Dear all,
In today's LibreMesh project meeting, we discussed how to use the
donations' money (we currently have 617 $ [1]).
The top priority for the project right now has been identified in
releasing a LibreMesh release based on recent OpenWrt 23.05.
So we decided [2] to use the money from donations (except approx 70 $ to
keep aside for printing stickers) for paying someone for the time
employed for testing the LibreMesh release candidate based on OpenWrt 23.05.
The testing made by the community has always been enough, but we
considered that a good way to use the donations money is to further push
the testing.
Interested people should check if they can perform the work described
below and propose themselves either by mail or joining the next online
project meeting which will be online on Saturday the 2th of December
2023 at 13:00 UTC (14:00 CET, 10:00 ART).
The links for participating in the meeting are:
- main link:
https://jitsi.unp.edu.ar/LibreMesh
- fallback link:
https://meet.guifi.net/LibreMesh
During the meeting, a person will be selected, and this person will be
entitled to receive the donations' money in an amount of 20 $ per worked
hour. Until now, we have available 617-70 = 547 $ so we can fund 27 work
hours. If the testing is not completed in the hours that the donations
can pay (likely) it is ok, the rest of the testing will be done by the
community as usual.
Goal definition:
Help the release of a LibreMesh release based on OpenWrt 23.05: testing
with a realistic setup, reporting issues and, if enough time is
available, fixing blocking issues.
Minimum testing setup:
In order to test the release on real hardware, we defined a minimum
testing network. As you can see represented below, it would be nice to
test it on a network composed by at least two dual band routers and two
single band ones, with a mix of cabled and wifi links. Ideally also with
two internet accesses.
The minimal simple topology we drew is a linear one, represented here:
internet1 --wire-- dual_band#1 --wifi-- dual_band#2 --wire--
single_band#1 --wifi-- single_band#2 --wire or wifi-- internet2
If the interested person does not have access to two dual-band and two
single-band routers, we can discuss in the meeting to fund also the
acquisition of such routers.
If the topology is going to be different, it is ok, as far as it is
useful to test the release in a realistic setup.
Requirements for dual_band router:
* at least 1 radio at 2.4 GHz
* at least 1 radio at 5 GHz
* DSA supported [3,4,5]
Requirements for single_band router:
* maximum 1 radio at either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz
* DSA supported [3,4,5]
Requirements for internet connections:
* internet1 and internet2 should preferably be two different internet
connections, but if they are the same it is ok
Physical setup requirements:
* none, even if all the routers are on the same table it is ok
* wifi channels have to be selected for avoiding wifi connections
between routers that are not indicated as connected (i.e. dual_band#1
and dual_band#2 should be on the same channels. single_band#1 and
single_band#2 should be on the same channel, but a different one from
the one used by the dual band routers)
Scenarios to check:
* checking if the internet connection internet1 goes down, if the wifi
clients (common AP name) still have connection
* checking if the internet connection internet2 goes down, if the wifi
clients (common AP name) still have connection
* checking if the internet connection internet1 goes down, if the cabled
clients (on dual_band#2) still have connection
* checking if the internet connection internet2 goes down, if the cabled
clients (on dual_band#2) still have connection
* checking roaming, e.g. with an audio call
* define exactly how router wire to router is connected: LAN to LAN with
mesh configuration e.g.
https://github.com/libremesh/network-profiles/tree/master/calafou#lime-community-configuration-3
Additional tasks:
* document how to set ethernet interfaces for mesh only or clients only
Thanks for your help, and please feel free to share on this mailing list
all the critics may you have!
Ilario
[1]:
https://opencollective.com/libremesh#category-BUDGET
[2]:
https://pad.cas.cat/LibreMesh_meetup_2024?view#How-to-use-donations-buying-hardware
[3]:
https://openwrt.org/releases/21.02/notes-21.02.0#initial_dsa_support
[4]:
https://openwrt.org/releases/22.03/notes-22.03.0#more_targets_converted_to_dsa
[5]:
https://openwrt.org/releases/23.05/notes-23.05.0#highlights_of_device_support
