Wireless mesh network based on cheap consumer routers

Question

I wanted to know if any such system already exists for the average open-source user. With all of the net neutrality arguments around and with the cost of broadband likely to go up in the future. It seems like a good idea for an open-source protocol that allows standard consumer routers to operate together and form a mesh network with other consumer routers close by.

Likely possible that with enough nodes in close enough proximity and a good abstraction we could get something good going.

Answer 1

You could always use WDS nodes (like a repeater, kinda).

I use it in my Buffalo AirStation with DD-WRT installed (any router that can load DD-WRT would work).

www.dd-wrt.com

Not sure on the scalability of it though. And the APs would have to be in reach of each other. They could run on separate SSIDs though.

Edit: here's the DD-WRT Wiki page about WDS: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/WDS

Answer 2

Just to add more info, batmand (layer 3) or batman-adv(layer 2) can run on almost anything with a resemblance of linux, I have managed to get it working on android devices (running cyanogenmod mostly), raspberry's, laptops, foneras, .... basically anything that has or allows a wireless card with ad-hoc mode and a linux-based operating system.

Answer 3

WDS is not meant for and will not scale to more than a few nodes.

There has been extensive work on mesh routing protocols such as BATMAN-ADV, OLSR, BMX and 802.11s. These are all supported on OpenWRT which supports a very large number of consumer wireless routers

There are also many large scale deployments such as freifunk and deployments by The Village Telco

Answer 4

Freifunk Luebeck uses D-Link 300 with batman-adv