[B.A.T.M.A.N.] Some problems with batman-adv

[B.A.T.M.A.N.] Some problems with batman-adv

[Jochen Jägers]

Hello,

i try to set up a ad-hoc-mesh network with batman-adv.

There are three test-nodes with following configuration:

Nvidia Tegra 2 Dual Core ARM-Cortex A9 Processor with Linux 2.6.36.2
USB-Wifi Dongle with Ralink 5370 Chipset
Ralink rt5370sta driver kernel module
batman-adv 2012.1.0 (also tried with 2012.0.0)

I've set up the ad-hoc network with WPA-Encryption. This is working
fine. I can access all nodes if i configure the ra0 (ralink wifi)
interface with static ip addresses. I've done this for testing purpose
only. Normally only the bat0 interface has an ip address.

After wireless connection is established I activate the batman-adv
interface.

Example from first node:
modprobe batman-adv
batctl if add ra0                                                   
ifconfig bat0 up                                                      
ifconfig bat0 192.168.50.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
ifconfig bat0 mtu 1472

After booting up all nodes "batctl o" returns:
# batctl o
[B.A.T.M.A.N. adv 2012.1.0, MainIF/MAC: ra0/80:1f:02:38:7a:bf (bat0)]
  Originator      last-seen (#/255)           Nexthop [outgoingIF]:
Potential nexthops ...
00:0f:c9:22:00:17    0.020s   (248) 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 [       ra0]:
00:0f:c9:22:11:78 (245) 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 (248)
00:0f:c9:22:11:78    0.560s   (255) 00:0f:c9:22:11:78 [       ra0]:
00:0f:c9:22:00:17 (230) 00:0f:c9:22:11:78 (255)

So far everything looks fine. But if i try to connect to the other nodes
i mostly get no answers. No ping reply, no ssh or http connection. But
sometimes it works for a couple of minutes.
I also tried to ping with batctl but got unstable results:
first time everything looks good:

# batctl ping 00:0f:c9:22:00:17
PING 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 (00:0f:c9:22:00:17) 20(48) bytes of data
20 bytes from 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=6.37 ms
20 bytes from 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 icmp_seq=2 ttl=50 time=13.22 ms
20 bytes from 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 icmp_seq=3 ttl=50 time=9.08 ms
^C--- 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 6.373/9.560/13.225/2.818 ms


another try a few moments later did not work:
# batctl ping 00:0f:c9:22:00:17
PING 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 (00:0f:c9:22:00:17) 20(48) bytes of data
Reply from host 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 timed out
Reply from host 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 timed out
Reply from host 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 timed out
Reply from host 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 timed out
^C--- 00:0f:c9:22:00:17 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.000/0.000/0.000/0.000 ms

i tried many different things (changing MTU, Wifi channel, encryption
SSID, batman-adv version,...) but the result was the same everytime.

Some further information:
# iwconfig 
lo        no wireless extensions.
dummy0    no wireless extensions.
usb0      no wireless extensions.
eth0      no wireless extensions.
ra0       Ralink STA  ESSID:"ceR{)|n$v#pp|fJX"  Nickname:"RT2870STA"
          Mode:Ad-Hoc  Frequency=2.442 GHz  Cell: DE:BB:8C:08:B8:EC   
          Bit Rate=36 Mb/s   
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:D83E-521A-8B9F-7C95-3ACE-D477-****-****
Security mode:open
          Link Quality=52/100  Signal level:-71 dBm  Noise level:-71 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
bat0      no wireless extensions.

#ifconfig ra0
ra0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 80:1F:02:38:7A:BF  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:11 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:258771 (252.7 KiB)  TX bytes:13544 (13.2 KiB)

#ifconfig bat0
bat0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 02:DA:94:22:E1:67  
          inet addr:192.168.50.60  Bcast:192.168.50.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1472  Metric:1
          RX packets:5 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:11 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:434 (434.0 B)  TX bytes:686 (686.0 B)




Do you have any ideas what I can try to solve my problem or where to
search for a solution?

Thanks for any response.

Greetings,
-- 
Jochen Jägers

Dr. Riedel Automatisierungstechnik GmbH
Greifswalder Str. 4
10405 Berlin

Tel. 030/428431-48
Fax. 030/428431-99

http://www.riedel-at.de/

Geschäftsführer: Dr. Manfred Riedel
Amtsgericht Berlin Charlottenburg, HRB 39094
Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer DE 137 196 925

Re: [B.A.T.M.A.N.] Some problems with batman-adv

[Marek Lindner]

Hi,

> I've set up the ad-hoc network with WPA-Encryption. This is working
> fine. I can access all nodes if i configure the ra0 (ralink wifi)
> interface with static ip addresses. I've done this for testing purpose
> only. Normally only the bat0 interface has an ip address.
>
> [..]
>
> # iwconfig 
> lo        no wireless extensions.
> dummy0    no wireless extensions.
> usb0      no wireless extensions.
> eth0      no wireless extensions.
> ra0       Ralink STA  ESSID:"ceR{)|n$v#pp|fJX"  Nickname:"RT2870STA"
>           Mode:Ad-Hoc  Frequency=2.442 GHz  Cell: DE:BB:8C:08:B8:EC   
>           Bit Rate=36 Mb/s   
>           RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
>           Encryption key:D83E-521A-8B9F-7C95-3ACE-D477-****-****

the ralink driver misses one very important feature to reliably run a larger 
adhoc mode cell: Assigning a manually chosen BSSID. Therefore, it would not 
suprise me if you experienced "cell splits" from time to time.
To verify this theory you can watch the BSSID (Cell) field on the involved 
nodes and run a continuous ping on your statically configured setup. If I am 
correct you also will experience packet loss and the BSSID will change.

Regards,
Marek

Re: [B.A.T.M.A.N.] Some problems with batman-adv

[Elektra]

Hello Jochen -

welcome to driver & firmware hell. This is very likely a problem related to stability issues with your WiFi interfaces. I would expect this behavior since you are using USB WiFi dongles. All USB WiFi devices depend on firmware, which is loaded when you initialize the devices. Ad-hoc mode has been neglected far and wide by the industry. Since you have to load a proprietary binary blob, which is more likely broken in ad-hoc mode rather than not, I am afraid you are out of luck. I'd love to get a USB WiFi solution in my hands that actually works in a reliable and stable manner. Unfortunately I know of none.

If anybody has something that actually works, I'd love to know.

Cheers,
Elektra

Re: [B.A.T.M.A.N.] Some problems with batman-adv

[3zl Trizonelabs]

TP-Link TL-WN321G ( RT73/RT2xx)  works well in adhoc mode with Openwrt
& Linux driver since 3 years.
We do use them for mulit-radio tests on VM and native  Openwrt x86 enviroment.
Working on SLITAZ & Debian *nix versions too
Cell-split wasnt observed, but til today there was no vwif driver
found,i.e. no adhoc + AP possible
regards
3zl
.

2012/5/14 Elektra <onelektra@gmx.net>:
> Hello Jochen -
>
> welcome to driver & firmware hell. This is very likely a problem related to stability issues with your WiFi interfaces. I would expect this behavior since you are using USB WiFi dongles. All USB WiFi devices depend on firmware, which is loaded when you initialize the devices. Ad-hoc mode has been neglected far and wide by the industry. Since you have to load a proprietary binary blob, which is more likely broken in ad-hoc mode rather than not, I am afraid you are out of luck. I'd love to get a USB WiFi solution in my hands that actually works in a reliable and stable manner. Unfortunately I know of none.
>
> If anybody has something that actually works, I'd love to know.
>
> Cheers,
> Elektra

Re: [B.A.T.M.A.N.] Some problems with batman-adv

[Jochen Jägers]

Hello 3zl,

which driver/version do you use? Do you have the RT2870STA.dat
in /etc/Wireless/RT2870STA? Can you show me your settings? Maybe i
missed some important settings.

Another strange thing is, that the OGMs come in all the time. Also if i
can't connect to the node. The Originator Table looks fine all the day.
The last-seen value is between 0 and 2 seconds for every node.

-- 
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Jochen Jägers

Dr. Riedel Automatisierungstechnik GmbH
Greifswalder Str. 4
10405 Berlin

Tel. 030/428431-48
Fax. 030/428431-99

http://www.riedel-at.de/

Geschäftsführer: Dr. Manfred Riedel
Amtsgericht Berlin Charlottenburg, HRB 39094
Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer DE 137 196 925


Am Dienstag, den 15.05.2012, 17:23 +0200 schrieb 3zl Trizonelabs:
> TP-Link TL-WN321G ( RT73/RT2xx)  works well in adhoc mode with Openwrt
> & Linux driver since 3 years.
> We do use them for mulit-radio tests on VM and native  Openwrt x86 enviroment.
> Working on SLITAZ & Debian *nix versions too
> Cell-split wasnt observed, but til today there was no vwif driver
> found,i.e. no adhoc + AP possible
> regards
> 3zl
> .
> 
> 2012/5/14 Elektra <onelektra@gmx.net>:
> > Hello Jochen -
> >
> > welcome to driver & firmware hell. This is very likely a problem related to stability issues with your WiFi interfaces. I would expect this behavior since you are using USB WiFi dongles. All USB WiFi devices depend on firmware, which is loaded when you initialize the devices. Ad-hoc mode has been neglected far and wide by the industry. Since you have to load a proprietary binary blob, which is more likely broken in ad-hoc mode rather than not, I am afraid you are out of luck. I'd love to get a USB WiFi solution in my hands that actually works in a reliable and stable manner. Unfortunately I know of none.
> >
> > If anybody has something that actually works, I'd love to know.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Elektra

Re: [B.A.T.M.A.N.] Some problems with batman-adv

[3zl Trizonelabs]

here's the data of my Openwrt at the VM i have at hand :


Openwrt ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT (bleeding edge, r31151)

# uname -a
Linux e64f14 2.6.39.4 #2 Fri Mar 30 18:44:22 BST 2012 i686 GNU/Linux
#

# lsmod | grep rt73
rt73usb                20320  0
rt2x00usb               6012  1 rt73usb
rt2x00lib              25052  2 rt73usb,rt2x00usb
usbcore                85712  6 uhci_hcd,ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd,rt73usb,rt2x00usb
crc_itu_t                892  1 rt73usb
#
/lib/firmware/rt73.bin
#
# cat /etc/config/wireless

config wifi-device 'phy0'
        option phy 'phy0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option channel '1'

config wifi-iface
        option device 'phy0'
        option mode 'adhoc'
        option ssid 'BRUCE-MESH'
        option bssid '02:AF:FE:00:11:22'

cat /etc/config/network

config interface 'lan'
        option ifname 'bat0'
        option type 'bridge'
        option proto 'dhcp'

#
#iwconfig

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:"BRUCE-MESH"
          Mode:Ad-Hoc  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Cell: 02:AF:FE:00:11:22
          Tx-Power=20 dBm
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on


#ifconfig wlan0 mtu 1528

##################################
for the Linux Slitaz setup i have to dig for it

for thorough test i would propose to run check-spripts + iperf on
non-encryptet channels

regards
3zl