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Mesh Networking
Mesh refers to a concept of many autonomous devices forming self-organizing networks to create dynamic network infrastructure.
In a mesh network, every device that uses the same mesh protocol becomes part of the network. When a new device is heard (a device owner comes within the vicinity of an existing mesh network) the network re-organizes itself to include the new device.
Routing over a mesh network is quite different than a managed network. Each user in the mesh network becomes a router in the network and exchanges information between other nodes based on various criteria including link performance and reliability.
There are a variety of open source mesh technologies in use, some have been used in commercial applications with varying success.
RoofNet : A Mesh implementation by MIT.
AODV (Ad hoc On Demand Distance Vector), a mesh protocol used in LocustWorlds product and many other commercial "mesh" solutions.
Microsoft Research's Mesh layer for Windows XP (DynamicStateRouting)
Mesh in the news
March 2005 : [^http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/25/cork_citiy_wifi_network/ Wi-Fi network covers Cork City]
OLSR
The [^http://www.olsr.org/ Optimized Link State Routing] (OLSR) protocol is a dynamic routing protocol for ad-hoc wireless networks. Ad-Hoc doesn't necessarily mean ad-hoc mode on a wireless card, it generally means "ad-hoc" in the sense that the network can be largely unstructured and dynamic.
We are experimenting with OLSR for local NeighborHoodNetworks. The software is open source, and runs on Linux for x86 (PC, WRAP, etc.) and mips (OpenWRT) platforms.
OLSR can maintain information about link stability and reliability, and publish reliable routes to neighbors. When running, olsrd will discover other olsrd nodes and create routing entries to the other networks IP address space automatically.
Downloading the software
Software:
Installing on a Linksys WRT54G
root@OpenWrt:~# ipkg install http://www.bcwireless.net/ipkg/olsrd-bcw_0.4.8_mipsel.ipk Downloading http://www.bcwireless.net/ipkg/olsrd-bcw_0.4.8_mipsel.ipk ... Connecting to www.bcwireless.net[204.50.80.21]:80 olsrd-bcw_0.4.8_mips 100% |*****************************| 77239 00:00 ETA Done. Unpacking olsrd-bcw...Done. Configuring olsrd-bcw...Done.
The configuration file lives in /etc/olsrd.conf and is setup to monitor the br0 (wireless and wired switch) interface by default.
By default the vlan1 interface (the broadband port connecting to your upstream) is not monitored. This could have interesting results on a shared network segment on say.. Shaw.
Installing on BCWLinux
