[Commotion-discuss] Next step:extend the range of a local mesh network.

Dan Staples danstaples at opentechinstitute.org
Tue Aug 13 21:07:05 UTC 2013


On 08/13/2013 04:56 PM, Dan Staples wrote:
> Hi Luigi,
> 
> Glad to hear about all the successes!
> 
> I have made a mesh network from Raspberry Pis before (battery-powered,
> even), so it's definitely possible. The main challenge is to pick a good
> USB wireless adapter. I recommend the TP-Link TL-WN722N [1], since its
> driver supports ad-hoc mode in recent Linux kernels.
> 
> Then, you install your Raspberry Pi operating system (I recommend
> Raspbian), and configure the wireless adapter to be in ad-hoc mode with
> the correct SSID,BSSID,channel, etc. This is done in
> /etc/network/interfaces...if you need info on how to to that, I can give
> you resources.
> 
> Then you can install and configure OLSRd on the Pi, so that it can mesh
> with the other devices. For an olsrd config file, you can look at
> /var/etc/olsrd.conf on one of your picostations for an example.
> 
> Let us know how that goes!
> 
> -Dan
> 
> 
> [1] http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?model=TL-WN722N
> 
> On 08/13/2013 12:04 PM, LuigiScop wrote:
>>
>> It was a pleasure to join Commotion team several  months ago.
>> With your support I was able to implement a local mesh newtwork with
>> two routers (picostation), my  two Linux LapTops and Iphone.
>> I have also tested the capabiity of commotiont application portal by
>> installing either Tidepools and MediGrid.
>> Most of the time spent to play with the raspberry and after installing
>> MediaGrid.
>> Everything works.I tried to upload and share some music and the chat.
>>
>> Based on this experience I have some questions.
>> a)How to make the Raspberry pi part of the Mesh?In my application I have
>> connected it to the AP as external device.
>> b)Is there any future for the integration of raspberry in the commotion
>> network?
>>
>> Last question.
>> c)My idea is to buy two Nanostations and to extend the range of my local
>> mesh.
>> Any suggestion based on your experience?
>> To reach longer distances(1 to 2  miles)I would choose a 5Ghz (the power
>> limit in Italy is 1 W output power at 5Ghz).Much more less for Wifi(15dbm).
>> Thanks for your support and suggestions.
>>
>> Luigi
>>
>> Il 19/06/2013 14:00, commotion-discuss-request at lists.chambana.net ha
>> scritto:
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>>> Today's Topics:
>>>
>>>     1. Commotion installation on Linux laptop (LuigiScop)
>>>     2. Re: Commotion installation on Linux laptop (Dan Staples)
>>>     3. Material for a workshop on mesh networks (Alexander Chemeris)
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:37:36 +0200
>>> From: LuigiScop <luigi.scopelliti at fastwebnet.it>
>>> To: commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>> Subject: [Commotion-discuss] Commotion installation on Linux laptop
>>> Message-ID: <51C0B700.4000207 at fastwebnet.it>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>>
>>>
>>> Everything at home which has a wifi interface can be connected and the
>>> network(built by 2 picostations) is working as ad-hoc network.
>>>     If the fridge,the oven or the stove had a wifi interface, they would
>>> be connected to commotionwireless.net too.
>>>      The only issue I have found is that if I try to access internet with
>>> the  linux laptop  using the ad-hoc interface of the AP router,I can't.
>>>      But if I use the router AP as master ,I can.
>>>      I red somewhere that this feature is not avalable for laptop. Please
>>> confirm.
>>>      On the other end if I connect a local web server to the POE LAN port
>>> of one router, I can have access to the  web page also from the linux
>>> laptop through the  ad-hoc  interface     of the router(picostation).
>>>      As a demo to show the capabilities of commotion solution I would
>>> like to implement a Server application.
>>>      Which application  do you suggest first that can explain better the
>>> commotion solution capabilities?
>>>      I need to recruit some people on ths project.
>>>
>>>       Luigi
>>>
>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Commotion-discuss mailing list
>>>> Commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-discuss
>>> When connecting your laptop to the picostation over ad-hoc, do you have
>>> olsrd running on the laptop? If so, and if the picostation has access to
>>> the internet, your laptop should get a route via olsrd to the internet
>>> as well.
>>>
>>> To troubleshoot this, try checking the output of "nc localhost 2006" (to
>>> show olsrd info), and "route -n" on the laptop to show local routes.
>>>
>>> As for applications, I would suggest either Tidepools (a local mapping
>>> application: http://www.tidepools.co/) or MediaGrid (a secure
>>> file-sharing and webchat application:
>>> https://github.com/danstaples/MediaGrid). They both require a good bit
>>> of tinkering to work well, but could be a fun project. Or you could try
>>> for something simpler to setup, like an Apache web server.
>>>
>>> Also, when you have the server set up, try using the application portal
>>> on the picostation
>>> (https://code.commotionwireless.net/projects/commotion/wiki/Application_Portal).
>>>
>>> When you "add an application", it will show up automatically on other
>>> routers nearby within a few minutes!
>>>
>>> Dan
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
> 
> 

As for your other questions, we would like to have a Commotion image for
Raspberry Pi, but it is not a top priority for now. Perhaps someone from
the dev community can create one ;)

And we often use Nanostations for connecting parts of a mesh network
over longer distances. They work really well for that purpose, but
aren't the best for providing access points since they are directional.

-Dan

-- 
Dan Staples

Open Technology Institute
https://commotionwireless.net
OpenPGP key: http://disman.tl/pgp.asc
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