Being so preoccupied with other wi-fi architectures and deployments, I failed to catch up to the meshing Craze. Yes its true that for speedy wifi nets you need the directional antennas, the best and fastest SBCs or X86s, various optimizations and tens of other detains. On the other hand when you move closer to the ground, you different issues. To deliver signal to users you really need something better, more clever than a dozen of WDS devices. The truth is that mesh configs with OLSR and BATMAN really shine in Hotspot conditions and outperform older solutions.
The friendliest Meshing solution that I have seen so far is the one that is provided by Open-Mesh. Open-Mesh creates ultra low-cost zero-config, plug & play wireless mesh network 
solutions that spread an Internet connection throughout a hotel, apartment, neighborhood, village, coffee shop, shopping mall, campground, marina and just about anywhere else you can imagine. It has also a very friendly and intuitive Dashboard that helps you keep track of all your devices and monitor their performance and health. Its not the most powerful solution provided by openWRT firmwares, but is the most user friendly i have seen, it’s open, it’s complete and comparatively it’s dirty cheap!
I was lucky these days to get my hands on some of those for a local community project. A project that will eventual make use of the AWMN Backbone to deliver Internet and AWMN access to as many wifi devices as we can reach.
Here is some code of My customizations utilizing the Custom.sh option of the dashboard
Custom.sh
#!/bin/sh
#iptables -D FORWARD 7
#iptables -D FORWARD 13
#iptables -D FORWARD 19
/usr/sbin/iptables -D FORWARD -i ath0 -s 101.0.0.0/8 -d 10.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -D FORWARD -i ath1 -s 101.0.0.0/8 -d 10.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
/usr/sbin/iptables -D FORWARD -i ath2 -s 101.0.0.0/8 -d 10.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
curSSID=$(iwconfig ath3 | grep ath3 | awk -F'"' '{ print $2 }')
homeSSIDprop=$(cat /etc/config/system | grep hostname | awk -F"'" '{ print $4 }')
thrdif=$(ifconfig | grep ath3 | awk '{ print $1 }')
#### Setup an extra AP for Personal Use with Mac Address as WPA Key" #####
if [ "$thrdif" != ath3 ];then
rm -f /var/run/hostapd-ath3
rm -f /var/run/ath3
rm -f /tmp/hostapd-ath3.conf
rm -f /tmp/home_pool
ath3Conf=/tmp/hostapd-ath3.conf
homedhcpool=/tmp/home_pool
#homemac=$(ifconfig ath0 | grep Link | awk '{ print $5 }')
#homeSSID=$(grep $homemac /etc/update/nodes | awk '{ print $3 }')
homeSSID=$(cat /etc/config/system | grep hostname | awk -F"'" '{ print $4 }')
homemaclan=$(ifconfig eth0 | grep Link | awk '{ print $5 }')
home_key=$(echo $homemaclan | awk -F: '{ print $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 }')
#home_ip=$(ifconfig ath2 | grep inet | awk -F: '{ print $2 }' | awk '{ print $1 }')
#home_mask=$(ifconfig ath2 | grep inet | awk -F: '{ print $4 }' | awk '{ print $1 }')
echo "172.16.55.10,172.16.55.250,255.255.255.0,2h" >> $homedhcpool
echo "ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd-ath3" >> $ath3Conf
echo "driver=madwifi" >> $ath3Conf
echo "interface=ath3" >> $ath3Conf
echo "channel=11" >> $ath3Conf
echo "ssid=$homeSSID" >> $ath3Conf
echo "debug=0" >> $ath3Conf
echo "wpa=1" >> $ath3Conf
echo "wpa_pairwise=TKIP" >> $ath3Conf
echo "country_code=392" >> $ath3Conf
echo "wpa_passphrase=$home_key" >> $ath3Conf
ifconfig ath3 down
wlanconfig ath3 destroy
rm /var/run/ath3
wlanconfig ath3 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap
hostapd -B -P /var/run/ath3 /tmp/hostapd-ath3.conf
ifconfig ath3 172.16.55.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
fi
#### Check if the NodeName has Changed #####
if [ "$curSSID" != "$homeSSIDprop" ];then
homeSSIDprop=$(cat /etc/config/system | grep hostname | awk -F"'" '{ print $4 }')
iwconfig ath3 essid on
iwconfig ath3 essid "$homeSSIDprop" txpower auto
fi
wget -N http://www.Lucy.net/dhcpd.sh
chmod 0755 dhcpd.sh
./dhcpd.sh stop
./dhcpd.sh start
rm -f /etc/update/custom.md5
dhcpd.sh
#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common
# RO.B.IN - 2007 by Antonio Anselmi <a.anselmi-at-oltrelinux-dot-com>
# /init.d/dhcpd
# Nettraptor-moded
START=76
. /etc/rob-functions.sh
dnsmasq_header() {
echo "bogus-priv" > $DNSMASQ_CONF
NXDOMAIN_IP=$(nslookup www.jriugrkbfdkjhg.com 208.67.222.222 |tail -2 |grep -i 'address' |awk '{print $3}')
[ -n "$NXDOMAIN_IP" ] && echo "bogus-nxdomain=$NXDOMAIN_IP" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "filterwin2k" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-leasefile=/tmp/dhcp.leases" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-authoritative" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
LOCAL_DOMAIN=$(uci get management.enable.local_domain)
[ -n "$LOCAL_DOMAIN" ] && echo "domain=$LOCAL_DOMAIN" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
}
dnsmasq_body() { �
case $1 in
2) #public AP + private AP
customDNS_IP=$(uci get general.services.name_srv)
ap1_ipaddr=$(uci get node.general.IP_ap |awk -F / '{print $1}')
ap2_ipaddr=$(uci get node.general.IP_Myap |awk -F / '{print $1}')
RANGE_PUBLIC=$(cat /tmp/public_pool)
RANGE_PRIVATE=$(cat /tmp/private_pool)
RANGE_HOME=$(cat /tmp/home_pool)
echo "dhcp-range=public,$RANGE_PUBLIC" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-option=public,3,$ap1_ipaddr" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-option=public,6,$customDNS_IP" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-range=private,$RANGE_PRIVATE" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-option=private,3,$ap2_ipaddr" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-option=private,6,$ap2_ipaddr" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-range=home,$RANGE_HOME" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-option=home,3,172.16.55.1" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-option=home,6,$customDNS_IP" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
;;
1) #public AP only
customDNS_IP=$(uci get general.services.name_srv)
ap1_ipaddr=$(uci get node.general.IP_ap |awk -F / '{print $1}')
RANGE_PUBLIC=$(cat /tmp/public_pool)
echo "dhcp-range=$RANGE_PUBLIC" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-option=3,$ap1_ipaddr" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-option=6,$customDNS_IP" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
;;
0) #private AP only
ap2_ipaddr=$(uci get node.general.IP_Myap |awk -F / '{print $1}')
RANGE_PRIVATE=$(cat /tmp/private_pool)
echo "dhcp-range=$RANGE_PRIVATE" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-option=3,$ap2_ipaddr" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
echo "dhcp-option=6,$ap2_ipaddr" >> $DNSMASQ_CONF
;;
esac
}
start () {
cp_HANDLER=$(uci get cp_switch.main.which_handler)
has_dhcpd=$(uci get cp_switch."handler_${cp_HANDLER}".has_dhcpd) �
Myap_up=$(uci get mesh.Myap.up)
AP1_IFACE=$(IFNAME public)
AP2_IFACE="ath2"
APhome_IFACE="ath3"
MESH_IFACE="ath0"
DNSMASQ_CONF=/tmp/dnsmasq.conf
DNSMASQ_OPTIONS=" --resolv-file=/etc/resolv.conf"
IFACES=
if [ 1 -eq "$has_dhcpd" ] ; then
#we want dnsmasq to provide only DNS service on chilli_controlled_interface (C_IFACE)
C_IFACE=$(uci get cp_switch.main.iface)
DNSMASQ_OPTIONS="${DNSMASQ_OPTIONS} no-dhcp-interface=${C_IFACE}"
[ 1 -eq "$Myap_up" ] && { IFACES=",${AP2_IFACE}"; k_dnsmasqConf=0;}
else
IFACES=",${AP1_IFACE}"
k_dnsmasqConf=1
[ 1 -eq "$Myap_up" ] && { IFACES=",${AP1_IFACE}, ${AP2_IFACE}, ${APhome_IFACE}"; k_dnsmasqConf=2;}
fi
if [ 1 -eq "$(uci get node.general.node)" ]; then
# Don't bind to the wan interfaces or dhcp server conflicts will occur
# on networks where more than one gateway is connected to an uplink
# gateway running a dhcp server. Ironically, binding to wan interfaces
# on networks with redundant gateways decreases the reliability of the
# network as the number of redundant gateways increases.
WAN_IFACE=$(uci get node.general.wanPort)
DNSMASQ_OPTIONS="${DNSMASQ_OPTIONS} -I $MESH_IFACE -I $WAN_IFACE $IFACES" �
else
DNSMASQ_OPTIONS="${DNSMASQ_OPTIONS} -I $MESH_IFACE $IFACES" �
fi
dnsmasq_header
dnsmasq_body $k_dnsmasqConf
echo $DNSMASQ_OPTIONS > /tmp/dnsmasq.args
dnsmasq -C $DNSMASQ_CONF $DNSMASQ_OPTIONS
}
stop () {
killall -9 dnsmasq
}
#
