What is a Mesh Network?
Wireless mesh networks (WMN) are an emerging technology. In comparison to the traditional wired networks that have been used for a long time, there is no accepted definition of WMNs and, thus, no common practice for designing such networks. Unfortunately, there is no one and only one definition or architecture of WMNs and, thus, no common practice for designing such networks. On the one hand, there exist WMN definitions regarding MANETs as the simplest variant of WMNs [AkyWanWan05]. On the other hand, WMNs are considered to be special MANETs [RufStuCla+05]. In order to face the ambiguity of the term “wireless mesh network” a common definition of WMNs is presented here. The Figure below depicts a hierarchical and layered architecture that integrates various approaches and, thus, helps to identify the main parts of a WMN. This view is more general than that usually presented insofar as that other approaches often leave out some layers, e.g., they consider only clients without routing fun
Z-Wave’s mesh network is a medium for 2-way communication between devices that you’ve added to the Z-Wave network. Instead of a central controller commanding devices around the house, each Z-Wave enabled device is capable of sending and receiving commands from other devices and controllers. Commands can be routed from one device to another throughout the house, around common household obstacles that would block other wireless systems.
A mesh network is a type of wireless networking that uses redundant and distributed nodes to provide greater reliability and range for any given wireless network. A number of smaller nodes, called repeaters, connect to large nodes or wireless routers to provide coverage over a larger area than would be possible with a wireless router alone. Mesh network software is built around the idea of self-healing networks, capable of routing signals efficiently through complex series of nodes and continuing to work effectively even when some nodes are down. The idea of providing wireless Internet to large numbers of people became very appealing after the advent of cheap wireless cards in the mid-90s, which thereafter allowed the Internet to become a mobile, often inexpensive phenomenon. Since then, multiple cities, including large metropolitan areas such as Pittsburgh, have adopted the goal of providing free wireless network access everywhere. This would make the Internet not only mobile and cost
