Portable mesh routers are integrated in wireless networks, where there is always a need to expand the subscription domain of the host network. This is done by providing the wireless connectivity among host and network and routing the data to the closest or best gateway in the absence of a gateway.

Repeaters are dumb network devices propagating every data packet forwarded to it and sending them to all the connecting nodes, gateways and other network devices. A portable mesh repeater also works as a router or repeater by providing wireless connectivity to different network nodes. It is normally not connected to the Internet.