SwanMesh: A Multicast Enabled Dual-Radio Wireless Mesh Network for Emergency and Disaster Recovery Services

In this paper we present the design and implementation of our multicast enabled dual-radio wireless mesh network for emergency communications. We have developed a novel implementation of a Multicast extension to the AODV (MAODV) protocol in Linux Kernel 2.6 user space to support multicast operation of our SwanMesh testbed. This paper presents the architecture of our SwanMesh testbed. Furthermore, we present unicast communication throughput test results. We observed that SwanMesh can efficiently deliver data services such as broadband internet in emergency situations using its unicast functionality although there were noticeable throughput drops after each hop. Therefore the SwanMesh multicast operation may be suitable for delivery of real time applications in emergency communication, such as audio and video teleconferencing. We also performed validation tests to ensure correct multicast functionality of our MAODV implementation. The possible application of WMN in emergency is discussed.