On Sun, Aug 31, 2025 at 05:40:00PM +0200, Sven Eckelmann wrote: > This assumption no longer holds for modern wireless mesh networks, which > are heterogeneous and make overhearing increasingly unreliable.
.oO(I was wondering if it could be interesting again with IEEE 802.11ah HaLow. Recently read that AREDN mesh had added experimental support in their firmware (though with using Babel, not batman-adv), with ALFA Network Tube-AHM R0C devices. https://www.arednmesh.org/content/aredn-production-release-32580-now-available But testing and tuning HaLow + batman-adv + NC would still be quite some work...) Have had the pleasure to play with this ages ago on 802.11g hardware. It generally semeed to work and was a lot of fun to experiment with. But it wasn't easy to use it reliably, it needed quite some precise placement of nodes. Rate control algorithms wouldn't be aware of network coding opportunities, would have been nice if it had sometimes chosen slower rates for more NC opportunities. (Also CPU usage with promisc mode was maybe an issue back then on many devices? But maybe I misremember that.) I'd maybe try to ask around one more time on Freifunk or Battlemesh channels if anyone would be interested in reviving this, a final call. But as to my knowledge no one has used it in practical scenarios I guess the chances are low. And I agree that it might maybe be better to remove it then in the upstream Linux kernel. Many thanks for the awesome work on this exciting experiment though, Martin! I think it inspired quite some people and contributed to the crazy mesh excitment and pioneering back then that was going on at all fronts. Regards, Linus
