There is tremendous momentum in the IEEE to incorporate the inherent benefits of mesh networking into the current standards. With the formation of a Mesh Study Group in January 2004, and of a Mesh Task Group at the IEEE March 2004 Plenary, the 802.11 Working Group has embarked on a multi-year path to develop a mesh standard.

In a similar manner, early steps are being taken in other standards like 802.15.3a, 802.15.4, 802.16 and DSRC to explore how to improve these standards by mesh-enabling devices.

In March 2003, MeshNetworks presented a paper entitled “Meshing Together: Advantages and Challenges of Deploying Ad Hoc Wireless Networks” to initiate the discussion about how 802.11 could be adapted, with minimal changes to either the physical radio or the MAC/LLC layer.

Many believe that the approval of a mesh standard is a “monumental multiyear task(1)." One of the reasons for this is that 802.11 is being deployed in many different scenarios including digital home and personal area networks, enterprise, and wide area “hot zone” type deployments. Each of these use cases will have very different requirements. As a result, it is neither realistic nor practical to develop a single mesh standard that meets all of these requirements.

The role of technology leader is a responsibility MeshNetworks takes very seriously and it will continue to participate actively in the appropriate standards bodies, as well as with industry leaders, to ensure that the standards process does not become a series of compromises that results in a lowest common denominator type solution. Neither the industry nor end users would benefit from a “one size fits all” approach.

MeshNetworks is delivering innovations today that can be integrated with existing IEEE standard devices across any of the 802.XX standards. We believe that these capabilities exceed the proposals being discussed in IEEE and can be used as both a benchmark and a bar for any mesh standard that is being considered.

(1) Mesh Study Group Faces Monumental Multiyear Task; Mex Smetannikov, Analyst, Networks & Media, the451 (February 3, 2004)

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