802.11s - The Mesh11sd Project

Mesh11sd is an 802.11s mesh management daemon for OpenWrt.
It is designed to facilitate the autonomous creation and management of wireless mesh networks using the 802.11s standard.

It helps automate the setup process, which can be very complex, especially for those new to networking or for the more experienced wanting to rapidly deploy larger networks.

Please read the documentation before installing the mesh11sd package!
Mesh11sd Documentation

Note: Normal user devices (phones, tablets, laptops, desktops) cannot connect to an 802.11s mesh, instead they must connect to a “mesh gate” such as an access point built into or connected to a mesh node.

If you want a solution to enable your user devices to seamlessly roam from one access point to another in your home, a mesh is not required.

Some manufacturers use the word “mesh” (often capitalised as “Mesh”) to describe their non-standard, closed source, proprietary “wireless network extender” functionality and unfortunately this causes confusion for many people when entering the world of industry standards and open source firmware.

For seamless roaming from one access point to another, usually, all that is needed is careful positioning of your access points and adjustment of parameters such as transmit power. If you have a large number of access points you might need a more active solution to roaming.
See: WiFi Roaming

Simply put, an 802.11s mesh network is one where the mesh nodes (and ONLY the mesh nodes) are connected to form a backhaul network that looks logically just like a virtual layer 2 switch - but all done by wireless.

The standard for mesh networks is IEEE 802.11s.

You may see now that a mesh and roaming are two completely unrelated things.

Yes. Mesh11sd builds a Vxlan point to multi-point tunnel to every mesh node. This can be used as a vlan trunk, just like a managed switch.

By default, this tunnel is used to support a “guest” style network without needing any vlan to be defined.
So if you require just one extra network, eg Guest or IoT, then the job is done for you.

Yes. Mesh11sd supports cabled segments in the mesh backhaul. Any cabled segments will be used in preference as they will have a lower path cost. Potential bridge loop issues are blocked at the mesh interface level by the daemon.

Yes. One node (the mesh portal) is selected autonomously as the holder of a central database containing the usage information of all the mesh node access points in the mesh network,
such as user device mac address, upload/download data volumes, signal strength, achieved bitrates and connected time.

Data can be output in json format for viewing or use in other systems.

Mesh11sd provides an escapable “Confidence Test”, a means of creating a basic reflash image that allows the mesh11sd daemon to be manually started in autoconfig mode.
If, in the worst case, it becomes impossible to access the node being tested, a simple power cycle will restore an accessible state.

The mesh11sd package is a fully fledged mesh backhaul management system and as such it might be expected for problems to arise if another mesh backhaul management system is installed at the same time.

Starting with Mesh11sd version 6, there is a compatibility mode of operation that may allow Mesh11sd to operate as a helper package for other systems, such as BATMAN

No. Mesh11sd maintains dynamic UCI configuration, but LuCi can only understand static UCI configurations.

Using the previously mentioned compatibility mode of operation, Luci will be enabled and can be used to monitor the status of the mesh node upon which it is running. However the dynamic Mesh11sd configurations may or may not not be found in full on the LuCi menus as generally they will not be understood by the LuCi system.

Create an issue on the Github repository at:
https://github.com/openNDS/mesh11sd/issues