Disable default neighbor discovery

[Beatriz Cardoso de Oliveira]

Hey! I'm developing my final thesis project at USP using mininet-wifi. I'm simulating a FANET (Flying Ad-hoc Network) and each drone node is running a custom Go script that implements its own protocols for message sending and receiving (push gossip and periodic hello). However, after running the simulation and monitoring traffic with Wireshark (attached pic), I noticed that the virtual wireless stations are communicating with each other independently via radio (802.11), even though I haven't explicitly enabled a routing protocol. This inherent behavior is interfering with and potentially invalidating the results of my custom protocols.

This suggests that some form of "Hello" or neighbor discovery protocol is running by default at a lower level. I have two main questions related:
- How do I disable the default neighbor discovery (Hello Protocol)? Is there a way to completely disable any default neighbor discovery or "Hello" protocol communication that might be running on the wireless interfaces in Mininet-WiFi/kernel, especially when not specifying a routing protocol (proto=...) in the addLink or addStation configuration? I want the nodes to be fully "blind" and only use the custom discovery/routing logic in my Go application
- If this not possible, is there a way of accessing neighbor IPs? If disabling the automatic communication is not possible, is there a reliable way to retrieve the IP addresses of the immediate neighbors within the Mininet Python configuration code? This would allow my Go scripts to potentially leverage or work around the default neighbor list

Any insights or recommended Mininet-WiFi configuration parameters would be greatly appreciated

[Ramon Fontes]

Hello Beatriz, I’m glad to hear that you’re using Mininet-WiFi in your
thesis :).

> I noticed that the virtual wireless stations are communicating with each other independently via radio (802.11), even though I haven't explicitly enabled a routing protocol.

Could you please clarify this for me? Does the screenshot show traces
from a Wi-Fi monitor interface? If so, that’s the expected behavior.

> How do I disable the default neighbor discovery (Hello Protocol)? Is there a way to completely disable any default neighbor discovery or "Hello" protocol communication that might be running on the wireless interfaces in Mininet-WiFi/kernel, especially when not specifying a routing protocol (proto=...) in the addLink or addStation configuration? I want the nodes to be fully "blind" and only use the custom discovery/routing logic in my Go application

There’s no default Neighbor Discovery protocol in place.

> If this not possible, is there a way of accessing neighbor IPs? If disabling the automatic communication is not possible, is there a reliable way to retrieve the IP addresses of the immediate neighbors within the Mininet Python configuration code? This would allow my Go scripts to potentially leverage or work around the default neighbor list

Can I give you some advice? I’d suggest thinking about how things work
in the real world and, with that in mind, relying only on information
that can actually be obtained from it.

Em qui., 23 de out. de 2025 às 16:48, 'Beatriz Cardoso de Oliveira'
via mininet-wifi-discuss <mininet-wi...@googlegroups.com>
escreveu:

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mininet-wifi-discuss" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to mininet-wifi-dis...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mininet-wifi-discuss/55cc95c1-af25-4fb1-8a11-73f667b2dedan%40googlegroups.com.