[Server-devel] mesh potato

[Peter Robinson]

On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 6:30 PM, Tony Anderson <tony_anderson at usa.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> There was discussion of this at the SF sprint.
>
> As I understand it, openWRT (from the Shuttleworth project) can be installed
> on
> a TP-Link router. It can be configured to serve connected XOs (such as in a
> classroom)
> on a mesh. It could also serve as a gateway to the school server's LAN.
>
> If this could work, then the schoolserver would not provide DHCP (since the
> mesh potato routers would
> have fixed addresses on the schoolserver LAN) and would not provide ejabberd
> (since that function is
> served by the classroom-level mesh).
>
> Presumably each classroom mesh would be a subnet of the LAN so that openWRT
> would act as a gateway
> for messages directed at the schoolserver.
>
> Is my understanding in the ballpark?

I'm not sure why you would use a mesh in a classroom if it was
connected to a LAN like this. If you were planning a single AP/router
per classroom and you have a school server (likely even if you didn't
have a SS) you'd be better of running the AP/router in AP mode then as
a mesh as it offers much better performance and management, I'm not
sure what a mesh would offer in this configurations.

Peter