Mesh Networks

Reliable, Decentralized Communication Where Single Routers Fail

- By Brian Chee

Unlike conventional networks with a central router, mesh networks distribute data across multiple “nodes” that communicate directly with one another. In this article, Brian shares his experiences with these self-healing networks, in projects that ranged from getting battlefield information to commanders and determining why a Hawaiian plant was becoming extinct, to creating a home sensor network. He discusses in detail the features of Zigbee and LoRaWAN mesh networks.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense. Its mission is to prevent technological surprises by creating breakthroughs in technology for national security. It has been funding moon shots since the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit in 1957 as the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth. Then-President Eisenhower created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA to bridge the perceived technological gap during the Cold War.

THE SENSOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SENSIT) PROJECT

DARPA has fanned the innovation spark of researchers all over America to answer a simple question: “Can it be done?” One such question was whether a self-organizing, self-healing network could be created, so that war fighters could simply drop devices as they traveled to relay more timely and accurate data from the battlefield to area commanders. The project was called Sensor Information Technology (SensIT), and it funded research into this question at numerous research organizations, including the University of Hawaii's Information and Computer Sciences Department. The principal investigators were Edoardo Biagioni (Information and Computer Science), Kent “Kim” Bridges (Botany), and me (Advanced Network Computing Laboratory).