[serval-project-dev] Serval Mesh and ham radio

[W5SVL]

On Tuesday, October 30, 2012 12:56:12 AM UTC-5, Jeremy Lakeman wrote:
>
> On Tue, Oct 30, 2012 at 2:50 PM, W5SVL <w5... at aol.com <javascript:>> 
> wrote: 
> > Greetings from Texas.  I am a ham radio operator and I have been 
> > experimenting with the Serval Mesh by using 2 inexpensive unactivated 
> > Android smartphones.  I am attempting to use the Serval Mesh through an 
> > existing HSMM MESH network.  HSMM MESH is an experimental ham radio mesh 
> > network that uses the first 6 wifi channels in the 2.4 Ghz band.  The 
> radios 
> > used are older versions of the WRT54G router that have been flashed with 
> a 
> > new firmware.  There are some awesome communication possibilities here, 
> but 
> > I do not have the networking skills to do this.  Maybe my idea is not 
> > possible, but hopefully someone will comment. 
>
> So after a quick bit of research; 
> - HSMM is a custom radio protocol that exposes a standard IP network 
> interface 
> - olsr is being used to mesh these devices together 
> - other devices may use the network through the LAN interface 
> So you would have a second access point that the serval phone can 
> connect to for internet and mesh traffic? 
> This doesn't sound like a network that serval can transparently 
> co-exist on. Yet. 
>
> Though we have done some initial work to support serval nodes 
> discovering each other over an olsr network, we haven't built any 
> protocol to exchange reach-ability information for other locally 
> connected serval phones. This is a reasonably large piece of work that 
> we don't have the time to build right now. 
>
> You could build servald for the mesh routers and run it on every 
> device in the network. Though our routing protocol is not as mature as 
> olsr. 
>
> >  Also as a ham, I can legally use much more power on the 2.4 Ghz band, 
> and I 
> > have found the Serval Mesh to work very well through a bi directional RF 
> > amplifier installed between a router and an external antenna.  There is 
> no 
> > internet connection here.  I am just using the router as a radio 
> repeater. 
> > Has anyone else tried this?  This would not be using the HSMM MESH as I 
> > mentioned above, since only one router would be used.  This one router 
> > repeater could really be useful in emergencies.  Please give me some 
> > comments on both of these experimental ideas.  Perhaps I should consult 
> with 
> > a ham operator who has more networking knowledge than I have.  Any help 
> will 
> > be appreciated. 
>
> So this router is operating as a simple ethernet bridge? 
>
>     I configured an old Airlink router to broadcast my ham call as the 
SSID.  The router was in the access point mode.  I used wifi channel 1, 
which is in the ham bands.  No encryption was used and I did not connect my 
DSL internet into the WAN port.  This router had a removable antenna which 
I removed.  I then connected the router to a 27 db gain bi directional 
amplifier whose output was sent to an external antenna amout 25 feet up.  I 
used 25 feet of low loss microwave coax.  The external antenna was 
omnidirectional and had a 15 db gain.  I connected my 2 Android phones, 
that were configured to the Serval client mode, with the router.  Now I was 
able to make Serval Mesh calls and send SMS messages over a large coverage 
area.  This was all experimental, but it showed me that the Serval Mesh 
could cover a large area with only one wifi router. This trial was just to 
see how my wifi could be used on the ham bands and it had nothing to do 
with the HSMM MESH configuration.

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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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