Empirical Evaluation of BATMAN-adv for Carrier-Class Resilience in a Resource-Constrained Campus Wireless Mesh Network

Abstract

The proliferation of digital educational resources necessitates robust and affordable campus networking solutions, particularly in emerging economies where infrastructural and budgetary constraints are pronounced. Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) present a viable alternative to traditional wired backhauls; however, their efficacy is critically dependent on the underlying routing protocol’s ability to provide resilient connectivity without incurring prohibitive costs. This study presents an empirical evaluation of the BATMAN-adv (Better Approach to Mobile Ad-hoc Networking – advanced) routing protocol, deployed within the production network of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana. Employing a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, we integrated quantitative data from NS3 simulations and physical network deployments with qualitative insights from interviews with IT administrators. Our findings demonstrate that a multi-path redundancy architecture, facilitated by BATMAN-adv, achieved 99.9% operational uptime with a mean failover time of 1.5 seconds during simulated link failures. This performance substantially surpassed dual-gateway (99.8% uptime, 3.2s failover) and non-redundant (92.5% uptime) architectures. Crucially, this carrier-class resilience was delivered at an estimated 90% reduction in capital expenditure compared to proprietary alternatives, leveraging commodity hardware and the protocol’s decentralized design. The study concludes that BATMAN-adv is a pragmatically superior routing solution for institutions where fiscal constraint and operational reliability are paramount, effectively bridging the gap between theoretical network models and tangible, sustainable deployment.