What are the differences between Mesh and WiFi

A wireless mesh network is also called a "multi-hop" network. It is a new wireless network technology based on the traditional wireless network. Wireless mesh network is a new network structure based on multi-hop routing and peer-to-peer network technology. It has the characteristics of mobile broadband. Together, it can dynamically expand continuously, self-organizing network, self-management, active correction, self-balancing. Compared with Wi-Fi, wireless mesh has greatly improved the networking method, transmission interval, and mobility, especially it has Wi-Fi compatible characteristics, so the wireless mesh network will increase the transmission interval of Wi-Fi It provides great assistance in mobility and expansion of Wi-Fi applications. Together, the widespread use of terminals will bring advantages to the agile implementation of wireless mesh. Therefore, Wi-Fi and wireless mesh networks can complement each other and blend with each other.

In traditional wireless local area network (WLAN), each client visits the network through a wireless link connected to the AP. If users want to communicate with each other, it is necessary to first visit a fixed access point (AP). This network structure is called a single-hop network. In a wireless mesh network, any wireless device node can act as an AP and router together. Each node in the network can send and receive signals. Each node can directly communicate with one or more peer nodes.

The biggest advantage of this structure is that if the nearest AP is congested due to excessive traffic, then the data can be actively routed from the beginning to a nearby node with small communication traffic for transmission. By analogy, the data packet can also be continuously routed to the next node nearest to it for transmission according to the condition of the network, until it stops at the final destination. Such a visiting method is to visit more often.

Compared with the traditional switched network, the wireless mesh network removes the wiring requirements between nodes, but still has the redundancy mechanism and de novo routing function provided by the distributed network. In a wireless mesh network, if you want to add new equipment, you only need to simply connect the power supply. It can actively self-equip itself and determine the best multi-hop transmission path. When adding or moving devices, the network can proactively detect topology changes and actively adjust communication routes to obtain the most useful transmission paths.

Wireless Mesh is a wireless local area network solution that is very suitable for covering large-area open area cities (including outdoor and indoor). The characteristics of a wireless Mesh network are: it consists of a group of wireless APs distributed in a mesh pattern, and all APs are selected The point-to-point method interconnects wireless relay links to extend the "hot" wireless in traditional WLANs into a true "hot area" that is covered by a large area.

In addition, because the transmission interval of each short hop is short, the power required to transmit data is also small. Now that multi-hop networks generally use lower power to transmit data to nearby nodes, the wireless signal interference between nodes is also small, and the channel quality and channel operating power of the network are greatly improved, so higher network capacity can be achieved. For example, in a high-density urban network environment, the Mesh network can reduce the interference between neighboring users using wireless networks, and greatly increase the channel's operating power.