Wireless Multi-Hop Networks

Wireless Multi-Hop Network is a generic name of a network architecture in which terminals transmit/relay/forward data with various kinds of wireless communication medium using multiple intermediate terminals located between source/destination terminal pairs. Although the framework or definition of wireless multi-hop network is flexible and versatile, the largest difference between conventional networks is that the main components of networks arePeers“, which have the same or similar performance and functions. Therefore, each terminal in wireless multi-hop networks alters its function as source/relay/destination terminals according to the situation, whereas the conventional devices on the Internet have a stationary function. Thus, wireless multi-hop networks can be classified into a kind of P2P (Peer to Peer) Communication.

Our laboratory mainly researches various kinds of communication protocols in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks which is a derivation of wireless multi-hop networks. Wireless ad hoc networks generally establish networks “ad hoc”, that is, terminals establish the networks temporary with autonomous and distributed manners for specific objectives. Wireless ad hoc networks can also be classified into further subset as shown in the following figure and our laboratory researches communication protocols according to the communication characteristics.