Ground routing
Version 1 (Ilario Gelmetti, 08/18/2015 10:21 am)
1 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | h1. Ground routing |
---|---|---|---|
2 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
3 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | We call "ground routing" the setup where a router running Libre-Mesh is connected via cable(s), eventually through a switch, to some wireless routers running the original firmware in "WDS":https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_distribution_system (transparent bridge mode) Ap/Sta mode. |
4 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
5 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | Ground routing is already used in Ninux community (known as "Routing a terra":https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tEp4rFNDis4RAwwo4wwg6xDMdqeJKAi8FVYh_FsPEdk) and in Guifi community (known as "Supernodos híbridos":http://es.wiki.guifi.net/wiki/Supernodos_h%C3%ADbridos). |
6 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
7 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | h2. Physical setup |
8 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
9 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | There are two physical setup variant usually used: |
10 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | * each wireless routers in WDS mode is connected via an ethernet cable to a different port of the ground router running Libre-Mesh; |
11 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | * the wireless routers in WDS mode are connected via an ethernet cable to a switch which is connected with an ethernet cable to a port of the ground router running Libre-Mesh. |
12 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
13 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | First mode have the advantage that doesn't need 802.1q tagged vlan support (on both ground router and wireless routers with WDS) while has the disadvantage that you have to run one cable for each wireless routers with WDS, the second mode has the advantage that you can run just one ethernet cable from your roof switch to your ground router but both ground router and wireless routers with WDS need to support 802.1q tagged vlan in order to avoid layer 2 loops. |
14 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
15 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | h2. Pros and cons of using ground routing in your community |
16 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
17 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | *Pros:* |
18 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
19 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | * separation between routing and radio |
20 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | ** less load on wireless devices; |
21 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | ** for working on routing stuff/flashing/doing experiments you work on just one easily accessible device; |
22 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | * usage of vendor provided wireless drivers |
23 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | ** could perform differently than ones included in OpenWRT; |
24 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | ** could support some more features (like dynamic frequency selection or transmit power control) eventually meaning less power consumption; |
25 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | * wireless routers in WDS mode on roof doesn't need to be supported by OpenWRT/Libre-Mesh but need to support vlan and WDS; |
26 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | * less devices doing actual routing so less routing data traffic overhead. |
27 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
28 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | *Cons:* |
29 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
30 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | * another router is needed |
31 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | ** more money to spend; |
32 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | ** more energy consumption; |
33 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | * "vendor lock-in":https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in because WDS modes from different firmware vendors are "not compatible":http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/clientmode#wds_-_wireless_distribution_system: in order to connect to a node using ground routing with original firmware on antennas you have to buy wireless hardware from the same vendor and use original firmware; |
34 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | * use of closed source firmware on wireless routers; |
35 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | * limitation on wireless modes available: usually only access point - station mode is supported from original firmware so no proper mesh (ad-hoc or 802.11s) is possible |
36 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | ** some devices are more central than others: less decentralization; |
37 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | ** you have to plan in advance which devices are stations and which is the access point; |
38 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | ** using ap-sta approach some links are not possible, like sta-sta or ap-ap, that otherwise, using ad-hoc, would be possible; this affects when using omnidirectional or sector antennas while isn't a problem using directive antennas; |
39 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | ** the stations are going to connect to a specific access point, if this goes down all the stations are isolated, this is a single point of failure; |
40 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
41 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | h2. Configuration |
42 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
43 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | TODO |
44 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | |
45 | 1 | Ilario Gelmetti | Refer on comments in "/etc/config/lime file":https://github.com/libre-mesh/lime-packages/blob/develop/packages/lime-system/files/etc/config/lime for configuration. |