On Thursday, February 05, 2015 17:22:53 Sven Eckelmann wrote:
The current default settings for optional features in batman-adv seems to be based around the idea that the user only compiles what he requires. They will automatically enabled when they are compiled in. For example the network coding part of batman-adv is by default disabled in the out-of-tree module but will be enabled when the code is compiled during the module build.
But distributions like Debian just enable all features of the batman-adv kernel module and hope that more experimental features or features with possible negative effects have to be enabled using some runtime configuration interface.
Interesting point. Based on what you are saying we definitely should review our policy and agree on sane defaults.
The network_coding feature can help in specific setups but also has drawbacks and is not disabled by default in the out-of-tree module. Disabling by default in the runtime config seems to be also quite sane.
This feature requires the wifi driver to support promisc mode. We should keep it disabled.
The distributed_arp_table is in theory a good solution to reduce connection problems in large networks caused by ARP packet loss. Unfortunatelly, it seems to also break ARP resolution in simple mesh setups. The only solution which seems to be used by AP firmwares seems to be the deactivation of this feature. Disabling this feature by default until the problem was understood and fixed may help new deployments to create a working mesh. Tuning of the mesh can still be done by them in case DAT works in their setup.
I vote for keeping DAT enabled.
The bridge_loop_avoidance is the only feature which is disabled by default but may be necessary even in simple setups. Packet loops may even be created during the initial node setup when this is not enabled. This is different than STP on bridges because mesh is usually used on Adhoc WiFi. Having two nodes (by accident) in the same LAN segment and in the same mesh network is rather common in this situation.
Agreed.
Cheers, Marek