Mesh topology can come at a cost both technically and economically. If you want to start a mesh network in your home, you can expect the price to increase as well, as this intelligent technology is not as cheap as using a standard router. On top of this increase in price, initial setup can be time-consuming and confusing at first, meaning there may be a period of trial and error before things are up and running efficiently. It also has some disadvantages and in this blog we will tell about Wireless mesh network disadvantages.
Mesh topology is costly as compared to the opposite network topologies i.e. star, bus, point to point topology.
Installation is extremely difficult in the mesh.
Power requirement is higher as all the nodes will need to remain active all the time and share the load.
Complex process.
Mesh topology and their types:
Mesh topology type of networking where all of your nodes cooperatively distribute data—is one of your options. In mesh, all the computers are interconnected to every other during a network. Each computer not only sends its own signals but also relays data from other computers. The nodes are connected to every other completely via a dedicated link during which information is travel from nodes to nodes and there are N(N-1)/2 links in mesh if there are N nodes. Every node features a point-to-point connection to the opposite node. The connections within the mesh are often wired or wireless.
To help you determine if this is the best bet for your application, we’ve created a list of advantages and disadvantages of a mesh topology.If you’re heading into the initial design phase of your IoT application, you’re probably figuring out which communication system you’re going to use. As you try and determine your cost per node, system installation cost, and hardware and software implementation costs, keep in mind that the type of network topology you use will impact all of these things. for more information about mesh topolgy and its pros and cons then visit: computersolve.com site.
There are two types of Mesh topologies
- Fully-connected Mesh Topology
- Partially-connected Mesh Topology
Full Mesh Topology
All the nodes within the network are connected with every other If there are n number of nodes during a network, each node will have an n-1 number of connections. A full mesh provides an excellent deal of redundancy, but because it is prohibitively expensive to implement, it’s usually reserved for network backbones.
Partial Mesh Topology
Partial mesh is more practical as compared to the full mesh. In a partially connected mesh, all the nodes aren’t necessary to be connected with one another during a network. Peripheral networks are connected using partial mesh and work with a full-mesh backbone in tandem.
Disadvantages Of Mesh Topology:
Mesh Topology can come at a price both technically and financially. It’s costly as compared to the opposite network topologies i.e. star, bus, point to point topology.
Installation is extremely difficult in the mesh.
Power requirement is higher as all the nodes will need to remain active all the time and share the load.
Complex process. that below we can also describe some disdvantages of mesh topology.
There are some disadvantages Of a Mesh topology:
- Power Consumption
- Complexity
- Network Planning
- Latency
Complexity:
Sensor in the living room and you want to get better range from your system then nodes do it and it now has to keep track of messages from five or 10 of its ‘neighbors’ which node to pass along a message Rapidly increases the amount of data to deal with. Thus, if you add additional sensors to the mesh just to take advantage of the range, you are naturally making the system more complex. Each node needs to act as a router as well as sending messages, greatly increasing the complexity of each node.
Power Consumption:
For disadvantage of Power Consumption typically, security systems and lights can cause issues if not properly configured. Sensors for a security system need enough power to send data from room to room and even between floors. each node in a mesh has to act as an endpoint and a router, it has to draw more power to operate. Thus, if you have battery-powered, low-power nodes, a mesh may be difficult to deploy without a lot of network planning.
Network Planning:
If latency is an issue, you might have to upgrade the entire mesh network. More bandwidth, memory and power for each node will often increase message transfer speed. Of course, these upgrades also cost more money. But planning the network as a whole is a different story. With a mesh network, you’d need to add a dedicated node that only forwards messages.
Latency:
latency the time it takes a message to get from a node to the gateway—can impact your mesh network planning. Interestingly, you may improve some latency by using a mesh network with a larger scale system with more bandwidth, memory, and power. But latency becomes an issue in smaller low power, wide-area networks (LPWANs) because it doesn’t have the processing capability to handle the messaging. Thus, if you have a WiFi mesh, messages will likely be translated much quicker than a ZigBee mesh. This is something to consider based on the protocol you’ll be using and the latency your application requires.
Following are drawbacks or disadvantages of Wireless Mesh:
There are the drawbacks or disadvantages of Wireless Mesh:
- There are no central entity called base station or hub station in the wireless mesh network architecture. Hence routing and resource management processes are complex compare to cellular network or any other star topology based wireless network system.
- The nodes are complex as they need to have transmit/receive functionalities as well as house routing algorithms.
- It is difficult to install and manage as there is no central place from where entire network can be monitored and controlled. As a result troubleshooting is poor.
- As the nodes house complex functionalities, they are expensive.
- It is more secure as communication starts and ends at user terminals.
Conclusion:
In summary disadvantage of Wireless Mesh are difficult to install and manage in addition to costly end devices for subscribers/users. These disadvantages aside, you really need to look to the application you’re deploying in order to determine which network topology is ideal for your project. If you’re doing a small, simple network with 10-20 nodes for something like indoor lighting, a mesh network may work for you. If you need to use that same amount of nodes over a much larger space, a 2.4 GHz frequency band (which is where ZigBee operates) can be very difficult, and you may end up purchasing quite a few extra nodes to repeat the signal appropriately. for more visit : here. I hope this article is helpful about mesh topology disadvantage.