A traditional wireless network consists of terminals and base-stations. Terminals and base-stations talk to each other, but terminals can't talk to terminals and base-stations can't talk to base-stations. In a Mesh topology, everything can potentially talk to everything. In addition, devices can serve as relays for other devices. If a terminal can't see a base-station but can see another terminal, and that terminal can see the base-station, everything is good to go. This means that non-line of site can be achieved even at higher frequencies that cannot typically support such operations.

Another major benefit of Mesh is the ability to aggregate backhaul. Every wireless access point needs to connect back to the wired network. Traditionally, this meant a wired connection for each base-station. With Mesh, several base-stations can connect wirelessly to a single base-station and share a high-capacity wired connection. Again, thanks to the relay ability, not every base-station even needs direct line of site to the wired base-station to share the backhaul.

In summary, wireless Mesh can use low cost equipment, which, in isolation, has limited functionality, but together becomes part of a network where the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. An example is the WiFi-based Mesh networks being deployed around the world as municipal broadband solutions. The key question as to whether Mesh is the right solution for a given application is whether the longterm maintenance issues of a high equipment count outweigh the benefits of very low cost equipment and reduced backhaul complexity.

Stratum Broadband can answer that question and provide a custom-tailored solution regardless of the answer.