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hAP ac Lite and changing from OLSR to Babel

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kf7yrs
hAP ac Lite and changing from OLSR to Babel
We are planning a strategy to move our mesh from OLSR to Babel.   A sticking point is that we have ~45 tunnels with the "far end" using hAPac Lite routers.   As I understand it, we will need to change from legacy tunnels to Wireguard, a pain but possible.  I also understand that the hAPac Lite has insufficient memory to run Babel and operate its radios, so with Babel, the hAP's radios need to be turned off. a pain because many members use the radios as APs and WiFi clients.   I've been reading more about Babel and see that, during the transition period, the FW releases contain both Babel and OLSR, making it a relatively large "package".  Next year, when the FW releases will have only Babel, I expect (and have read?) that the FW will be smaller that today's combined protocol versions.    Is it possible that the hAPac Lites will be OK on the smaller "pure Babel" releases of next year?  I'd hate to have to replace all those hAPac Lites.

Thanks
Lee
K6CCC
K6CCC's picture
OLSR & Babel on hAP AC lite working
This is from one of my hAP AC Lites that is running a couple days old Nightly Build - so it has both OLSR and Babel.  It has has 2 GHz Mesh turned on with one connected node.  It does have a couple tunnels built (WireGuard), but they are not normally enabled.

Uptime:  3 days, 17:23
Load average:  0.05  0.09  0.12
Free flash:  8.908 MB
Free RAM:  11.528 MB
Firmware version:  20250819-d68e03e7

And in my opinion even if you are still OLSR only, start moving the tunnels or WireGuard.  Obviously both ends need to have a new enough firmware version to support it.
 
kf7yrs
Thanks
Thanks, that doesn't look overly stressed to me.
nc8q
nc8q's picture
a strategy to move our AREDN network from release 3. to 4.
Hi, Lee:

My (2) hAP-ac-lites are out-of-service and replaced.
All my tunnels are wireguard. 
My (16 active) supernode tunnels are on my hAP-ac2 and my (15 active) regular tunnels are on my hAP-ac3.

Your network should have a plan to convert all legacy tunnels to wireguard.
Now would be a good time to start.

"We are planning a strategy to move our mesh from OLSR to Babel."
Installing the current release, 3.25.8.0, would be a good starting point.
Once that happens, your network will automagically begin using Babel routing.

A cheap option would be to add a GL iNet AR300M16 and use it for tunnels and 2.4 GHz wireless,
DtD connect it to the existing hAP-ac-lite with no tunnels and no radios.
Perhaps the hAP-ac-lite could retain a 5 GHz radio only.

Current best option is to replace the hAP-ac-lite with a hAP-ac2 or hAP-ac3.

Else, stay with whatever existing release 3.x version your network is using.

73, Chuck
 
kf7yrs
We have a big ARES exercise
Thanks Chuck.  We have a big ARES exercise in a couple months.  After that I get right on it ;-)   I've been experimenting with a small Babel mesh and bringing out the previously almost-useless sector nodes.  I'm hoping the PtMP Babel "feature" will make them do what I thought they would do when we bought them.  
Lee
 
nc8q
nc8q's picture
the PtMP Babel "feature"
Hi, Lee:

PtMP is not a feature of Babel.

PtMP is a connection style.
PtMP is a standalone feature.

Babel is a routing protocol.
Babel is a standalone feature.

Current AREDN firmware supports PtMP connections (and more connection styles) and
Babel routing...and
many other individual 'features'.

73, Chuck
 

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