Wishlist/Mesh Networking
From Openmoko
Wishes warning! This article or section documents one or more OpenMoko Wish List items, the features described here may or may not be implemented in the future. |
Contents |
Introduction
Mesh networking allows communication with others without the need for network infrastructure such as cellular base stations or wireless access points. A mesh network treats everyone's computer as a wireless router and learns about the links in the network, computes paths between all users, and updates the IP routing tables so that you can send packets to anyone else who is part of the mobile ad-hoc network (MANet).
Hardware
The minimal requirement to run Mesh networking is having at least one network interface configured. A WLAN or Bluetooth network interface can be used for this (actually you could use a wired interface but you won't be very mobile then!).
Software
There is different software out there supporting Mesh networking.
Netsukuku
Netsukuku is a mesh network or a p2p net system that generates and sustains itself autonomously. It is designed to handle an unlimited number of nodes with minimal CPU and memory resources.
Note: from the Ntk features list The design of Netsukuku prioritises the stability of net. For this reason, it isn't specifically suitable for mobile nodes. However if the mobile nodes are inside an area covered by static Netsukuku nodes, there aren't any problems. It is also possible to use other mesh network protocols designed for mobility in conjunction with Netsukuku
Mobile Mesh
Mobile Mesh has been developed for mobile ad-hoc routing protocols. Mobile Mesh is developed part of a research project at The MITRE Corporation.
LUNAR
LUNAR stands for Lightweight Underlay Network Ad-hoc Routing and implements a bare-bones on-demand route discovery protocol with broadcast dampening and reconfigures communications paths typically within 3 seconds. LUNAR includes automatic IP gatewaying and supports IP unicast and broadcast. A dedicated LUNAR over Bluetooth version is available running over a Bluetooth network using BlueZ.
Routing protocols
AODV
AODV is a routing protocol very light in term of power and energy consumption; it provides at the support for mobility. It is a proactive algorithm, so it does not send any message if you don't need, and that is good for comsumption