On 09/28/2014 04:29 PM, George Lu wrote:
> Hi Brian,
>
> I had evaluated babel, OLSR, and Batman-adv two years ago on a test
> network of 5 beaglebones to demonstrate wifi mesh networking. I
> concluded Batman-adv was the one to explore further. I was using
> Robert Nelson's ubuntu (3.2 kernel) on beaglebone white then. I had
> tried three different long range wifi dongles from Alpha. The black
> one
> (http://www.amazon.com/Alfa-AWUS036NHA-Wireless-Adaptor-Compatible/dp/B004Y6MIXS)
> has Atheros ar9271 chipset and has the best kernel support on
> Beaglebone. The more common model is based on realtek rtl8192cu
> chipset. Back then rtl8192cu driver on arm was not anywhere near
> ready. I would still strongly prefer AR9271 based wifi dongle today. I
> had to use a USB Y-cable to make sure there is sufficient current
> during boot time to power up the wifi dongle. BB only has a USB host
> port, so this was a bit inconvenient. I resorted to tie the 5V and GND
> lines of the USB to a 5V supply to ensure smooth boot. 
>
> With a 14" omnidirectional antenna and tx-power cranked up full, I was
> able to sustain decent connectivity at ~300 meter per hop during field
> demonstration. 
>
> For batman-adv, I configured every node's bat0 interface on
> 192.168.50.x subnet. (wlan0 has its own static address assignment in
> /etc/network/interfaces)
>  
> When starting a mesh node, a startbatman.sh is called that has the
> following:
> modprobe batman-adv
> ifconfig wlan0 mtu 1528
> batctl if add wlan0
> ifconfig bat0 192.168.50.218 up
> batctl gw client
> ip route del default
> ip route add default via 192.168.50.1
>
> On the node serving as gateway through its eth0, I had the additional
> lines for Network Address Translation.
> sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
> iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface eth0 -j
> MASQUERADE
> iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface bat0 -j ACCEPT
>
> You could add an @reboot line in /etc/crontab that calls your
> startbatman.sh on reboot every time.
>
> I have not updated this since the switch to 3.8 kernel, but I am
> pretty sure it would work on the current Debian image. I would
> recommend you use the 3.14 kernel to benefit from the more reliable USB.
>
> George
>
> On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 2:30 PM, Brian Anderson <[email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>
>     Hi all,
>
>     I am interested in setting up a wireless mesh network using a
>     collection of BBBs (and possibly other devices).  Does anyone have
>     experience setting up a wireless mesh network using BBB?
>
>     I am not really interested in a so-called "wireless distribution
>     system" that is used to extend an SSID across a wide area using
>     wireless mesh networking.  I am much more interested in setting up
>     a network of cooperating nodes that talk with each other (and to
>     the internet via a gateway/mesh portal connected simultaneously to
>     the internet and the mesh).
>
>     In particular, I'm interested in:
>
>       * What distro and kernel are you using?
>           * Ideally this would be with one of RCNs Debian images, but
>     if not, I'm interested in what you might have used.
>           * If you have done something with a Linux based system other
>     than a BBB, I'd like to know about that too.
>       * What mesh routing protocol was used?  Batman, Babel/AHCP,
>     HWMP, OLSR, ...
>       * Steps to configure the mesh network and gateway.
>       * Did you use 802.11s?  If so, presumably using the 802.11s
>     support in the kernel?
>       * WiFi chipset that was used (presumably supporting mesh mode). 
>     SOFTMAC or HARDMAC?
>
>     I have researched the topic fairly extensively and can probably
>     set something up via trial and error myself.  Prior to diving into
>     that, I wanted to see if anyone has already done some work with
>     wireless mesh networking and BBB (or something else) and would be
>     willing to share their experience and knowledge!
>
>     Thanks in advance.
>
>     Cheers,
>
>     ba
>
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Nice work there!

You could also look into cjdns it may fit your needs

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