[mesh-dev] Planning per-router configs for makenode

Mon Mar 9 15:01:39 PDT 2015

Awesome writeup, Marc!

I actually ordered 6 of the Western Digital routers. Adrian is buying one of them from us. I also registered us for a business account with Amazon. We should get them by early next week.

On 03/09/2015 10:37 AM, max b wrote:
> Thanks for thinking this all through Marc!
>
> A couple things I was thinking
>
> We're going to need poe for all of these devices, except for the MyNet. How
> cheap was that little poe strip that you bought for our little dev setup?
> We'll also then need a place to plug in two AC devices (doesn't seem like a
> big deal).
>
>
> One possible downside to this setup is that all of the CPU-intensive stuff
> > is handled by the My Net router and the other (very capable) devices are
> > just bridging. I think the solution is to accept this less-than-perfect
> > solution for now and rely on whatever future router we decide to use as a
> > My Net replacement to have a much faster CPU (this is probably a safe bet).
>
>
> It's not clear necessarily how very capable the power bridges are. Also -
> it allows us to use a much larger variety of other gear, including much
> cheaper mikrotic gear (especially some neat AC devices) that don't support
> openwrt.
>
> However, we DO need to come up with a solution for accessing and monitoring
> all of the bridged gear that is attached to these MyNet routers. Because
> each node is assigned a /26, we could probably reserve x.x.x.2 for whatever
> device is on port 1, x.x.x.3 for whatever device is on port 2, etc.
>
>
>
> > I should mention that Max and Adri today discovered that CPU _is_ a huge
> > limiting factor on the Picostation 2 routers, so if we put too much load on
> > the (granted much much faster, maybe 7-8 times faster) newer devices it may
> > become an issue again.
>
>
> Let's see what we can do here. We might consider some small router board
> with many ethernet ports which we can run the firmware on. I'm not sure
> what options are out there, but something like this:
> http://routerboard.com/RB750GL  I have no idea what sort of support for
> openwrt they have...
>
> We just ordered five Western Digital My Net N750 routers for use in the
> > Omni test network, and I think the N600 version (same, but non-gigabit and
> > cheaper) is a good candidate for home-routers that we can give to people.
>
>
> Awesome - I'm excited to check these out!
>
> On Sun, Mar 8, 2015 at 7:58 PM, Marc Juul <juul at labitat.dk> wrote:
>
> > Right now makenode has configs that are trying to handle differences in
> > chipsets, frequency, etc. in a way that's agnostic of the actual router
> > model. That's cool, but maybe more trouble than it's worth (at least for
> > now).
> >
> > Unless there are objections I'm going to change it so we have one
> > configuration per router model. I want us to get to a point, very soon,
> > where we have the following working and separate configurations:
> >
> > * Nanobridge M5
> > ** Bridging only
> > * Nanostation M5
> > ** Bridging only (on both ethernet ports)
> > * Nanostation M2
> > ** Bridging only (on both ethernet ports)
> > * Western Digital My Net N600/N750
> > ** Full sudowrt firmware with the 5 GHz radio only having
> > pplsopen.net-node2node
> >
> > The My Net has five ethernet ports. I'm thinking we can configure them
> > like so:
> >
> > Port 1: To home DSL/Cable Internet connection (if any)
> > Port 2: Connect your local gear to the mesh (like peoplesopen.net ssid
> > but wired)
> > Port 3: Connect a Nanostation M2 which is basically like adding an
> > antenna. You'd use this to extend your coverage out onto the street (or you
> > could just add an actual antenna if that's feasible given distance between
> > routers and coaxial loss).
> > Port 4 and 5: Connect rooftop Nanobridge M5s or Nanostation M5s.
> >
> > In the future we should consider making it possible to easily reconfigure
> > these, both at initial configuration time and through an "advanced" tab in
> > the GUI, but for now I think it's much easier to have ports dedicated to
> > each operation.
> >
> > Here's how we'd use this in different scenarios:
> >
> > # We're just relaying off someone's rooftop
> >
> > We'd have two or more Nano(bridge/station) M5s on the roof and they'd just
> > connect to each-other. They're already bridging so no extra configuration
> > is needed.
> >
> > # Someone just wants to be part of the mesh without paying a lot
> >
> > They get a My Net N600 and hook it into their internet, if any.
> >
> > # Someone wants a rooftop link and wants to use the mesh in their house
> >
> > They get a My Net N600 and hook it into their internet, if any, and they
> > hook their rooftop-mounted Nano(bridge/station) into port 4 or 5 of the My
> > Net.
> >
> > # Previous scenario but with more street-level coverage
> >
> > They additionally hook in a Nanostation M2 to port 3 of the My Net or they
> > hook in one or more external antennas to the My Net using the internal u.fl
> > connectors. The second solution is definitely not something we should
> > encourage for people who aren't already comfortable with that level of DIY.
> >
> > -----
> >
> > One possible downside to this setup is that all of the CPU-intensive stuff
> > is handled by the My Net router and the other (very capable) devices are
> > just bridging. I think the solution is to accept this less-than-perfect
> > solution for now and rely on whatever future router we decide to use as a
> > My Net replacement to have a much faster CPU (this is probably a safe bet).
> >
> > I should mention that Max and Adri today discovered that CPU _is_ a huge
> > limiting factor on the Picostation 2 routers, so if we put too much load on
> > the (granted much much faster, maybe 7-8 times faster) newer devices it may
> > become an issue again.
> >
> > We just ordered five Western Digital My Net N750 routers for use in the
> > Omni test network, and I think the N600 version (same, but non-gigabit and
> > cheaper) is a good candidate for home-routers that we can give to people.
> >
> > Thoughts?
> >
> > --
> > marc/juul
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > mesh-dev mailing list
> > mesh-dev at lists.sudoroom.org
> > https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/mesh-dev
> >
> >
>
>
>
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