过良好测试的解决方案，而且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来支持WMN中高效和安全的组通信，其中解决了以下主要问题：路由；流量/拥塞控制；实时和多媒体应用的服务质量保证；可靠的多播；网络安全提供；主机移动性管理；以及与互联网和其他类型的无线网络的互操作。无线Mesh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，将使组播服务扩展到由无线网状网技术服务的地区，如偏远地区、小城镇、水面和交通系统。该项目的成功不仅促进了无线网络的发展，还对加拿大的经济(金融数据分发、广告)、医疗保健系统(远程医疗诊断)、技术(分布式交互模拟、多媒体通信)、教育系统(远程学习)、社交通信(新闻分发、电话会议)和娱乐业(按次付费电影、在线游戏)产生了重大影响。

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).