[Question] Is this really MANET ? #3
Description
First of all, I love your project — awesome job on making this build!
It’s cool to have more and more networking devices and network topologies to play with.
I’m currently building similar stuff for me and my friends to run around in the field and share data for ATAK. Right now I’m using 802.11ac 5 GHz in AD-HOC IBSS mode on BPSK modulation (MCS0) with 10 MHz BW. Every node connects seamlessly to any other node or multiples of them, and under-the-hood IP routing does all the magic inside the network.
Works great, but high frequency signal propagation is quite low. So I was looking a bit into 802.11ah chips but haven’t found any yet that support true mesh. All of them propose some kind of AP–CLIENT(S) configuration, and none of them can work as AP–AP–AP or CLIENT–CLIENT–CLIENT.
I checked this repo for a bit and didn’t find any proof that these are truly full mesh/MANET-capable chips.
By definition on Wikipedia MANET:
Each device in a MANET is free to move independently in any direction, and will therefore change its links to other devices frequently. Each must forward traffic unrelated to its own use, and therefore be a router.
Your network topology in README.md shows the allowed network type as just another version of AP–CLIENT(S).
Something like this:
+---------+
| AP |
+---------+
/ \
/ \
+---------+ +---------+
| Client 1 | | Client 2 |
+---------+ +---------+
While in my 802.11ac ad-hoc IBSS setup, I have something like this:
+---------+
| Client1 |
+---------+
/ \
/ \
+---------+ +---------+
| Client2 |----| Client3 |
+---------+ +---------+
|
+---------+
| Client4 |
+---------+
|
+---------+
| Client5 |
+---------+
|
+---------+
| Client6 |
+---------+
|
+---------+
| Client7 |
+---------+
/ \
/ \
+---------+ +---------+
| Client8 |---| Client9 |
+---------+ +---------+
\ /
\ /
+---------+
| Client10|
+---------+
Each node can connect freely to each other and multiples of them at the same time, they can move around disconnect at will and they all are repeaters for each other. Underlying BGP\OSPF like routing protocol takes care of IP routing while AD-HOC IBSS mode resolves radio connectivity and air time collision prevention.
And I’d love to know if that topology is possible in your setup. If you can please tell if that is possible on this setup
Thanks in advance!