Mixed-Mode Routing for Wireless Networks Promises Robust Performance

Mesh network nodes are often built around small-scale processors and low-bandwidth radios. Resource constraints imposed by these components may be at odds with application performance and reliability requirements. Fortunately, there is a range of technologies available to platform designers, and different solutions to the fundamental problems of networking—network formation, route discovery and maintenance, message routing and so on—turn out to be complementary. This paper explores the ways in which mixed-mode routing strategies have been employed to work around weaknesses displayed by individual routing strategies when they are used on their own.