Basic mesh network using SECN-3_0-RC2

[Pascal Laurent]

Hi,

I'm trying to setup a basic mesh network for testing purposes. I'm using two TP-Link router, flashed with firmware openwrt-SECN-3_0-RC2-wr841n-v9-squashfs-sysupgrade.  The architecture i am using is as followed:

Internet --> Router --> Node1    Node2   WIFI_PC1 WIFI_PC2

Let's say I have the followings network:

Router:

IP(WAN Port): DHCP

IP(LAN): 192.168.1.1

DNS1: 8.8.8.8

DNS2: 8.8.4.4

Node1:

IP(WAN): 192.168.1.20

IP(vt-mesh): 10.10.1.20

IP(LAN) 10.130.1.20

SSID: AP20

Node2:

IP(WAN): 192.168.1.21

IP(vt-mesh): 10.10.1.21

IP(LAN) 10.130.1.21

SSID: AP21

What I would like to do:

-- Node2 will assigned an IP address to WIFI_PC1, and WIFI_PC2

-- From WIFI_PC1 and WIFI_PC2 I want to be able to access the Internet

-- Node1 should never let WIFI PC connections

Questions:

-- I'm sure someone already done something like that. How do I use the SECN front-end to configure my network? Does someone has a document with few screenshots they would like to share?

Thank you,

--Tipizo

[Song, Stephen]

Hi Tipizo,

I would be inclined to handle DHCP from the router.  It's your choice but I find it simpler this way.  The mesh nodes are transparent to the layer 3 network so any device that connects wirelessly to node2 will behave as if it were plugged directly into the router.

There is no need to change the vt-mesh IP from the default.

Just disable the AP mode on node1 to stop people connecting to it wirelessly.

Cheers.... Steve

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[T Gillett]

Hi Tipizo

There is a SECN Tutorial on the VT Wiki page that you might find helpful to get started:

    http://wiki.villagetelco.org/SECN_Tutorial

The tutorial provides a simple step by step process for setting up a simple mesh network for any SECN device.

For your simple test set up you do not need to use the WAN interfaces. Once you enable the WAN interface on a SECN device then it behaves as a router, performing NAT between the WAN and LAN sides. This is probably not what you want at present.

From your description, it seems that what you want to do is to extend the LAN from your main Router via the mesh network between two WR841 nodes.

To do this, set the WAN on both SECN nodes to the default "Disable" setting.

Connect the main router to Node 1 with an Ethernet cable plugged in to a LAN port on Node 1  (not the WAN port)

When the mesh is running, all the LAN ports and wifi APs on the WR841 nodes will be transparently bridged together just as if they were one large network switch device.

A client device connecting to Node 2 will issue a DHCP request which will be carried to the main Router which will respond and assign an IP address in its subnet, as well as DNS and Default Route information.

If you don't want clients to connect to Node 1 via wifi, then disable the AP on that node as Steve has described.

Client devices which are assigned IP address from the main Router will be in its subnet range (192.168.1.x) and so will not be able to access the SECN management interface at 10.130.1.20 and .21

To access the SECN interface you will need to have a client with an IP set in the 10.130.1.x subnet and attached vi Ethernet or wifi to one of the nodes.

So you have two IP subnets running over the Layer 2 mesh - one on 192.168.1.x for User data, and the other on 10.130.1.x for System Management.

Regards

Terry