Characterizing user behavior and network load on a large-scale wireless mesh network

Wireless mesh networks represent a promising paradigm to provide a scalable infrastructure for Internet access in metropolitan areas. In this paper, a large-scale wireless mesh testbed deployed in three cities in the Trentino region is described and experimentation results obtained from the public use of the testbed are reported and analyzed. The large-scale of the deployment and high number of users ensure to have proper traces which can capture the trends in user traffic based on the applications used and realistic mobility patterns. © Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2011.