Mesh Networking Interoperability

[Andrew Clunis]

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Hal Murray wrote:
>> Right; that's the problem.  I doubt it would work on those distros
>> without a lot of work.  Basically, if you want an XO mesh
>> interoperable device that's _not_ using the Marvell Libertas 8388
>> chipset, you need full access to the driver source, and if the device
>> is a fullmac chip, the firmware sources too.  I'd imagine most softmac
>> cards would be much easier to deal with because the smarts are in the
>> driver, not the firmware. 
> 
> Frys/Outpost.com has the Linksys WRT54GL for $60.  It has a Broadcom 
> BCM2050KWL.  (I think.  That's from the web with nothing in hand to verify 
> but I haven't found any conflicting opinions either.)
> 
> Broadcom's press release (2002) says it's a 802.11a/b chipset
>   http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=315414
> 
> Broadcom has a long track record of being very not-open with specs so I'm 
> more than a bit suspicious.
> 
> I pulled over the tar file from Linksys but haven't found the sources for the 
> driver yet.  Probably I got the wrong tar file.
> 
> Is that driver open enough to make this sort of hacking possible?  Is there a 
> box at a similar pricepoint that uses a more open chipset?
> 
> 
> 

The Broadcom Linux driver used on the Linux-based WRT54G units is
proprietary software.

(shame on Linus for not stomping on those)

There is mostly working Free software driver at:

http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/

and it might soon replace the proprietary driver on the OpenWRT, dd-wrt,
etc. linksys router community distros.

- --
Regards,
Andrew Clunis

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