Hello Ilario and the LiMe community!
I was very interested in doing this job. I've already been testing the
new libremesh releases in a less rigorous way but now would be a good
opportunity to do it in a better way.
I have all the single band (2.4 and 5.8 Ghz) and dual band routers to
test as well as two internet connections, so I could do the minimum
setup without having to buy more routers.
And in addition, after the tests I could do a scale test by replacing
the firmware of the entire community network with more than 20 nodes to
do a larger scale test so as not to miss any variables.
Bests
Hiure
Em qua, 2023-11-01 às 17:32 +0100, Ilario via LibreMesh escreveu:
> 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