The title pretty much sums it up. I'm looking for devices that have MESH support on their WiFi chip, which can also run the latest version of OpenWRT (hence the storage concern) and also relatively cheap.
If the only option is still "pricecy" relative to other devices then still go ahead and recommend it - I'm just asking i terms of a list from cheaper to more expensive.
I've been browsing AliExpress and some devices, if you read the specifications page do support it (and I mean proper 802.11s not "commercial mesh vaporware").
It would help to know (at least roughly) where you are located. A recent recommendation for Europe is e.g. the ZyXEL T56 that is incredibly cheap for how powerful it is.
Mesh support depends mostly on the WiFi chip and I've head good success with Mediatek chipsets (I didn't try 802.11s on any other chipset).
As well as your location, and even more important, what do you want to use the mesh for?
Do you want to avoid installing runs of gigabit ethernet, but have the same performance as gigabit ethernet for gaming?
Or
Do you want simple cableless interconnection between numerous locations with reasonable performance for the usual browsing, email, and some streaming for mobile devices?
At least ethernet cables..... A mesh cannot get anywhere near, but the marketing hype of proprietary "meshhy" systems makes people think it can, unfortunately.
My former question was designed to glean the true context.
So you want "reasonable performance", not hyper performance!
Well then, more questions:
Do you really want a mesh?
A mesh network is a type of network setup where devices, or "nodes," are interconnected in a way that allows them to communicate with each other directly, without needing a central hub like a router in a traditional network. A mesh is a means of providing a backhaul network. Users do not connect to this backhaul, rather, they connect indirectly through "gates" aka Access Points.
A mesh is not a solution to enable your user devices to seamlessly roam from one access point to another. That is something else entirely.
If you really do want a mesh, do you have node location plan?. Are any located outdoors?
What is the speed of your Internet feed?
What kind of location are you talking about? Your house, a hotel, a village, a sports stadium, something else?
With answers to these questions, we can come to some sort of meshnode specification.
Yes, but I don't need mesh_fwding enabled. Technically I only need the ad-hoc nature of 802.11s. I will be running some routing software (Yggdrasil) ontop of the mesh WiFi interface, hence I don't need the forwarding features as that duplicates effort already accomplished at a higher level with Yggdrasil.
In the old days there was an ad-hoc mode if I am correct but I guess the actual new standard for that (+ extras like encryption and forwarding) is now 802.11s?
100mbps throughput or higher would be nice.
I need one outdoors but for other cases mostly indoors.
Let me know if you need more answers to narrow it down!
Think you are a few years out of date.
Currently, 16MB Flash and 128MB RAM is the minimum requirement for OpenWrt on new devices. You can cut everything down and custom build an image that will work with less, but but the lack of RAM will result in oom crashes if traffic gets busy, and that is without Yggdrasil, which is a bit of an unknown with regard to memory consumption (and flash usage come to that).
Yes, definitely well out of date, 802.11s dates back to 2011...
I would recommend not using Yggdrasil for a mesh. You need storage, ram and cpu specifications that will make the meshnode hardware both expensive and physically large.
You have not described what your mesh will look like. I'll ask again, please provide a network diagram.
I have not used Yggdrasil, but it looks like it is aimed more at the "city scale" intranet type of project with hundreds of routers etc. My guess is that it is an extreme overkill for whatever you are trying to achieve.... Unless this is an academic exercise and you want us to do your homework for you.. Or you want us to design something for your business so you can put it in a quote.... Be truthful.
You're on point. It will be used on devices locally where I am in my city but will uplink into the rest of the Yggdrasil network.
I've been a long time user of Yggdrasil and I am in touch with the developers. Now, it would be something if I could sell such routers, pre-configured and all - but that is after I can get some recommendations of devices with enough RAM (so more than 64MB from my own testing - I have done my own homework on that), a somewhat performant CPU (Yggdrasil does do crypto, so there's that) and port wise - honestly two or even a single onboard port would suffice.
So academic + potential business of me selling them - I hope that's "up front" enough for you . I'm just asking for hardware recommendations; I am more than capable of handling the software side.
Well then, it is up to you to determine ram consumption, not just to get it booted, but how much is required when you have hundreds or maybe thousands of routers in the network. Also what are the cpu loads in such a network. Another "also", what is the bandwidth of the network? Will your devices be end nodes, upstream portals, mesh gates with multiple access points for users etc etc.
I could keep going without even being mesh specific.
You are not really describing a mesh, you are describing a CPE device that might connect to an upstream "WAN" mesh and to a downstream "LAN" mesh, with maybe cable connections in places.
What I am surmising is that you have multiple requirements to meet, not just one.
You will have to ask more specific questions here once you have genuinely done your research and have your outline specification(s). Then you are likely to get recommendations for devices that would meet your specifications.
The mesh requirement of 802.11s has nothing to do with the Yggdrasil "mesh", I just want 802.11s support so I can have that with mesh_fwding=0 - the adhoc nature makes setting up wireless devices that can "see each other" easy.
I thought I should clarify that, the 802.11s support is required though for what I am doing specifically but it is not inherently an Yggdrasil requirement.
For all it matters:
Good CPU performance for maybe 50s of users - regarding crypto usage
802.11s support
more than 64MB of RAM
Onboard storage isn't a biggie, but from what I have seen more than 16MB would be a lot nicer (things just fit with 16MB)
I hope these re-clarifications of concerns aid those who may be able to help.
Indeed it does not, but your thread is entitled "Recommend me a device with 802.11s MESH support".
After a quick bit of reading, I found:
Yggdrasil is an ipv6 overlay routing protocol, with traffic encryption, that dynamically builds a binary tree network.
Quote:
The routing algorithm is inspired by distributed hash tables (DHTs) but optimized for low-latency, stable connections. It supports greedy routing to find optimal paths and is self-healing, adapting to network changes like node failures or link disruptions.
So Yggdrasil is not a mesh network at all, it is an ipv6 routing protocol/transport that can sit on top of any backhaul. The Yggdrasil network will be a point to point network, unlike 802.11s with HWMP that is a multi-point to multi-point network. Yggdrasil seems to be very similar to BATMAN.
Interesting.
Your title should really be: "Recommend a device for me to run Yggdrasil on an 802.11s backhaul - enough storage and cheap"
Appears I can't, but you are right with your
understanding of Yggdrasil. Yes, like batman-adv
if you add your "mesh interfaces " (i.e. ones to
perform router discovery on) it can be anything.
Yggdrasil will perform discovery over any
IPv6 ink-local (with multicast) link, TCP/UDP/QUIC
or via a UNIX domain socket. Of course I
only care about using it primarily in the first
category.
, just checked it out and that is a little wild. But thanks for a low end recommendation.