Network topology visualization and monitoring for multi-hop wireless networks

Multi-hop wireless systems represent a viable means for deploying access networks covering medium-size areas with limited investment, making use of commodity hardware and freely available software suites. At the same time, management of such networks represent an overly complex task, due to the joint effect of the time-varying nature of the radio channel, user mobility and the inherently distributed nature of the system. A number of solutions are currently being researched, whereby network management functionalities get embedded within the wireless network itself simplifying both the initial network deployment and its subsequent maintenance by removing the need for a dedicated network controller which can be expensive in that it requires dedicated hosting facilities, power, and adequate cooling. A common building block of such approaches is represented by a monitoring framework able to bring the relevant network-level information to the decision points. In this paper, we present a distributed network monitoring toolkit, specifically developed for wireless multi-hop networks. The toolkit allows network administrators to monitor the status of the network as well as to plan and execute active measurement campaigns. Information is stored in a distributed network-wide repository and is accessible through a web interface.