Mesh Networking

CeroWrt comes with mesh networking enabled, using the Babel protocol (BabelZ) to spread routes over both IPv6 and IPv4. It uses AHCP to assign IPv4 and IPv6 addresses across the mesh.

Mesh networking is quite unlike bridging or fixed access points. In particular, when used 'right' you are able to move transparently from one wireless (or wired!) node to another, relay traffic for others out of range of the main access point, and not lose your own connections. Mesh networks are self-repairing - at a sufficient density of nodes, there are always paths to get to get to your destination - and (unlike bridging), BabelZ's "diversity" mesh routing is sensitive to the frequencies you are using, so that different network paths are picked based on the frequencies in use - a packet from a nearby 5.2GHz node will try to go through a node on another channel, while preferring ethernet wherever possible. Something like the four colour theorem applies to dense wireless networks.

Since there may be multiple hops before the wired connection each with its own buffering, mesh networks are particularly sensitive to bufferbloat and therefore a challenge as well as potentially very useful in their own right.

Please consult the mesh routing web page for more details on how to set up a Babel based mesh network using this router.