i
NETWORK PERFORMANCE OF OUTDOOR TEST-BED
DEPLOYMENT FOR WIRELESS MESH NETWORK USING LINKSYS
ROUTER (610N)
MUHAMMAD HAFIF BIN RADZALI
This Report Is Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For The Award of
Bachelor of Electronic Engineering (Computer Engineering) with Honours
Faculty of Electronic and Computer Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)
April 2011
ii
UNIVERSTI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA
FAKULTI KEJURUTERAAN ELEKTRONIK DAN KEJURUTERAAN KOMPUTER
BORANG PENGESAHAN STATUS LAPORAN
PROJEK SARJANA MUDA II
TajukProjek :
NETWORK PERFORMANCE OF OUTDOOR TEST-BED
DEPLOYMENT FOR MESH WIRELESS ROUTER USING
LINKSYS ROUTER (610N)
SesiPengajian : SESI 2010/2011
Saya ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. (HURUF BESAR) MengakumembenarkanLaporanProjekSarjanaMudainidisimpan di Perpustakaandengansyarat-
syaratkegunaansepertiberikut:
1. LaporanadalahhakmilikUniversitiTeknikal Malaysia Melaka.
2. Perpustakaandibenarkanmembuatsalinanuntuktujuanpengajiansahaja.
3. Perpustakaandibenarkanmembuatsalinanlaporaninisebagaibahanpertukaranantarainstitus
ipengajiantinggi.
4. Silatandakan ( √ ) :
SULIT*
*(Mengandungimaklumat yang
berdarjahkeselamatanataukepentingan Malaysia seperti yang
termaktubdi dalam AKTA RAHSIA RASMI 1972)
TERHAD**
**(Mengandungimaklumatterhad yang
telahditentukanolehorganisasi/badan di
manapenyelidikandijalankan)
TIDAK TERHAD
TandatanganPenulis:
Disahkanoleh:
__________________________________ ___________________________________
AlamatTetap : NO. 7 JALAN CEMARA SD3/3A,
BANDAR SRI DAMANSARA,
KEPONG 52200,
KUALA LUMPUR.
(COP DAN TANDATANGAN PENYELIA)
Tarikh: 5 May 2011 Tarikh: 5 May 2011
MUHAMMAD HAFIF BIN RADZALI
iii
―I hereby declare that this report is the result of my own work except
for quotes as cited in the references.‖
Signature : …………………………………
Author : Muhammad Hafif Bin Radzali
Date : …………………………………
iv
―I hereby declare that I have read this report and in my opinion this
report is sufficient in terms of the scope and quality for the award of
Bachelor Degree of Electronic Engineering (Computer Engineering)
with Honours.‖
Signature : ……………………………
Supervisor Name : Siti Aisah Bte Mat Junos @ Yunus
Date : ………………………………
v
This project and research work is dedicated to my beloved parents for
their enthusiastic caring throughout my life, my loving sisters also my
friends for their encouragement and love.
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks and indebted to
Cik Siti Aisah Bte Mat Junos @ Yunus as my supervisor, thank you very
much for accept me as one of your PSM student and the collaborative
leadership that you show will always I remembered. I also would like to
thank to my PSM1 panel En. Fakhrulrazi and PnJuwita who gave me an idea
on my project.
I would like to express my special thanks and a very down to earth and
full with sense of humor-great experience to the Faculty of Electronic
Engineering and Computer Engineering (FKEKK) on putting into practice
the Final Year Project as acompulsory chore for the final year students
prior to complete their course.
Indirectly, this pertain prepare the students technically to facilitate the
world of electronics all over their working verve. Not forgetting University
Technical Malaysia Melaka for their contribution on the facilities and also
equipments as well as creating a platform to the final year student to achieve
and carry out their projects in durable manner.
I also wish to extend heartfelt thanks to my friends Muhamad Hafiz,
Mushidi Rashid, Sabta Ali Hasni, and my entire classmate for your help and
support during these three years in University Technical Malaysia Melaka.
The memory we spent together will not I forget.
Finally, I wish to thank to my lovely parents and my siblings, I love you
so much and also to my lectures and friends for their encouragement,
strength and support.
Thank you.
vii
ABSTRACT
A Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is a communications network made up of
radio nodes in a mesh topology. Mesh Software Stack is software that designed to
setup a mesh network by using wireless routers. The objectives of this project are to
deploy the outdoor Wireless Mesh Network test-bed using Linksys Router (610N)
and to evaluate the performance of Wireless Mesh Network.This project need to
setup the test-bed with 3 flashed 2.4 GHz wireless Linksys 610n routers with
different location. The location of Router A at FKEKK building, Router B at
FKEKK shed and Router C at student’s café between FKEKK and FKE faculty.
Every router need to be measure using 1 wired LAN server connected to wireless
router and 1 wireless client has 10 points in range about 1 to 10 meter of distance
from router. At every point the throughput need to be measured by using the
IxChariot software and the RSSI by using WirelessMon software. The measurement
purpose for evaluate the performance of Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) using
Linksys router. The performance must consider the location of the wireless routers.
Location of every wireless router must be stable and less interferences before the
measurement can be run. Location in this project is the best of stability connection
of routers and less interference. After done this project finding of the performance of
the Wireless Mesh Network using Linksys Router WRT610N can be drop and weak
because of the interferences in the outdoor test bed area.
viii
ABSTRAK
Rangkaian Mesh Wayarles adalah sebuah rangkaian komunikasi yang terdiri
dari titik radio di dalam topologi mesh. Mesh Software Stackadalah software yang
direka untuk menghasilkan rangkaian Mesh dengan menggunakan wayarles
penghala. Tujuan projekini adalah untuk mengatur kedudukan pengujian Rangkaian
Mesh Wayarles di rekreasi luar dengan menggunakan penghala Linksys (610N) dan
untuk menilai prestasi Rangkaian Mesh Wayarles. Projekini perlu persediaan
rekreasi luar dengan 3 pengubahsuaian 2.4 GHz penghala wayarles Linksys (610N)
dengan lokasi yang berbeza. Lokasi penghala A di bangunan FKEKK, penghala B di
pondok FKEKK dan penghala C di kafe pelajar, terletak diantara fakulti FKEKK
dan FKE. Setiap penghala perlu diambil bacaan dengan menggunkan 1 pelayan
disambug LAN ke penghala wayarles dan 1 pelanggan wayarles yang mempunyai
10 titik di dalam jarak 1 hingga 10 meter dari penghala. Pada setiap titik, throughput
akan diukur dengan menggunakan perisian IxChariot dan RSSI dengan perisian
WirelessMon. Tujuan pengukuran ini adalah untuk menilai prestasi Rangkain Mesh
Wayarles menggunakan penghala Linksys. Di dalam projek ini kita mempelajari
prestasi Rangkaian Mesh Wayarles. Prestasi harus mempertimbangkan lokasi
penghala wayarles. Lokasi setiap penghala wayarles perlu stabil dan kurang dari
gangguan sebelum pengukuran dapat dijalankan. Lokasi projek ini adalah lokasi
terbaik dari segi kestabilan sambungan penghala dan kurang gangguan. Setelah
projek ini dijalankan, di dapati prestasi Rangkaian Mesh Wayarles menggunkan
penghala Linksys WRT610N boleh menjadi lemah dan jatuh disebabkan oleh
gangguan di kawasan pengujian rekreasi luar.
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
PROJECT TITLE
REPORT VERIFICATION STATUS FORM
DECLARATION
SUPERVISOR DECLARATION
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
ABSTRAK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF APPENDIXES
i
ii
iii
iv
v
vi
vii
viii
ix
xiii
xiv
xvi
xviii
I
INTRODUCTION
1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
MESH NETWORK AND WIRELESS MESH
NETWORK
BACKGROUND PROJECT
OBJECTIVES OF PROJECT
PROBLEM STATEMENTS
SCOPE OF PROJECT
METHODOLOGY
REPORT OUTLINE
1
2
3
3
3
4
5
x
II
LITERATURE REVIEW
6
2.1 INTRODUCTION 6
2.2 WIRELESS MESH NETWORK (WMNs) 7
2.2.1
2.2.2
2.2.3
Wireless Mesh Network Architecture
Wireless Mesh Network Characteristics
Mesh Standards For IEEE 802.11
8
9
10
2.2.3.1 802.11s Standard 10
2.2.4
Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs)
Current Challenges
11
2.2.4.1
2.2.4.2
Physical layer
Mac layer
11
12
2.2.5 Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs)
Routing Process
13
2.2.5.1 The Exiting Routing Protocols
For Mesh Networks
13
2.2.5.1.1 Proactive
Routing
Protocols
16
2.2.5.1.1.1 Optimized Link
State Routing
(OLSR)
16
2.2.6 MEASUREMENT IN WIRELESS
MESH NETWORK
17
2.3 LINKSYS ROUTER WRT610N
SPECIFICATIONS
19
2.4 ARCHITECTURE OF WRT610N ROUTER 21
2.5 ADVANTAGES OF MESH WIRELESS
NETWORKING
23
2.6 WIRELESS MESH NETWORKING
PRINCIPLES
24
xi
III
METHODOLOGY
26
3.1 INTRODUCTION 26
3.2 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
REQUIREMENTS
27
3.2.1 Hardware Requirements 28
3.2.2 Software Requirements 28
3.3 PREPARED A WIRELESS MESH NETWORK 28
3.4 FLASHING LINKSYS WRT610N WITH DD-
WRT FIRMWARE
29
3.4.1
3.4.2
Step For Flashing
Flashing With DD-WRT Firmware
29
29
3.4.2.1 Flashing With Web Gui 30
3.5 PLANNING THE WIRELESS NETWORK 33
3.5.1
3.2.2
3.5.3
3.5.4
3.5.5
Test-bed Location
Mesh Network Deployment
Channel Allocation for the Nodes and
Mesh Network
Plan The IP Address and MAC Address
Allocation
Where to Start
34
37
38
39
41
IV
RESULT AND ANALYSIS
42
4.1 MEASUREMENT FOR WMN USING
LINKSYS 610N
42
4.1.1
4.1.2
4.1.3
4.1.4
Planning The Test-Bed
Sit Survey
Test Connection Of Every Router
Measure Wireless Router In Mesh
Network
42
44
45
49
4.2 RESULT OF THE MEASUREMENTS 52
xii
4.2.1
4.2.2
Comparison Throughput Average Of
Router A, Router B And Router C
Comparison TCP And UDP On Three
Routers
52
58
V
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
66
5.1 CONCLUSION 66
5.2 FUTURE WORKS 67
REFERENCES
68
APPENDIX A 70
APPENDIX B 71
xiii
LIST OF TABLES
NO TITLE
PAGE
2.1 Physical layer properties of 802.11 standards 10
2.2 The advantages and disadvantages of Linksys
WRT610N
24
3.1 IP Address and MAC Address Setup of Router 40
4.1 Setup Of Router 45
4.2 Average Throughput for Router A 52
4.3 Average Throughput for Router B 53
4.4 Average Throughput for Router C 54
4.5 TCP for router A 58
4.6 TCP for router B 59
4.7 TCP for router C 59
4.8 UDP average for router A 60
4.9 UDP average for router B 60
4.10 UDP average for router C 61
xiv
LIST OF FIGURES
NO TITLE
PAGE
1.1 Methodology of project 5
2.1 Community of mesh network 8
2.2 WMN in military communications 14
2.3 Ad hoc routing protocol hierarchical
classification
15
2.4 OLSR multipoint relay (MPR) 17
2.5 Linksys router WRT610N 20
2.6 Linksys router WRT610N and package contents 21
2.7 Linksys WRT610N wireless router 22
3.1 Flowchart for methodology 27
3.2 Point for WMN1 testbed 35
3.3 Point for WMN2 test-bed 36
3.4 Point for WMN3 test-bed 37
3.5 The outdoor test-bed of WMN nodes 38
4.1 Outdoor WMN test-bed 43
4.2 3 routers with same SSID enable in the test-bed
area
44
4.3 Ipconfig Typing On Cmd Application Of
Windows
46
4.4 The ipconfig command output 46
4.5 The arp-a command output 47
4.6 The ping command output 48
4.7 The ping –t command output 48
xv
4.8 Point for WMN test-bed 49
4.9 Point for WMN1 test-bed 50
4.10 Point for WMN2 test-bed 50
4.11 Point for WMN3 test-bed 51
4.12 Throughput Comparison for 3 Routers. 55
4.13 Multipath by reflected, scattered and diffracted
signals
56
4.14 Comparison TCP and UDP versus Distance 63
4.15 The Transferred Data Process Of TCP 64
4.16 The Transferred Data Process Of UDP 65
xvi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AODV - Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector
ARP - Address Resolution Protocol
BSSID - Basic Service Set Identification
DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DNS - Domain Name System
DSSS - Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum
ESSID - Extended Service Set ID
FTP - File Transfer Protocol
HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol
IP - Internet Protocol
LAN - Local Area Network
LELA - Linksys EasyLink Advisor
MAC - Media Access Control
MAN - Metropolitan Area Network
MANET - Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
MPR - Multipoint Relaying
OFDM - Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing
OLSR - Optimize Link State Routing
PC - Personal Computer
QoS - Quality of Service
SNR - Signal toNoise Ratio
SSID - Service Set Identifier
TBRPF - Topology Dissemination Based on Reverse-Path
Forwarding
TC - Topology control
TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
TFTP - Trivial File Transfer Protocol
xvii
TORA - Temporally-Ordered Routing Algorithm
UDP - Datagram Protocol
QoS - Quality of Service
SNR - Signal toNoise Ratio
SSID - Service Set Identifier
VoIP - Voice over IP
WLAN - Wireless Local Area Network
WMN - Wireless Mesh Network
xviii
LIST OF APPENDIXES
NO TITLE
PAGE
A Original Control Panel Shot 75
B DD-WRT Firmware Control Panel Shot 76
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents an overview of the project. This chapter will explain
about the project, objectives of the project, problems statements, and scope of
project, methodology and the outline report.
1.1 Mesh Network and Wireless Mesh Network
Mesh networking is a type of networking where in each node in the network may
act as an independent router, regardless of whether it is connected to another
network or not. It allows for continuous connections and reconfiguration around
broken or blocked paths by ―hopping‖ from node to node until the destination is
reached. A mesh network whose nodes are all connected to each other is a fully
connected network. Mesh networks differ from other networks in that the component
parts can all connect to each other via multiple hops, and they generally are not
mobile.
Mesh networks can be seen as one type of ad hoc network. Mobile ad hoc
networks (MANET) and mesh networks are therefore closely related, but MANET
also have to deal with the problems introduced by the mobility of the nodes. Mesh
networks are self-healing: the network can still operate when one node breaks down
2
or a connection goes bad. As a result, the network may typically be very reliable, as
there is often more than one path between a source and a destination in the network.
Although mostly used in wireless scenarios, this concept is also applicable to wired
networks and software interaction. The animation at the right illustrates how
wireless mesh networks can self form and self heal [1].
Wireless mesh networks were originally developed for military applications and
are typical of mesh architectures. Over the past decade the size, cost, and power
requirements of radios has declined, enabling more radios to be included within each
device acting as a mesh node. The additional radios within each node enable it to
support multiple functions such as client access, backhaul service, and scanning
(required for high speed handover in mobile applications). Additionally, the
reduction in radio size, cost, and power has enabled the mesh nodes to become more
modular—one node or device now can contain multiple radio cards or modules,
allowing the nodes to be customized to handle a unique set of functions and
frequency bands.
1.2 Background Project
Over the last past years, Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are gaining more
attention and considered as a convincing solution for providing better Internet access
services for end users. The attention comes according to the unique features of
WMNs including reliability, scalability and self-configuring wireless network
technology. These features offer a suitable wireless network technology for next-
generation networks.
WMNs consist of a collection of wireless nodes. Each node operates not only
as a host, but also as a router forwarding packets for other nodes. The main goal of
WMNs is to allow neighbours in residential and business areas to connect their
home networks together forming a ―Community Mesh Network‖. Providing such
kind of connectivity allows neighbours to share single Internet access and
accordingly reduce the cost of individually install it in each home network.
3
1.3 Objective of Project
The objectives of this project are to deploy the outdoor test-bed of Wireless
Mesh Network using Linksys routers and DD-WRT firmware. Next objectives are to
evaluate the performance of Linksys router and understand how the Wireless Mesh
Network works.
1.4 Problem Statement
The problem statements of this project are the stability of the connection on the
routers and the interference in the test-bed locations. In Wireless Mesh Network the
stability of the connections of routers is the main factor in the process of deploys the
test-bed either outdoor or indoor. The interference is the other factors in
measurements the performance of the Wireless Mesh Network. This problem
statements need to take a consideration to success this project.
1.5 Scope of Project
The scope of this project is focusing on flashing the DD-WRT firmware into
specified router, (Linksys WRT610N) and deploys the test- bed WMN and measure
the performance of Linksys router. Besides, the performance evaluation will be done
using DD-WRT flashed.
4
1.6 Project Methodology
Figure 1.1: Methodology of Project
The methodology of this project are to make sure the flashing of DD-WRT
firmware can be used and success on the three Linksys routers WRT610N. Then
deploy the outdoor Wireless Mesh Network test-bed at the location that already
plans. And the last is evaluating the performance of the Wireless Mesh Network at
the outdoor test-bed areas.
Start
Flashing Linksys router
WRT610N with DDWRT
firmware
Deploy the outdoor
Wireless Mesh Network
test-bed
Evaluation of Wireless
Mesh Network
performance
End
5
1.7 Report Outline
This report discusses overall the network performance of outdoor test-bed
deploy for Wireless Mesh Network using Linksys router (WRT610N). It is
consisting of five chapters, which will cover all the matter that should be discussed
in developing this project.
Chapter I give out the information of the introduction to this project. It is
including the project background, objectives to achieve from this project, the project
problem statement, scope of work, and project methodology.
Chapter II contains literature review. It discusses the literature review of the
background that is needed in this project. It is about all the study that has been made
for this project. It will explain the techniques used in gathering the information and
the theory. The literature review will produce a work concept to show the connection
between the project with theory and concept.
Chapter III is about project methodology. It will explain the implementation
and solution in doing this project. It consist the overall system and the structure
needed in the system. Methods used in this project are clearly pointed out such as
data collection, data process and analysis, system model and flowchart. Factors that
were weighed out in selecting the methods and the advantages are also pointed out.
Chapter IV presents the result of this project. This chapter also includes the
analysis of this system development. This chapter will discuss the result accordingly
to the objective stated earlier in this project.
Chapter V, is the final chapter which summaries the research findings. This
chapter also identifies problems and obstacles throughout this research. Some
suggestions for future work is discussed which might be useful for further
development and improvement to the system and also the implementation of the
system.
6
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents an overview of Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs)
and explain their main features, architectures, characteristics, and some of the
current challenges facing WMNs. In this chapter also discuss the major families
of the routing protocols used in wireless networks. This chapter will present one
protocol from each family to show the routing behaviour of the family. Finally,
researcher conclude the chapter with the related works.
2.1 Introduction
With the ever increasing number of wireless devices, the popularity of
wireless networks has been rapidly increased to provide better wireless services and
to achieve good user satisfaction. Traditionally, wireless networks are either point-
to-point network, where each wireless device (wireless node) needs its own
dedicated connection, or point-to-multipoint network, where all wireless nodes are
within range of a multi-point node which considered as a master node to ensure
connectivity among nodes.
Recently, another topology called Wireless Mesh Network has emerged to
provide reliable and scalable wireless network. Wireless Mesh Network (WMN)
Top Related