A Framework for the Management of Large-Scale Wireless Network Testbeds

Krishna N. Ramachandran, Kevin C. Almeroth, Elizabeth M. Belding-Royer

Department of Computer Science
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
{krishna, almeroth, ebelding}@cs.ucsb.edu

Wireless testbeds are typically distributed over large physical 
areas. There are often many nodes, some of which are difficult 
to reach on-site or via remote access. As a result, such nodes 
may be manageable using only in-band management techniques making 
the task of testbed management challenging. As a remedy, we 
propose the ATMA framework, a framework which enables out-of-band 
management by deploying a multi-hop mesh network alongside a 
testbed to manage the latter. The ATMA mesh network is designed 
to be self-configuring and therefore can be installed with minimal 
effort. As an extension of the ATMA framework to multi-hop 
wireless testbeds, we have designed and developed a suite of 
tools for the management and monitoring of multi-hop wireless 
testbeds. This paper presents the design of the ATMA framework, 
its extensions, and describes our implementation of the framework 
using low-cost, commodity wireless devices.