Hi,
when having Nodes with wired Mesh-Links, or on point-to-point connections, rebroadcasts on the same interface are unnecessary, because all Nodes receive the broadcast packets at the same time.
On non-gateway nodes (Freifunk-Routers) running firmware "Gluon", there is a patch from Linus Lüssing adding the feature/option "mesh_no_rebroadcast" to batman-adv, which is enabled by default on mesh_vpn interface. Because of the good experience reducing traffic also on other wired mesh links (Mesh-on-LAN / Mesh-on-WAN), this option will also be enabled there by default with the upcoming Gluon v2016.2.
Gatways are not running Gluon, but typically Debian Linux, and there the option "mesh_no_rebroadcast" does not exist on batban-adv.
Are there some (other) features already implemented in batman-adv to prevent rebroadcast of unnecessary mesh packets?
If not, what is the chance to have the functionality implemented by the mentioned patch as part of the original code base?
Background:
At Freifunk-Stuttgart we have multiple distributed gateways connected by layer2-tinc, which is logically the same situation as using LAN-Cables and physical Switch. Avoiding rebroadcast will reduce traffic between the gateways.
Additional info:
On 12.03.2015 Ticket #207 was opened by Ruben Kelevra relating the same issue, but immediately closed due to formal error.
Best regards, Roland.