Wpa_supplicant & mesh_max_peer_links (low quality links cause packet drops)

[mikolodz]

Hello,

I'm using TL-WN722N dongles with ath9k_htc driver to setup a mesh network on multiple RPis.
The issue which makes the network not usable is that the packets are being lost whole the time.
When I initialize connection on Rpi it creates links with very distant nodes with extremely poor RSSI.
I think it should talk to these nodes using it's neighbors, but it acts like it's forced to make a link even if it's completely not needed. I also did some testing using IBSS and babel protocol. It actually worked properly. The nodes (Rpis) have ip_forward (ipv4) on.

Example:
3 nodes with same wifi dongle capable of stable communication with others in 20 meters distance.
They're set in the corridor like : n1 ------------a----------- n2 --------------a----------- n3
Distance between nodes = a = 15m (< 20)
N2 and N3 are running, N1 is off.
N1 is turned on, it discovers n2 and n3.
N1 decides to create a link with n2 ..... and unfortunately also with n3.
N1 and N2 talk flawlessly, no packets being lost. The same with N2 <-> N3 link.
N1 pings N3 and gets around 75% packets lost. They don't talk via N2, but point-point.

Is there any way to configure such mesh_param as:

• mesh_max_peer_links

and to set the white/blocked list using

• iw meshIf station set (hw address) plink_action <open, block>

when using wpa_supplicant?

When I initialize mesh like this (from bash script):
[$1 = mesh v-if name, $2 = node number just for testing purposes]
iw wlan0 interface add "$1" type mp
iw "$1" set channel 1 HT40+
ifconfig "$1" hw ether 00:00:00:00:00:"$2"
wpa_supplicant -i "$1" -d -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -B
ifconfig "$1" 10.0.0."$2" netmask 255.255.255.0

It seams that everything I set (except creating virtual interface) is being rejected after wpa_supplicant is started. In addition after running wpa_supplicant I cannot make almost any changes with iw, because the driver is blocked. Is there any other option to hard configure open80211s default settings?

Thank you!

• mpath dump shows that next_node in N1->N3 communication is N3, although it loses packets
  ** I tried to manually set next_node, but it seems it's not working, although N2->N3 pings good. The result is same - 40-80% packets lost.

[chunyeow]

If you are using wpa_supplicant, everything will be controlled by it for mesh peering management. Otherwise, you might need to use open mesh. wpa_supplicant is not implementing the features like user blocking, blocking user based on rssi, and etc. unless you move to setting up open mesh. Your contribution is always welcome.

[mikolodz]

Hi,
is it the same with AuthSAE?
I don't think I could use open network. Theoretically I could use certificates for authentication, but still it wouldn't look secure enough.

Are these my only options? Leave the network management to wpa_supplicant/authsae or use open mesh and some other method of securing data?

best regards