QoS-aware policy based routing for mesh network environments

The design of a policy oriented configurable multi-path routing architecture for enhanced mesh network infrastructures is discussed. The goal is optimal routing path selection between mesh clients and mesh router gateways dependent on application classes. Policies are used to dynamically configure the route path selection for QoS-aware applications taking into account resource reservation requests for application traffic (in advance reservation, on-demand resource allocation, etc) and business goals of the policy actors, i.e. end-users, service providers and network operators. Interactions of the mesh routing protocol facilities with the policy management and resource planning components for advance and on-demand resource allocation are considered. Scenarios are aimed at supporting QoS-aware applications (such as IPTV, VoD, GRID, VoIP, real-time, mission critical, content delivery on-demand, software and large file downloads) using a wireless mesh network backbone infrastructure (based on IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16) enhanced with broadcast technologies (DVB-T, DVB-H).