A couple of Linksys wrt54gs + OpenWRT + olsrd + a bit of configuration = wireless mesh network.
By
Elihu
on July 17, 2007
I just got a 3-node mesh going with a pair of wrt54gs and a laptop. Configuration steps for wrt54g: install OpenWRT "white russian" firmware, configure it for ad-hoc mode and install olsrd and any desired modules from the web interface, ssh in and add a few lines to one of the boot scripts to remove eth1 (the wireless interface) from the bridge br0 and set an appropriate ip address for eth1, and edit the olsrd.conf file to use "eth1" as the olsr interface. Reboot, and it should all work.
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Discussion (5)
<3 OpenWrt
I was somewhat surprised how easy it was to install and set up. I particularly liked how it had a list of available packages on the web interface, and I could download and install them just by clicking "install". Setting up olsr wasn't quite so user friendly, but at least I didn't have to compile anything.
I'm actually planning on setting up a mesh network in not too long. Do you mind if I hit you up if I run into any problems?
Also, I really want to switch to Kamikaze, but the lack of good documentation (that I can find) for how the new configuration system is different from the old, familiar, comfortable (and infuriating) nvram is a little off-putting.
Feel free to ask me questions, either here or you can find my email if you look hard enough for it.
I found an interesting page describing the history of olsr:
https://www.open-mesh.net/misc/optimized-link-state-routing-deamon/olsr-story.txt/view
It seems that most of the original ideas behind olsr were found not to work, so current implementations now are more or less a stripped down link-state routing algorithm with an ETX-based link cost metric. They now want to move away from link-state altogether and work on a distance-vector algorithm they're calling batman that appears to be a re-invention of DSDV, which was largely superseded by AODV and DSR about five years ago.
https://www.open-mesh.net/batman/documentation
I haven't tried roofnet, but it might use a saner, better tested, more scalable protocol.
My mesh network now has a web page:
http://bootlegether.net