Wireless Mesh Networking Topology

View All Wireless and Mesh Networking Products

Comparison of Network Types

Topology	Reliability	Adaptability	Scalability
Mesh Networks	High	High	Yes (thousands of end points)
Point-to-Multipoint	Low	Low	Moderate (7-30 end points)
Point-toPoint	High	Low	None (Two end points)

Mesh Network

Point-to-Multipoint

Point-to-Point

Mesh network topology is a key network architecture in which devices are connected with many redundant interconnections between network nodes. If any batteries or nodes fail in a wireless mesh topology, many other ways are available for two nodes to communicate. A mesh topology is often used in conjunction with other topologies – such as Star, Ring, and Bus – to form a hybrid topology. Some WAN architecture, such as the Internet, employs mesh routing. This allows the Internet sites to communicate even during a war.

The two types of mesh topologies are full mesh and partial mesh. Full mesh topology occurs when every node has a circuit connecting it to every other node in a network. Full mesh yields the greatest amount of redundancy, so if a node fails, network traffic can be directed to any of the other nodes. Full mesh is usually reserved for backbone networks. With partial mesh, some nodes are organized in a full-mesh scheme, but others are connected to only one or two in the network. Partial mesh topology is commonly found in peripheral networks connected to a full meshed backbone. Partial mesh is less expensive to implement but yields less redundancy than full mesh topology.

Full Mesh Network
Partial Mesh Network