IRIS : developing a new node concept

In the IRIS project we are developing a new node concept based on a separation of the 'radio interfaces' and the 'base node'. Tim Baas, student at Hogeschool Leiden is developing the software as his 'afstudeerwerk'. Documentation is available in the ​svn iris-directory (in Dutch).

The NanoBSD page is the place to be for up2date information on how to build/configure/create a ​WL node image. As always this project could use your help, by Contributing to various parts of the project.

The ConfigureBridge page shows you which bridges we use and how-to configure them.

Concept

A node, type IRIS, is built using NanoBSD with some extensions a.o. to make package management a bit easier. Also the internet gateway (providing internet connectivity to the local wireless network) is based on NanoBSD.

The nodes are FreeBSD routers with slave DNS (dnsmasq), lvrouted as a dynamic internal routing daemon, thttpd webserver and a captive portal based on ipfw and tcpserver for the plain HTTP-redirects. Moreover there are some additions which are strictly speaking not essential such as network monitoring (Nagios) and bandwith measurment (iperf).

A proxy gateway is a http-proxy based on tinyproxy and an authorative DNS server (maradns). Included is also reverse ssh-tunneling (for remote management behind NAT firewalls). Nodes use pen with a pen-wrapper to select the 'best' proxy (i.e. the highest bandwith). An alternative is a packet filtering firewall using ipfw to allow only port 80, 443 rate limited traffic. Packet filtering gateways use lvrouted to advertise a default route.

See also the youtube video's:

• ​Presenatie Tim Baas, deel 1
• ​Presentatie Tim Baas, deel 2

Roll out

In the course of 2009/2010 we have revamped most of our nodes (some still left to be modified in 2011) and also built some new ones. We have chosen the following hardware configuration:

• nodemachine based on a Alix2D3 board with 1 GB compact flash card containing the software
• 802.11a interlinks based on Ubiquity Nanostation5
• local accesspoint with 8 dB omni antenna and Atheros CM9 minipci wireless card.

Starting Points for Trac

• TracGuide -- Built-in Documentation
• ​The Trac project -- Trac Open Source Project
• ​Trac FAQ -- Frequently Asked Questions
• TracSupport -- Trac Support

For a complete list of local wiki pages, see TitleIndex.