devices directly attached to it and also acts as an “intelligent router” able to
forward packets coming from other FMunits units through the optimal path.
In a redundant and reliable mesh network, every stream of data packets has
multiple available paths to reach the base station and the network forwards
the packets through the optimal path at any point in time. The absence of
any single point of failure incredibly increases its reliability compared to any
other transmission technology, either wireless or wired.
Figure 4.2: Fluidmesh mesh networking architecture.
FMunit has two modes of operation:
•
Mesh Point
Mode
•
Mesh End
Mode
Mesh Point Mode:
it is the default mode for the FMunit. Each unit in the
field that is
not
connected to the wired LAN backbone must be set in
Mesh
Point
Mode.
Mesh End Mode:
in the Fluidmesh WMN, an FMunit that is connected to
the wired LAN must be set in
Mesh End
Mode. The
Mesh End
unit is the
junction point between the wireless mesh network and any IP-based wired
network.
17
