MikroTik

I have been trying to figure out how to implement scalable wireless mesh using MME. The goal is to have dynamic wireless mesh over larger number of nodes than what WDS alone can support. Ideally self configuring, meaning that every node in the mesh looks pretty much identical and pulls address info, DNS and routing info from existing nodes in the mesh.

Most other wireless mesh implementations use ADVO or OLSR over ad hoc peer to peer links to create layer 3 routed connections. Ad hoc mode allows nodes to create an interface to each wireless node in range, then routing gets dynamically applied to the new interface. The ad hoc interfaces are not bridged, but are routed.

My guess of how to replicate this in RouterOS is to use dynamic WDS mesh mode to create layer 2 links, and then run MME over it. The problem is that WDS needs to go into a bridge in order for traffic to pass. But if you bridge all the WDS interfaces then you lose the value of routing using MME. MME cannot detect link quality of individual WDS interfaces if they are all in the same bridge.

So how best to implement this and keep it as simple as possible?

I can get a basic mesh of a couple of nodes working but they are all linked using WDS and the routing really is redundant.

Is there an implementation guide that explains this? I have looked at BATMAN documentation and it is not clear.

Any help is appreciated.

Did you (or anyone) every get anywhere with this?

Scott

I've done some tinkering with it too but I had the same questions as DogHead. It worked and would create the tunnels and create the routes and all but it seemed redundant to have to configure WDS to make it work. I've been waiting for the documentation for 3.0 to be updated and hopefully include an example configuration.

-Gerard

I never received any replies or responses to this post.

The fundamental problem that I see is that in most mesh implementations they use ad-hoc mode, which creates the layer 2 link point to point with a peer, then OLSR or ADVO decides which link is the best to route over. Each interface is unique and the routing layer can address it. But with WDS mesh, it appears that each link must be part of a bridge, in which case it appears that MME treats the bridge as a single interface for mesh rather than each of the WDS links in the bridge as unique.

The only way that I have figured out to make this work is create a bridge for every WDS. But this defeats the purpose of having a mesh.

I can get about 6 nodes to link using WDS with static, dynamic or dynamic mesh with all in the same bridge. I can run MME over the links, but it doesn't look like MME is aware of the state of each WDS link, rather just the bridge.

I would really love to know more about this.

FYI all the documentation for BATMAN that I could find only addresses the routing layer, not the supporting layer 2 links. I can only assume that they were creating links using ad-hoc rather than WDS mode.

any news on these topic

I have not received any feedback on this topic. I am really interested to learn how to implement dynamic mesh routing on MT, but since no one is answering this, I can only assume that it is not possible. This leaves us with layer 2 mesh, which is extremely limited, or static mesh, which, while useful, is not competitive with adhoc mesh technologies.

Anyone at MT have some input?

This is a protocol with potential to solve 'Earthlink Fade', very similar to backhoe fade on fiber.

Not necessary to go too deep, but high-end attempts at mesh networking have circled around similar concepts, but when opening up the box, those who want to accomplish this will ask the obvious question: 'Is that a bridge or is it a router?' Well, based upon a trusted authoritative source, some of the mystery was explained due to a fortunate but simple 'misconfiguration' I had created, 'It couldnt possibly work!'. But it worked, and worked well. It was like an undocumented feature, and very counterintuitive, but actually intrinsic in the implementation of the device code, and had to work. So.........

How could mesh devices with public IPs on their interfaces, with DHCP handing out public addresses, with ostensibly a routed topology, simultaneously allow a wirelessly connected laptop with a 10.x.x.x address successfully ping, and for that matter, let say view video from an IP camera with 10.x.x.x addresses, similarly connected, several hops away, or anywhere on the mesh, while happily routing Internet traffic on public IPs? The answer is too long for this post, but....Sounds like bridge emulation, but wasnt, it simply didnt care or matter, and happily passed those MACs as a flat network would, but simultaneously routed packets, in particular to the 'gateway server', which is more properly defined as the injection point, and delivered traffic up the injection layer ultimately to the default gateway at the WISP POP. This is explained with different terminology, but 'Made Easier' by not caring about much more than where that injection point exists in relation to your node. So, maybe we have something here that doesnt require as much thought and planning as previously required. The most obvious important task that will twist our minds is the fact that it doesnt loop the network.

If it is really MME, IMHO that is the oh so simple, it doesnt matter, it doesnt have to care, who needs WDS method to accomplish what should be that simple. Too much thought seems to just mess things up. Could that be why its called MME? Just found about this today, but have struggled with way too many complex failed deployments, and the market is proving that it is cost prohibitive in its non-MME form. We can only hope

I've read the wiki but there is no good examples. I have a neighborhood that has two wireless connections into the neighborhood. North side has 1 900 mhz inbound to the ap with 1 2.4 outbound omni. Same thing on the south side of the neighborhood. Then we have one client on the east end we would like to make a repeater as well and then at the moment several clients feeding off the two bases that will remain clients only. I would like to implement mesh here for obvious reasons. There have been a few times when one ap lost there connection back to the tower and could have stayed online if meshed with the other ap that stayed online.

I believe we can do it no problem using wds mesh and bridges but I would love to use the MME protocol instead. How would this be best setup? Do we still use bridges? WDS? Ip on the bridges sepperate from the MME interfaces? The wiki gives allot of info but no configuration examples for a mesh setup like this or any good examples period.

Thanks for any insight.

John

I believe we can do it no problem using wds mesh and bridges but I would love to use the MME protocol instead. How would this be best setup? Do we still use bridges? WDS? Ip on the bridges sepperate from the MME interfaces? The wiki gives allot of info but no configuration examples for a mesh setup like this or any good examples period.

I second that request. Is MME viable or is it superfluous if we have to use WDS bridges anyway? Mikrotik - please provide a useful example for us!

Bump... I have not yet found any howto or setup instructions on using Mesh or MME for Mikrotik... just the vanilla documentation describing each component. For those of us trying to learn to use Mesh and MME this is like trying to learn to drive a car by reading the owners manual... it really is very poor.

Please, someone who has deployed Mesh or MME post a setup or Howto for those of us ignorant to what we are supposed to do. This is a large enough complaint that it actually registered on the voted listed of feature requests... a wizard to ease mesh network setup...

http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/MikroTik_ ... e_Requests

So far, this is my biggest complaint against Mikrotik... great gear and capabilities but no guides on actually using the features...

I've over a thousand dollars of Mikrotik routers sitting here dark because I do not yet know how to deploy them... and they were all purchased to support meshing a variety of links... I am NOT a happy customer right now due to the lack of information availability and "playing" with them to "figure it out" has cost me several days...

Mikrotik... in common parlance... WTF, over?

I posted this over a year ago and there is still no response. Do you support MME or not?

I have designed and developed a solution for WDS/Mesh, using strictly WDS - I have built a large scale network for roaming clients that can span unlimited # of AP's

Contact me for Details

danmetcalf99@gmail.com