Limitations of SECN-2_0 firmware

22 views
Skip to first unread message

Răzvan Sandu

unread,
Jul 17, 2014, 12:37:17 PM7/17/14
to village-...@googlegroups.com


Hello,

I am testing a few Mesh Potatoes MP02 with openwrt-SECN-2_0-RC6c-MP02 firmware and I've noticed a few functional limitations (at least in the WEB INTERFACE, without hacking the device via command line).

Would you please explain if this could be overcomed?


1. The MP02 cannot be an IPv4 DHCP client

It is not possible to set up a MP02 box as an IPv4 DHCP client (menu Basic -> Network -> IP address)


2. Cannot use special characters in passwords, neither for wireless nor for administration

In menus:

Basic -> Passwords
Advanced -> WIFI Access Point Passphrase

we cannot use special characters (such as !) in passphrases. This dramatically limits the password complexity.


3. Cannot assign static IPv6 addresses

The MP02 seems to be unable to be configured with static IPv6 addresses. This is limiting, since having mesh capabilities in an IPv6 native environment would be ideal.


4.  The MP02 cannot be an IPv6 client

It is not possible to set up a MP02 box as an IPv6 client (menu Basic -> Network -> IP address)
Allowing the MP02 to get an IPv6 address from a radvd server, via a 6rd mechanism or via a DHCPv6 mechanism will greatly expand the functionality.


5. A network interface cannot have multiple IP addreses (both IPv4 and IPv6)
Allowing multiple IP addreses per interface, both static and via a DHCP-type mechanism will greatly expand functionality.

The IPv6 standard says that a device should allow multiple IPv6 addresses on each interface in order, both static and dynamic, in order to be commercially marked "IPv6 enabled". Many commercial wi-fi routers are lying regarding to this.

In some cases, using IPv6 addreses is only possible if multiple addreses may be assigned to some interface. For example, RCS&RDS, a Romanian provider statically assigns an IPv6 link-local address to the WAN interface of a client router and a /64 prefix to that router. In order to communicate with ISP's CPE equipment, the WAN interface of the client router must have (usually):

- a link-local IPv6 address, statically assigned
- a globally-routable IPv6 address (statically assigned or via local radvd)
- a globally-routable IPv4 address (statically assigned or via DHCPv4 from the CPE equipment), in case of a dual-stack configuration

The internal (LAN) interface of the router will also have multiple IP addresses, both IPv4 and IPv6.


Is it possible to overcome these limitations, totally or partially?


Thanks a lot,
Răzvan

T Gillett

unread,
Jul 17, 2014, 6:15:53 PM7/17/14
to village-telco-dev
Hi Razvan

Your observations are essentially correct. Some specific comments on your points:

1. The WAN interface can certainly be configured as a DHCP client in the SECN web interface. 
If you look at the Advanced/WAN page you will see the config for that.

However if you want to configure the LAN side bridge as a DHCP client, that is not something that is currently provided in the SECN web.
This configuration is possible in OpenWrt, so could be set up that way for your particular application.

2. The current web interface does limit the range of special characters in passwords for simplicity.
 This is not a limitation of the underlying OpenWrt system and will be addressed in a future SECN interface upgrade.

3, 4. The SECN web interface does not currently support IPv6 configuration.
This is not a limitation of the underlying OpenWrt system which has IPv6 support.

It may be worthwhile posting a query on the OpenWrt forum to clarify whether the IPv6 support is a complete implementation of the standard as you have outlined.

5. Physical network interfaces can have multiple IP addresses in OpenWrt and this is used in SECN firmware e.g. for the Fallback IP address on the LAN side bridge, and for the wifi interfaces. But there is no facility in the current SECN web interface to configure additional logical interfaces with their own IP addresses.


As you will appreciate, the development of a user interface for something like SECN is a compromise between creating a usable interface and implementing all the functionality of the underlying subsystems such as OpenWrt, Asterisk and batman.  There is an almost infinite set of combinations of how these subsystems can be combined and configured.

It is not really feasible to build a user interface to deal with all possible combinations of such a system, while still remaining simple enough for users to deal with it effectively. 

Rather than build a more complex user interface, a better approach may be to tailor an interface design specifically for your application, and make it more of an 'appliance' than a 'toolkit'.

For example if you have a few standard configurations that you will use in field deployments, then it may be more useful to put together an interface that simply allows a user to select from a short list of pre-defined configurations, with just the pertinent parameters such as IP addresses being displayed.

The SECN firmware can provide a useful base for this sort of development as it has the basic components of the system pre-assembled and working, and a build environment that allows you to make custom firmware fairly easily.

Other alternatives that you might like to consider include the LuCI interface provided by the OpenWrt project, and the LibreMesh project which is addressing large scale mesh networks. 

Regards
Terry





--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Village Telco Development Community" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to village-telco-...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to village-...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/village-telco-dev/7fe0b1d8-4036-4509-a959-93d75ef94aef%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages