5
What is a Firetide Mesh Network?
Firetide mesh networks feature a self-confi guring, self-healing,
multi-hop topology. Because of these inherent self-organizing
properties, a mesh network requires no manual confi guration.
Thus, creating a new network or adding or relocating network
equipment is as easy as powering up new nodes. The network
automatically discovers the new nodes and integrates them into
the mesh.
A big advantage of a mesh network is its robustness and ability
to heal itself. If a node is disconnected, congested, or fails to
operate, neighboring nodes are notifi ed, and data is routed
around it. There is no need for a network engineer to intervene,
troubleshoot, and cure the problem.
Mesh networking can be compared to the Internet, where data
can be rerouted on other paths if one path becomes disabled or
congested. Losing a node or two or a link won’t bring down the
entire mesh network. Unlike other WLAN technologies, a mesh
network’s reliability and scalability can actually improve by add-
ing more nodes and enriching the density of the mesh. More
redundant paths means the network in aggregate can handle far
more data traffi c, and is therefore quite scalable.
Mesh networks are ideal whenever the network must be reliable,
scalable, and fl exible. They are very portable and can adapt well
to many different physical environments.
