Design and Implementation of a Visualization System for Wireless Mesh Networks

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) consist of several Access Points (APs) of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) interconnected through wireless links. It is necessary to monitor the networks in order to properly operate WMNs. However, it is very difficult to always monitor WMNs. Although several researches for visualization system of WMNs were done, there are some problems such as lack of dynamic information and past information. The authors’ previous system also had problems such as lack of visualization information and inefficient information collection method. In this paper, they propose an extended visualization system for WMNs called Mesh Net Viewer II (MNVII). MNVII can visualize not only network topology and link stability degree but also packet flow, route information and past information of WMNs. Furthermore, the authors have improved visualization information collection method of their previous system. In the performance evaluation, the authors verified visualization accuracy and real time characteristics of MNVII. Design and Implementation of a Visualization System for Wireless Mesh Networks