[Commotion-dev] nailing down the default mesh network

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

One idea that we discussed at the last dev sprint last Thursday/Friday is
nailing down a default mesh profile that we can set everywhere.  The core idea
is that people can use this as the easiest way to get started, and also, it
can serve as the mesh config for impromptu meshing.

Currently, we have been using this:

SSID: commotionwireless.net
BSSID: 02:CA:FF:EE:BA:BE
Channel: 5
IP range: 5.0.0.0/255.0.0.0

There are two issues that we need to address in order to nail down this
default profile: a valid IP range, and perhaps a unique BSSID.

5.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 is an officially allocated block of IPs that is actually
deployed in some places.  We should use an IP block that is officially
allocated for uses like Commotion intends.  We discussed this, and it seems
like the best bet is to use one of the RFC1918 private network ranges (10/8,
172.16/12, and 192.168/16).  172.16.0.0-172.31.255.255 seems to be the least
used of the three.  It privdes 1,048,576 unique IP addresses, so plenty.

We might want to consider using 100.64.0.0/10, which is reserved for "carrier
grade NAT", i.e. a large scale NATed network that is attached to the internet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network#Dedicated_space_for_Carrier_Grade_NAT_deployments

The rules for using it are in RFC 6598:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6598


As for the BSSID, I think we should probably use a unique BSSID to prevent
collisions with other mesh networks.  02:ca:ff:ee:ba:be is used by a number of
other meshes.  It really could be any valid adhoc BSSID like 02:02:02:02:02:02

.hc