In July, I submitted my Bachelor’s thesis with the following abstract:
In large Wi-Fi networks, broadcast traffic can take up lots of airtime. Common Wi-Fi systems filter broadcast traffic, breaking applications that rely on layer 2 (L2) functionality. WiMoVE is a Wi-Fi architecture that takes a different approach. By using L2 overlay networks on top of a layer 3 (L3) network, WiMoVE reduces broadcast transmissions while providing users with unfiltered L2 networks. In WiMoVE, a gateway forwards traffic into and out of the overlay networks. Previously, only a single gateway was considered. This leads to dependability and throughput issues. In this thesis, I consider a multi-gateway architecture. First, I propose a network architecture in which each gateway serves an L3 router and uses an interior gateway protocol (IGP) to advertise one route per overlay network. I then introduce the notion of gateways being responsible for overlay networks and identify a single-responsibility approach to be most appropriate. Afterward, I discuss potential load-balancing strategies and decide to use randomized load balancing. I show how to implement randomized load balancing using the IGP and WiMoVE control plane. Following that, I present three implementations that use different control plane combinations. I compare their performance based on measured failover times for varied numbers of overlay networks. The results indicate the implementation based on the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) to perform best. Even though the implementation handles over 2000 overlay networks, large deployments require tens of thousands of overlay networks. I identify and analyze scalability issues in the implementations and discuss potential solutions.
You can download the PDF file here.