hybrid wireless mesh protocol (HWMP)

The Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP) is a routing protocol that ensures optimal routing in mesh networks.

Mesh networks( WMN) are meshed wireless networks in which the mesh access points( MAP) are interconnected. The HWMP protocol ensures the most favorable routing between the mesh access points (MAP).

As in stationary networks, the mesh access points regularly inform each other about their direct neighbor MAPs, about the stations they can reach and whether they have a connection to the fixed network or the Internet. The latter, as gateway MAPs, represent the root node of the mesh network. In the path selection, the quality of the radio link is taken into account, as well as the number of hops, the data rate and the utilization of the radio link. The entire structure corresponds to a tree structure with a root node, in which each mesh access point is a certain hop count value away from the root node.