Greetings,
Here at Washington State University, we have a group of Electrical
Engineering students who are doing a senior design project. This is a
multi semester project (About 2 years) and promises to have a big impact as
long as we can steer them in the right direction.
(A little background).
Coincidentally, I'm pretty close to getting 9.6K packet going in this area.
Redhat Linux 6.1, with
libax25-0.0.7-1, ax25-apps-0.0.4-1, and ax25-tools-0.0.5-1. We are using
Kenwood TH-D7's (Funded by another research project).
So my understanding of AX.25 is as follows: The Linux Kernel gets a network
packet all ready to go, but instead of launching it through it's network
device (eth0 for example), using IP Masquerading and hard routing commands,
I can get it to route the information through the serial port. At which
time the kiss protocol is utilized as a driver so the kernel can send and
receive packets through the serial port packet device. And isn't it true
that the actual protocol of the packets exchanged is AX.25?
The reason I need to know is because I would like this group of students to
write a driver for windows 95/98 (maybe NT) to allow the same sort of
device interaction. Naturally I'm looking for "double click the setup.exe"
with minimal instructions. I'm a UNIX Admin / programmer by trade, but I
also see the value in making this hobby easier for others, thereby growing
the hobby. In my mind I envision Windows 95, and Linux chatting happily
along using the same protocol Linux is currently using for AX.25.
They also plan on building a radio card for a PC also. While I think this
is over the scope of the class, and that it may be too expensive to
actually distribute, the professor strongly disagrees with me, and insists
that they can make it work. They feel they can manufacture enough to make
them reasonably priced, but he also is willing to sell them in "kit" form,
to be built by the end user. The kit's might cost $75.00. The goal of the
group is to start at 9.6Kb, and then move up to 19.2. I should mention
they want to use the 222MHz band. And then if all goes well, they would
move right up to 56Kb.
I'm excited about the potential of this project, but I lack the
understanding of the actual protocol, and of high-speed packet in general.
I would greatly appreciate a critique of the proposed plan.
Specific Questions
1) What is the actual protocol used in the packets via the radio link?
2) Has anyone already created a driver for windows for this protocol?
3) Is it possible (with a driver, some convoluted way) to get windows to be
compatible with the Linux AX.25 protocol? Has it been done before? Website?
4) If the above is over ambitious. What other protocols could be used
which would be compatible for multiple operating systems?
5) What piece of hardware (within the scope of this project) do you think
the "global" amateur radio community would benefit most from?
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David M. Ritzenthaler http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~ritz
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (509)335-7301
Washington State University Work Fax (509)335-3818
School of Elect. Engr & Comp Sci. - Pullman, WA 99164-2752
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