Non-profit Group Releases Open Source Mesh WiFi Network Software (Hot HardWare)

[Posted August 16, 2011 by ris]

Hot HardWare reports that Geeks Without Frontiers has released open source software based on the 802.11s WiFi standard that lets Linux machines be their own WiFi network. "Geeks claims that the mesh networks created by open80211s will be highly secure. It uses strong authentication to allow only authorized individuals entry and encryption, to keep prying eyes from seeing the traffic."

Non-profit Group Releases Open Source Mesh WiFi Network Software (Hot HardWare)

Posted Aug 16, 2011 18:43 UTC (Tue) by jimparis (guest, #38647) [Link]

Seems like, more specifically, they've released version 0.4.1 of their software. http://o11s.org/trac/wiki/RELEASE_NOTES-0.4.1

Non-profit Group Releases Open Source Mesh WiFi Network Software (Hot HardWare)

Posted Aug 17, 2011 5:11 UTC (Wed) by alison (subscriber, #63752) [Link] (5 responses)

What is the advantage of 802.11s over existing mesh network standards for the stated purpose of developing nation mesh WiFi? Wasn't OLPC using mesh networks in rural areas for a long time? Is 802.11s simply more secure? I assume that the mesh networks of OLPC were pretty much open.

Non-profit Group Releases Open Source Mesh WiFi Network Software (Hot HardWare)

Posted Aug 17, 2011 6:20 UTC (Wed) by corsac (subscriber, #49696) [Link]

The work was apparently sponsored in part by OLPC so I guess they wanted something standardized for the next versions.

Non-profit Group Releases Open Source Mesh WiFi Network Software (Hot HardWare)

Posted Aug 17, 2011 15:18 UTC (Wed) by blitzkrieg3 (guest, #57873) [Link] (3 responses)

802.11s is really the first ethernet based mesh networking standard. OLPC uses a draft version and it is in their interest to get the standard out there so people use it. The advantage of 802.11s is that it's an IEEE standard: it's something that we expect consumer grade routers and wireless devices (read iHardware and Windows) to come with.

The disadvantage is that it isn't B.A.T.M.A.N or Babel, two protocols developed since the advent of 802.11s that do the same thing, but better.

Non-profit Group Releases Open Source Mesh WiFi Network Software (Hot HardWare)

Posted Aug 17, 2011 15:52 UTC (Wed) by robert_s (subscriber, #42402) [Link] (2 responses)

Uh, from what I can tell, 802.11s isn't about mesh routing protocols. It does mandate a baseline routing protocol ("HWMP"), but allows other routing protocols, such as B.A.T.M.A.N, to be dropped in instead.

Non-profit Group Releases Open Source Mesh WiFi Network Software (Hot HardWare)

Posted Aug 17, 2011 16:14 UTC (Wed) by xxiao (guest, #9631) [Link]

other than OLPC there is really no deployment with 11s, and for the development it has very little momentum, probably because other alternatives are better or more tested in the field already.

Non-profit Group Releases Open Source Mesh WiFi Network Software (Hot HardWare)

Posted Aug 17, 2011 17:53 UTC (Wed) by blitzkrieg3 (guest, #57873) [Link]

You're absolutely right. I wonder what protocol vendors are going to standardize on.