Real-time communication in IEEE 802.11s mesh networks: simulation assessment considering the interference of non-real-time traffic sources

With the widespread deployment of wireless mesh networks (WMNs) in industrial environments, real-time (RT) communication may benefit from the multi-hop relaying infrastructure provided by WMNs. However, RT communication must be able to coexist with non-RT traffic sources that will interfere with RT communication. Within this context, this paper assesses the impact of interferences caused by non-RT traffic sources upon RT traffic in IEEE 802.11s mesh networks. Through an extensive set of simulations, we assess the impact of external traffic sources upon a set of RT message streams in different communication scenarios. According to the simulation results, we infer that RT traffic in 802.11s networks may be highly affected by external interferences, and therefore, such interferences must be taken into account when setting-up 802.11s networks. By varying the network load imposed by external interferences, we provide some useful hints about utilization thresholds above which the network can no longer reliably support RT traffic. We also present insights about the setting-up of some network parameters in order to optimize the RT communication performance.