Mesh networking information ?

[David L. Vrablic]

Ok, now that I have "jumped of the cliff" I'll ask in this section of the forum.
I am lighting up very small villages and because if the trees I don't think I can cover the whole towns with one AP.
I was wondering if I could develope a "Use a little and pass it on " approach for a small resi system.

Just what does it take to make a mesh system?

Are they all on the same channel.

Does STAR-OS have the capability if configured properly?

Any ideas?

Sorry to look so dumb but this is something I just have not studied yet, and I really want to know.

[ddvzlnz]

You can do this with Star-OS easy. Put up your first AP as usual. One of this AP's clients will be your "repeater" . I put it in quotes becuase most 802.11b repeaters stink. We'll get to why later. You can create an efficient "repeater" by using a second "ap" with two radios in it. The first radio in the repeater is a client to that first AP. The second radio in the repeater is in AP mode on another channel! Star-OS will do the routing between the two interfaces and you have extended your coverage area without suffering any radio bandwidth bottlenecks.

Usually repeater modes and most mesh modes have all radios on the same channel. By default you lose over 50% of the radio bandwidth. If the IP headwater is an isdn line you will never notice because the radio is faster than the internet connection, but with faster connections it is important. It is also important when you want fast access to a squid cache or some other "local" content.

enjoy
gt

[dkii]

something that may work is put all of them, including your access point into ad-hoc mode with inter-bss relay, and then enable RIP. If I remember correctly, units functioning in ad-hoc mode even have slightly higher throuputs. Unless you are using some sort of encapsulation like pppoe, it will be quite difficult to secure your network though, and I don't know how, or even if it will work at all, just an idea.

[dkii]

also, regarding trees, i'm in central florida, I think we have more trees here than the amazon rain forest. With an amped omni at 72' agl we can pick up the signal 5 miles away, standing on the roof of a one-story house with an amped 5db omni. Note this is just our test set up, including the AP. I'm about 15 miles from our main(real) tower(360' asl/140' agl), with a 24db grid at about 200' ASL(55' agl) I can get a weak link(~5snr) to my house. I've been putting 19db panels at about 35' and not having any signal problems witin a 5 mile radius. I'm using horizontal polarity also.

[David L. Vrablic]

[quote="ddvzlnz"]You can do this with Star-OS easy. Put up your first AP as usual. One of this AP's clients will be your "repeater" . I put it in quotes becuase most 802.11b repeaters stink. We'll get to why later. You can create an efficient "repeater" by using a second "ap" with two radios in it. The first radio in the repeater is a client to that first AP. The second radio in the repeater is in AP mode on another channel! Star-OS will do the routing between the two interfaces and you have extended your coverage area without suffering any radio bandwidth bottlenecks.
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Ok I understand this conf. we are using it now to expand coverage in a couple of locations. I just never thought of it as a mesh app.
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Usually repeater modes and most mesh modes have all radios on the same channel. By default you lose over 50% of the radio bandwidth. If the IP headwater is an isdn line you will never notice because the radio is faster than the internet connection, but with faster connections it is important. It is also important when you want fast access to a squid cache or some other "local" content.

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What I remember seeing was how several of the old TT 2 M SA's could be used in a building and a person could roam through the enviroment.

"In my minds eye" I am seeing a 6 inch cylinder about a 18 in long with a Omni antenna at the top and a directional ant in the buttom.
In between is an active radio in some sort of repeating mode.
I guess I had better do some serious reading. ;-)

.