Mesh networking: olsrd? b.a.t.m.a.n.? OpenWRT?

[Joshua Judson Rosen]

On 2015-02-25 13:40, Tom Buskey wrote:
> Didn't the One Laptop Per Child project do mesh?

Yes. At the time when they were in the news, I didn't look into the specifics.

I have run across references to OLPC in my research over the last few days,
though: they were using 802.11s (or what became 802.11s).

Actually, that's mentioned both in the Wikipedia article on 802.11s
and in the Wikipedia article on OLPC XO-1:

	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1

	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11s


... and in more detail in the OLPC wiki:

	http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Mesh_Network_Details

Hmm.... That OLPC page looks helpful in filling in some of
the terminology holes I've been stuck in--like what "PREP" means....

-- 
"Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr))))."


> On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 1:17 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen <rozzin at hackerposse.com
> <mailto:rozzin at hackerposse.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 2015-02-20 09:17, Curt Howland wrote:
>     > On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 5:20 PM, Patrick Flaherty <pflaherty at wsi.com <mailto:pflaherty at wsi.com>> wrote:
>     >> If you do get it working, it would be a great talk at a meeting.
>     >
>     > Agreed.
>     >
>     > Mesh networking is interesting, but the implementations appear
>     > difficult to impossible at best.
>
>     That... may actually not be the case anymore....
>
>     When I posed the initial question, I was really sort-of grasping
>     for any leads; but now I've learned enough to at least identify
>     the different options, pick one, and even get one working.
>
>     It looks like the prime contenders for mesh mechanisms are
>     (roughly ordered in accord with the evolutionary timeline):
>
>              - layer-3 OLSR mesh via olsrd
>              - layer-3 B.A.T.M.A.N. mesh via batmand
>              - layer-2 B.A.T.M.A.N. mesh via batman-adv
>              - layer-1(!) mesh via 802.11s
>              - layer-3 B.A.T.M.A.N. mesh via bmx
>
>
>     The 802.11s mesh turns out to be remarkably easy to get up and running,
>     following the HOWTO provided by open80211s project:
>
>     https://github.com/o11s/open80211s/wiki/HOWTO
>
>     (how well it works is yet to be seen)
>
>
>     batman-adv appears to be more generalised than 802.11s:
>     batman-adv can be used to aggregate any collection
>     of layer-2 interfaces--including Wi-Fi (in infrastructure mode,
>     ad-hoc mode, or any other mode), wired ethernet, PPP links,
>     VPN links--where 802.11s (of course) can is usable only with
>     802.11 links (and then only with some chipsets).
>
>     Presumably 802.11s and batman-adv are the most transparent
>     options, since the other (layer-3) options rely on rearranging
>     the *IP* route tables....
>
>     It's still not yet obvious to me what to do about mobile nodes
>     moving between the mesh nodes at speed--i.e., just how quickly
>     the mesh can deal with the topology changing (or what knobs are
>     available for tuning that), or if it makes sense to include
>     traditional APs in the mix so that the roaming nodes just do
>     traditional client dissociation/association cycles, or how
>     to handle roaming nodes that aren't equipped to do mesh networking
>     themselves.....