Hello all!
I've been administrating a non-AREDN Ham-radio microwave network since about 2018 which has grown to a few dozen sites. The network uses conventional routing technologies (OSPF and BGP) and runs quite well. Recently, I've been approached by another community who runs an AREDN network about the possibility of connecting the two networks over an RF link, which seems like a great idea!
I've flashed a Mikrotik sXT router with AREDN to experiment with and connected to the adjacent mesh using Wireguard and have confirmed I am able to configure a 44.x IP address using the 44Net LAN setting on the sXT. I can access services on the mesh from a device with a 44 IP on my LAN.
Idea 1 - is it possible to add static routes to the sXT and redistribute them into the babble mesh, so that the rest of the mesh network knows how to reach all the 44.x IPs in my network. I would plan to just point aggregate routes (several /24's) towards an aggregation router that talks BGP. Then, when a mesh client tries to access a 44.x IP, it's routed over the mesh to my RF handoff, sent to my aggregation router, which then forwards the packet out the appropriate interface based on OSPF. In the other direction, I'd point a static route to 10.0.0.0/8 towards my RF handoff.
Idea 2 - if it's not possible to redistribute static routes into the mesh, my second idea is to configure a lage subnet on the LAN interface (something like a /22) and then build a NAT router which 1-1 translates 'LAN' IPs from my mesh device to real IPs on my network. My main blocker here is the AREDN firmware only seems to support up to a /27.
Open to other ideas for how to bridge these networks as well.
I've been administrating a non-AREDN Ham-radio microwave network since about 2018 which has grown to a few dozen sites. The network uses conventional routing technologies (OSPF and BGP) and runs quite well. Recently, I've been approached by another community who runs an AREDN network about the possibility of connecting the two networks over an RF link, which seems like a great idea!
I've flashed a Mikrotik sXT router with AREDN to experiment with and connected to the adjacent mesh using Wireguard and have confirmed I am able to configure a 44.x IP address using the 44Net LAN setting on the sXT. I can access services on the mesh from a device with a 44 IP on my LAN.
Idea 1 - is it possible to add static routes to the sXT and redistribute them into the babble mesh, so that the rest of the mesh network knows how to reach all the 44.x IPs in my network. I would plan to just point aggregate routes (several /24's) towards an aggregation router that talks BGP. Then, when a mesh client tries to access a 44.x IP, it's routed over the mesh to my RF handoff, sent to my aggregation router, which then forwards the packet out the appropriate interface based on OSPF. In the other direction, I'd point a static route to 10.0.0.0/8 towards my RF handoff.
Idea 2 - if it's not possible to redistribute static routes into the mesh, my second idea is to configure a lage subnet on the LAN interface (something like a /22) and then build a NAT router which 1-1 translates 'LAN' IPs from my mesh device to real IPs on my network. My main blocker here is the AREDN firmware only seems to support up to a /27.
Open to other ideas for how to bridge these networks as well.