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SMesh is seamless wireless mesh network being developed by the Distributed System and Networks Lab at Johns Hopkins University. It provides peer-to-peer connectivity, Internet connectivity, and fast handoff to mobile clients across the mesh. Clients get connected automatically through standard DHCP. No software or drivers need to be installed on the mobile devices. SMesh takes care of providing end-to-end connectivity transparently for the clients.

SMesh operates in regular 802.11 IBSS mode. Its hierarchical architecture separates the mobile clients from the infrastructure. Clients send and receive data through the infrastructure and do not rely on other clients to forward their packets. This separation allows for transparent and efficient protocols to be deployed without any modification of the standard mobile devices. SMesh underlying communication infrastructure is built on a customized version of Spines, a messaging system that provides multi-hop communication between the wireless mesh nodes through a transparent socket API.

SMesh is used to conduct research on real wireless deployments, and also serves as a distributed wireless access point for DSN lab members (and anyone else upon request). It is currently deployed on 14 nodes across several floors of the New Engineering Building, Shaffer Hall, and Maryland Building at Hopkins. The access point software runs on Linux boxes, including the widely available Linksys WRT54-G/GL/GS router. Tested mobile clients on our deployment include unmodified Windows XP, Mac OS-X, Windows-Mobile, Palm OS and Linux.

SMesh was created by Yair Amir, Claudiu Danilov, Raluca Musaloiu-Elefteri, and Nilo Rivera, and is currently developed at the Distributed Systems and Networks Lab at Johns Hopkins University.

SMesh supports fast, seamless handoff for VoIP. If you want to give it a try, call us through Skype and see (hear) how it works. If you see a 'Skype' mobile client in the Live View, and one of us is in the lab, we can talk through SMesh! (Skype Name: 'smesh.org')

Related publications

On Redundant Multipath Operating System Support for Wireless Mesh Networks
Accepted for publication at the Third IEEE Workshop on Wireless Mesh Networks (WiMesh 2008), San Francisco, CA, USA, June 2008
Yair Amir, Claudiu Danilov, Michael Kaplan, Raluca Musaloiu-Elefteri, Nilo Rivera

An Inter-domain Routing Protocol for Multi-homed Wireless Mesh Networks
In IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile, and Multimedia Networks (WoWMoM 2007), Helsinki, Finland, June 2007.
Yair Amir, Claudiu Danilov, Raluca Musaloiu-Elefteri, Nilo Rivera

Fast Handoff for Seamless Wireless Mesh Networks
In ACM/USENIX International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services (MobiSys 2006), Uppsala, Sweden, June 2006.
Yair Amir, Claudiu Danilov, Michael Hilsdale, Raluca Musaloiu-Elefteri, Nilo Rivera

Mobisys Powerpoint Presentation [pdf 1.2MB, ppt 7.3MB]










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Distributed Systems and Network lab
Computer Science Department
Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218-2686