Subject: Definition of terms used

From: Lee Chee Jwai <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 13:03:42 +0800 (SGT)

Hi, could anyone enlighten me (or point me to some reference or FAQ) on 
the definition and/or difference between 

-packet radio network
-ad-hoc network
-mobile mesh network

Thanks. 

_____________________________________________________________________
Cheejwai LEE 		   	 		
DSO National Laboratories	   Tel  : (65) 3732045
20 Science Park Drive     	   Fax  : (65) 2728418 
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From: "M. Scott Corson" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 12:58:41 -0400 (EDT)

> the definition and/or difference between 

There's essentially no difference.

Probably the best term would be "mobile multihop wireless network"
(it's certainly the most general and descriptive), but it's a little long.

-Scott

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M. Scott Corson                                 Institute for Systems Research
[email-masked]                              A.V. Williams Bldg. (115)
Phone: 301-405-6630 (Rm. 2205 AVW)              University of Maryland     
Fax:   301-314-8586                             College Park, MD  20742

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From: Dave Johnson <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 10 May 97 13:38:45 -0400

>the definition and/or difference between 

These -- along with at least "ad hoc network" (no hyphen) and "fully
mobile network" -- are all terms that at various times have been used
by various groups of people to refer to the same thing.  There is no
single well-accepted term for this type of network.  Below is one way
to define such a network (extracted from the paper "Protocols for
Adaptive Wireless and Mobile Networking", by myself and David Maltz,
in the February 1996 issue of IEEE Personal Communications):

  At times, no infrastructure such as the Internet may be available for
  use by a group of wireless mobile hosts, or the use of an available
  network infrastructure may be undesirable due to reasons such as cost or
  convenience.  Examples of such situations include disaster recovery
  personnel or military troops in cases in which the normal infrastructure
  is either unavailable (such as in a remote area) or destroyed (such as
  after an earthquake); other examples include business associates wishing
  to share files in an airport terminal, or a class of students needing to
  interact during a lecture.  If each mobile host wishing to communicate
  is equipped with a wireless local area network interface, the group of
  mobile hosts may form an ad hoc network.  An ad hoc network is a
  temporary network, operating without the aid of any established
  infrastructure or centralized administration.

  In an ad hoc network, some hosts wishing to communicate may be outside
  of wireless transmission range of each other, but may be able to
  communicate if other hosts in the network are willing to forward packets
  for them.  An ad hoc network in general requires some form of routing
  protocol in order to dynamically find multihop paths through the
  network, and in order to adapt to new routes as the mobile hosts in the
  network move.  Furthermore, the protocol must be able to operate
  correctly in spite of the varying propagation characteristics of each
  mobile host's wireless transmissions, for example due to changes in
  sources of interference in the vicinity of each mobile host.

					Dave

--
David B. Johnson                      E-mail: [email-masked]
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