[CWN-Summit] Seeking advice on low-cost mesh node wifi in St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Ramon Roca ramon.roca at guifi.net
Thu Nov 20 15:41:44 CST 2008


I thought I already explained that :)

The vast majority of the wireless links are WDS links with dedicated radios.
Think that we've been using multiple radios since the very beginning, 
even when those were not available at low-cost, by cabling several 
WRT54G units. Now boards capable to have several miniPCIs are the most 
used for that.
There are also some areas running in ad-hoc mode, which are quite 
new/experimental.

I've seen some confusion, which in this case is not only about my 
english, also because sometimes imho there is a terminology confusion 
and the need to distinguish between the tool and the goal.
Let me try to explain what I mean for each term:

    * *free network*: A network built by a peer to peer agreements open
      to all.
      We can't assimilate free network because using a particular
      technology which is open source. free networks shouldn't be tied
      to technologies or private networks can be built by using open source
    * *Wireless mesh network*: A wireless network made by several nodes
      which provide coverage and are linked between them in a single big
      network. Can link with other cable networks by using gateways, but
      those gateways shouldn't be at each node.
    * *Wireless mesh network in ad-hoc mode*. A type of wireless
      communications where every node is willing to forward data to any
      other nodes, runs specific dynamic protocols like BATMAN, OLSR...
    * W*ireless mesh network in infrastructure / managed mode*. Links
      are usually done through TCP-IP routing by dynamic protocols like
      BGP or OSPF either though ap/client links or WDS links. Usually
      the links are planned and designed to be stable.
    * *Backbone/backhaul: *On networks with infrastructure mode,
      typically there are links with higher capacity at the gateways. On
      traditional networks those are typically the fiber. On wireless
      networks in infrastructure mode, that could also refer to the high
      capacity dedicated links which enables the communication between
      nodes.

Ramon.


En/na Stelios Valavanis ha escrit:
> one problem with meraki is that it's single radio so you're backhaul between 
> radios and also wifi connections to end users is all contending for the same 
> air space. has anyone else employed a 2-radio setup like cuwin did so you can 
> have the backhaul separate (say on 802.11a or n on 5.8ghz) from the wifi side 
> that end users can tap into?
>
> On Wednesday 19 November 2008 10:47:40 am L. Aaron Kaplan wrote:
>   
>> Stephen Ronan wrote:
>>     
>>> Good point. I don't have the relevant experience to be able to vouch
>>> for Meraki's continuing efficacy with more than a hundred nodes all
>>> interlinked on the same channel and network in a compact neighborhood.
>>> I haven't tried it and would be wary of doing so. At the same time, it
>>> would seem that, in most circumstances, if one started to see problems
>>> over a certain density, one could  start to use additional networks
>>> using separate channels. A while back, with a network of close to a
>>> hundred Netgear WGT634U devices running Roofnet in a single housing
>>>       
>> I totally agree!
>> Single channel meshes (batman, meraki, ...) over 100 nodes seems like
>> asking for trouble.
>>
>>     
>>> development, we needed to separate a cluster of the centrally located
>>> ones onto a separate channel and that worked well.
>>> I'm not sure what exactly Meraki is doing for its mile square or
>>> larger deployments
>>> <http://meraki.com/solutions/business/municipal/>... whether devices
>>> are all on the same network running on the same channel, how many
>>> devices they consider adequate for such a deployment, what experience
>>> they have with highly concentrated networks with a great many devices
>>> in a single very dense residential neighborhood...
>>>   - Stephen
>>>       
>> I *guess* they must use some kind of multichannel super node. But I
>> would love to be corrected ;-))
>>
>>
>> BTW: it is cool that this list got some new posts!
>> Way to go.
>>
>> a.
>>
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>>     
>
>   



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