CURRENT GLOBAL REVIEWER Half Yearly - UGC Approved ISSN : 2319 - 8648 Issue X Vol II , Feb. 2018 Sr. No. 64310 Impact Factor : 7.139 Copyright © Shaurya Publication, Latur | www.rjorunals.co.in | Email-hitechresearch11@gmail.com 5 A Survey on research challenges in Wireless Mesh Networks Mr. Makarand Dashrath Wangikar, Assistant Professor, School of Computational Sciences,S.R.T.M.University, Nanded Mr. Satishkumar R. Mekewad, Assistant Professor, School of Computational Sciences,S.R.T.M.University, Nanded Mohnish Mahamune Assistant Professor, School of Computational Sciences,S.R.T.M.University, Nanded -------(2)--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) is the key technology for next-generation wireless networking. WMNs consist of mesh routers and mesh clients, where mesh routers have minimal mobility. Due to its advantages over other wireless networks, WMNs are ongoing with rapid progress and it is inspiring a number of applications. However, many more technical issues still exist that is to be resolved for better performance. In order to provide a better understanding of challenges in WMNs, here we have provided details of WMNs. Open research issues in all protocol layers are also discussed, with an objective to spark new research interests in this field. I. Introduction Wireless mesh network (WMNs) [1] is self organized and self-configured, with the nodes in the network automatically establishing an ad hoc network which maintains the mesh connectivity. WMNs are consists of two types of nodes: mesh routers and mesh clients. Other than the routing capability for gateway/bridge functions as in a conventional wireless router, a mesh router contains additional routing functions. Through multi-hop communications, the same coverage can be achieved by a mesh router with much lower transmission power. To further improve the flexibility of mesh networking, a mesh router is usually equipped with multiple wireless interfaces built on either the same or different wireless access technologies. In spite of all these differences, mesh and conventional wireless routers are usually built based on a similar hardware platform. Mesh routers have minimal mobility and form the mesh backbone for mesh clients. Thus, although mesh clients can also work as a router for mesh networking, the hardware plat- form and software for them can be much simpler than those for mesh routers. Just like being any other type of ad-hoc network, WMNs have many advantages, such as reliable service coverage, low cost, robustness, easy network maintenance, etc. Therefore, in addition to being widely accepted in the traditional application sectors of ad hoc net- works, WMNs are undergoing rapid utilization in many other application scenarios such as community networking, high- speed metropolitan area networks, broadband home networking, building automation, enterprise networking, etc. Here we have presented a survey of research challenges in WMNs, the ultimate aim is to provide a better understanding of research challenges of this emerging technology. II. Physical Layer Physical layer techniques improves rapidly as communication theories, digital signal processing algorithms, RF technologies, and circuit design for wireless communications quickly evolve. These techniques mainly focus on three directions: increasing transmission rate, improving error resilience and reconfiguration. In order to increase the capacity of wireless networks, various techniques have been invented just like orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has significantly increased