A wireless mesh network (WMN) is a communications network composed of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology. It is also a form of ad hoc wireless network. A mesh refers to the rich interconnection between devices or nodes. Wireless mesh networks typically consist of mesh clients, mesh routers and gateways. The mobility of the nodes is less frequent. If the nodes moved constantly or frequently, the mesh would spend more time updating routes than delivering data. In a wireless mesh network, the topology tends to be more static, so route computation may converge and data delivery to its destinations may occur. Therefore, it is a centralized form of low wireless ad hoc network mobility. In addition, because it is sometimes based on static nodes to act as gateways, it is not an entirely wireless ad hoc network.
Mesh clients are often laptops, cell phones, and other wireless devices, while mesh routers send traffic to and from gateways that can but do not need to be connected to the Internet. The coverage area of radio nodes that work as a single network is sometimes referred to as a mesh cloud. Access to this mesh cloud depends on the radio nodes working in harmony with each other to create a radio network. A mesh network is reliable and offers redundancy. When one node can no longer function, the rest of the nodes can communicate with each other, directly or through one or more intermediate nodes. Wireless mesh networks can be self-formed and self-healing. Wireless mesh networks work with different wireless technologies, including cellular technologies 802.11, 802.15, 802.16, and do not need to be restricted to any technology or protocol. See also mesh network.