Ad-hoc Networking

[Benjamin M. Schwartz]

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John Gilmore wrote:
| The presence implementation only works on access points and on meshes --
| but not on non-meshed, ad-hoc 802.11.  The vast majority of computers
| with 802.11 don't have mesh, but they would benefit from being able to
| "see" nearby laptops and share applications with them (whether or not
| a local access point, or global Internet access, is working).  For full
| integration, this probably requires some driver work, but most of the work
| is probably at a daemon and library level.

There is explicitly support for this idea in 802.11s.  It is called a
"Mesh Access Point", or MAP, and it is the inverse of a "Mesh Portal"
(MPP).  A Mesh Portal is a 802.11s device (e.g. an XO) that is acting as a
client to 802.11b/g Access Point and is then sharing that connection
(perhaps an internet connection) into the 802.11s mesh.  A Mesh Access
Point is connected to an 802.11s network, and also acts as an 802.11b
Access Point whose clients can essentially join the mesh.  With both of
these things it is possible to have:

Satellite internet <--> Standard 802.11b access point <--> XO acting as
MPP <--> XO <--> XO <--> XO acting as MAP <--> Standard 802.11b laptop

and thus provide a relatively distant internet connection to a standard
laptop, which also sees all the XOs on its local network.

MPP support is in place, but it does not play well with the School Server
(and possibly DHCP), so it has been disabled.  MAP support has not been a
high priority, and I do not know anything about its current status.

I would certainly love if the XOs and Active Antennas could be made to run
in MPP and MAP mode.  I do not know to what degree the Marvell device is
capable of this.

- --Ben
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