Meshrouting
From RC-Autopilot Wiki
Meshrouting is a method of routing data between nodes which are interconnnected without a structure, possibly even portable or mobile. Conventional networks are always structured in some way, usually in a tree structure. This means the data from lots of end users gets collected in several levels of hubs/nodes, at some point the data of thousands or even millions of users is following a single path with very high capacity (up to several Tbps), before reaching the destination point. There are two disadvantages I can think of off the top of my head (I'm writing this in scratch as an introduction, so please forgive me if it's not too accurate):
- Very high tech equipment necessary to transport the data in the "trunk" area
- Problems in the trunk area influence large groups of users (almost always these trunks (backbones) are redundant, but even redundancy can make problems)
- Complicated planning of ip adressing, routing tables, etc. to maintain the network at all levels
When a group of users are close to one another, modern wireless networking technology and new routing protocols offer an alternative to conventional networking structures. Single nodes can connect to each other, without any configuration or installation, simply by getting a box and plugging it in, as long as at least one other node is in range.
Possible hardware platforms are discussed in Router Hardware. On http://meshnode.org you can buy a complete hardware kit (geek edition) for about 250€ and download free software to run on it. They also sell ready-to-use outdoor units.
