OT: But a FYI Mesh Phone system

What kind of throughput do users see?

oK I have been able to place a call from my laptop as I drive around in the mesh cloud

I did an echo test I was able to be passed from repeater to repeater. (20 to 25 miles a hour is all I can get around my hood without getting shot).

And as I had a "mini" powered Darango (I have a battery powered "Meraki Mini" mounted in the rear of the cargo area) I never "lost" connection.
The Mini acts as the AP and the repeater so if I connect it, It does the work of keeping the connection alive.

Even when I was to far away from the cloud and the echo test failed.. as soon as I was back on the call would still live.

Only when I "timed out" on the SIP end would the call drop

I am sure that I had passed from not only node to node but from public IP to Public IP

I have two Inet feeds being used in the mesh net both cable modems just different loctions.

I just got my solar powered Mesh net repeater going so I can expand my driving area a good bit
I drove until the mobile mini could no longer connect back to a repeater or gateway drove a good 100 feet far out and then turned around, within seconds of get the link back up the echo test picked back up.

When I was jumping node to node I could hear a little studder and miss a half a word or so.

(I was singing to myself and I miss a few words here and there)

All this from a little $ 50.00 device.
If some would builds this function with a ATA like the 3102 then we got something.

To be able to deploy a wireless mesh phone network battery / solar powered...the uses are just waiting for us to apply the product.

http://www.karotechnology.com/

Burnning Man with Voip phone booth's all over the place
After a natural / A Man made event
Fairs / bus stops / Beach Comfort stations / Mountian Trails / Interstate hwy's

Solar powered Mini's on all those billboards down the interstate...BAM wireless VOIP network..
Now if someone would just build me my little VOIP com-badge / Star Trek thingy....
I can dump my cell phone.
Beam me up Scottie....

see the images near the bottom
http://pbx4pros.com/mini.html

Yes WDS is Cool but my Netgear cost 250.00 bucks....the mini 50.00....
The mini can be flashed to the openwrt as well...so folks are working on three / our ssid setup as well

there are some models coming down the pipe with 2 and 3 ethernet ports as well as USB ports. BT support for downloading to the USB drive....

Soon we will see someone do a ASTlinux type of asterisk install on hardware like this
Mesh network and Voip go hand in hand both want the short path end to end.

To go where no Inet or Phone service is and be able to set up a inet link and move out from there in any and all directions is great...
As the Mini setup's the users with "static" ip's
The IP are bound to the MAC address IP to IP calls work without a server in play.
You could setup a IP phone / ATA and hand it out if it is plugged into the mesh any where it has the same IP address (so DNS Srv is easy)

And at 50.00 the mini is a cheap bridge device any thing pluged into the ethernet port works as well.

Just understand the MINI's ARE NOT like any other wireless AP / Repeater / Bridge.
They are part of the meraki network a FOR profit company..
the whole point here is to build a BIG network across the world.
and make a little (very little) money in doing so.

I was looking at the Locustworld mesh system, (approx $700 per repeater) but these for under $200 with solar panel and battery seem like a good deal.

What type of antenna have you got on these Bubba? Also what distance are the units apart?

thanks

I just pick up a Senao wi-fi phone and am testing out on my mesh this weekend. My mesh has about 4 to six nodes overlaping and it will be cool to see if can cross over. Documentation on the wi-fi phone said that it should be able to seemless move between access points with the same ESSID.

I will see if I can configure the MAC address of the Senao to automatically authenticate so that login in out of the mesh cloud can be avoided.

Thanks

Don
www.moskaluk.com/blogger.htm

Here is a preliminary description of the Senao new Si-683H Wi-Fi Phone. I will have a more detail review on my blogger later this week.

Initially I had to set this device using a normal wi-fi access point. The wi-fi telephone can be configured using the telephone menu or it has built in web portal. Once I connected via wireless I used the web portal on the phone to configure the SIP phone. No I didn't use Stun I configure it to my my trixbox using url. The topology was used as per http://www.moskaluk.com/voip_using_wireless_mesh_infrast.htm

Once I saved the configuration I could see the telephone registering itself with Trixbox. I then found the MAC address and was able to use Locustworld authentication in order to automatically login into Mesh and to the Trixbox. After a few minutes I identified my mesh cloud essid to the telephone and it automatically login in.

My Mesh is available for the public hot area however mostly used for private. My mesh gear is Locustworld and I have about 23 mesh nodes. All of which have been built for less than $300, each one has 200 mW or better radio card.

I also have a test mesh lab for evaluation of for appliances and applications.

Absolutely the phone has a place to input for a stun server.

My second conversation was with my wife letting her know that I was planning to take a walk. We had a 5 minute conversation, she thought I was talking on the cell phone. I walked through 3 nodes and the hand off between the nodes wasn't noticeable. A few times when the signal went low I had a hard time to hear, similar to a cell phone. Generally it was OK.

It took about an hour to charge the battery and it lasted on standby about 18 hours. I going to fully deplete the battery and charge it up again. I suspect that this telephone was used as a demo.

More details will be available at www.moskaluk.com/blogger.htm

been following this lightly as I am proposing a mesh for a small remote rural community of 10 homes + possible VoIP. Sounds very nice for the price.

Don - where on earth did you find that Senao - I havent looked lately, but a couple months ago they were nowhere to be found, and Senao couldnt tell me how to get one.

In my own research I found some 600mw- 2w radios at http://www.valuepointnet.com - these are really industrial, some are capable of 31 SSIDs on a single AP, creating 31 wireless VLANs, they also have VoIP QOS/prioritization. @ ~$700 its not "cheap", unless you compare it to Cisco Aironet @ $3500, then you may be glad to pay ;). Most of its meant for backhaul, but they also have a mesh line in the $500-600 area.

I need to bring a Data T1 from an office 2 miles over a hill to the homes, so I will use a backhaul solution, then maybe I will try these little guys for the mesh at the home site. I am thinking of hosting a trixbox at the office to provide dialtone as well. Since its rural without power I am also building a solar solution with couple of gel cells to last 3-4 days of bad weather.

I have done several long distance links on DD-wrt wrts/bufaloes, so I know the cheap stuff works well with a good antenna.

How many hops out from your PBX have you been able to keep reliable voice connectivity? I am sure 2-3 is safe, but just wondering if you have stretched the limits. Keep us updated on your trials Bubba - this is hot stuff.

I was able to procure this in Toronto directly from Senao. I believe they have an office here. I have been build a relationship with them and have also received their risc board. Two things that I'm the first to get in Canada. I feel a little honoured. The Sip phone is crystal clear. I have tried it both on the mesh and regurlar access point. Mesh seems to work better because I can prioritize the signal ie less jitter etc.

The Mesh units are not off the shelf but the parts I used to build them are. It really a lot cheaper if you build your own mesh nodes yourself. I haven't seen any economic of scale to tell me otherwise.

Don Moskaluk