Ping Helps Keep Mesh Alive
Ping command in most operating system has been a method to detect an IP address availability. In the last few years I have use ping command to help keep my MeshAP alive.
The problem arises from MeshAP lack of activity. The MeshAP are periodically used. When this happens I noticed that MeshAP sometimes looses connectivity between nodes; however, this is only true when the density of the mesh is weak. When MeshAP are linked together with "circle routes" or with "dog legs" they tend to have intermittent lost of connectivity. Generally speaking the observation is the nodes then do not contact WIANA and give an indication that they are not up. However they are functional.
To fix the problem I use ping and the gateway address to keep the MeshAP alive. When this happens 90% of the time with in 30 minutes the MeshAP is once again communicating with WIANA and everything is normal again.
For the other 8% of the time an "unblocknode" command is issued to closest live link. Radio interference tends sometimes block a node. Even if you try to ping the gateway you find that the packets are not getting through.
The remainder 2% of the time a reboot of the MeshAP may be in order.
The problem arises from MeshAP lack of activity. The MeshAP are periodically used. When this happens I noticed that MeshAP sometimes looses connectivity between nodes; however, this is only true when the density of the mesh is weak. When MeshAP are linked together with "circle routes" or with "dog legs" they tend to have intermittent lost of connectivity. Generally speaking the observation is the nodes then do not contact WIANA and give an indication that they are not up. However they are functional.
To fix the problem I use ping and the gateway address to keep the MeshAP alive. When this happens 90% of the time with in 30 minutes the MeshAP is once again communicating with WIANA and everything is normal again.
For the other 8% of the time an "unblocknode" command is issued to closest live link. Radio interference tends sometimes block a node. Even if you try to ping the gateway you find that the packets are not getting through.
The remainder 2% of the time a reboot of the MeshAP may be in order.
1 Comments:
Don, how are you pinging the nodes? Manually or through a script? I don't run a mesh yet so I am talking through in-experience but it seems like cacti (http://cacti.net/) has functionality to ping and return statistics on a list of hosts. This could work two fold - Keeping your nodes alive and gathering statitics when the nodes get weak.
BinarySeed
By Anonymous, at 12:41 PM
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