[CUWiN] Multiple radios?

[Sascha Meinrath]

On Wed, 6 Apr 2005, Bill Comisky wrote:

> On Wed, 6 Apr 2005, Sascha Meinrath wrote:
>
>> Hi Dan,
>> 
>> On Wed, 6 Apr 2005, Dan Flett wrote:
>> 
>>>  Hi all,
>>> 
>>>  Can anyone tell me if the CuWiN software supports multiple wireless 
>>> cards simultaneously in the one platform?  I am concerned about the 
>>> bandwidth penalty and RF interference that would result from everyone 
>>> being on the same channel, transmitting and receiving with the same 
>>> radio.
>> 
>> The CUWiN software is built to handle multiple radios, but that part 
>> hasn't been implemented yet.  We estimate that it should take a month 
>> (and perhaps as little as 2 weeks) of programming time to do, but 
>> haven't managed to find a volunteer to do this or the funding to make 
>> this a priority for the core development staff.  Either way, as soon as 
>> there's a strong interest in this feature, it'll get implemented.
>> 
>> --Sascha
>
> Is that estimate for using the second radio as a local access point 
> (which I've seen a similar estimate for in the past)?  Or would it be 
> for using both radios for mesh backhaul, which is what it seems like Dan 
> was asking. It seems like the latter would be significantly more 
> complicated, since it would likely touch the dynamic routing stuff. 
> Though perhaps I'm making assumptions that the frequency selection would 
> be dynamic..

This would be for one local WAP and one backhaul.  I'm not sure myself 
what would be needed for multiple backhaul radios.  But given that the 
internet connection point is going to be the major bottleneck (until you 
get a DS3 or the like), I'm not overly worried about that aspect of 
things.  Also, folks should check out some of Nitin Vaidya's research on 
channel bonding -- could be that one radio can do a helluvalot more than 
we currently use them for.

--Sascha

-- 
Sascha Meinrath
President                 *   Project Coordinator   *   Policy Analyst
Acorn Worker Collective  ***  CU Wireless Network  ***  Free Press
www.acorncollective.com   *   www.cuwireless.net    *   www.freepress.net