Based on kernel version 4.13.3. Page generated on 2017-09-23 13:55 EST.
1 BATMAN-ADV 2 ---------- 3 4 Batman advanced is a new approach to wireless networking which 5 does no longer operate on the IP basis. Unlike the batman daemon, 6 which exchanges information using UDP packets and sets routing 7 tables, batman-advanced operates on ISO/OSI Layer 2 only and uses 8 and routes (or better: bridges) Ethernet Frames. It emulates a 9 virtual network switch of all nodes participating. Therefore all 10 nodes appear to be link local, thus all higher operating proto- 11 cols won't be affected by any changes within the network. You can 12 run almost any protocol above batman advanced, prominent examples 13 are: IPv4, IPv6, DHCP, IPX. 14 15 Batman advanced was implemented as a Linux kernel driver to re- 16 duce the overhead to a minimum. It does not depend on any (other) 17 network driver, and can be used on wifi as well as ethernet lan, 18 vpn, etc ... (anything with ethernet-style layer 2). 19 20 21 CONFIGURATION 22 ------------- 23 24 Load the batman-adv module into your kernel: 25 26 # insmod batman-adv.ko 27 28 The module is now waiting for activation. You must add some in- 29 terfaces on which batman can operate. After loading the module 30 batman advanced will scan your systems interfaces to search for 31 compatible interfaces. Once found, it will create subfolders in 32 the /sys directories of each supported interface, e.g. 33 34 # ls /sys/class/net/eth0/batman_adv/ 35 # elp_interval iface_status mesh_iface throughput_override 36 37 If an interface does not have the "batman_adv" subfolder it prob- 38 ably is not supported. Not supported interfaces are: loopback, 39 non-ethernet and batman's own interfaces. 40 41 Note: After the module was loaded it will continuously watch for 42 new interfaces to verify the compatibility. There is no need to 43 reload the module if you plug your USB wifi adapter into your ma- 44 chine after batman advanced was initially loaded. 45 46 The batman-adv soft-interface can be created using the iproute2 47 tool "ip" 48 49 # ip link add name bat0 type batadv 50 51 To activate a given interface simply attach it to the "bat0" 52 interface 53 54 # ip link set dev eth0 master bat0 55 56 Repeat this step for all interfaces you wish to add. Now batman 57 starts using/broadcasting on this/these interface(s). 58 59 By reading the "iface_status" file you can check its status: 60 61 # cat /sys/class/net/eth0/batman_adv/iface_status 62 # active 63 64 To deactivate an interface you have to detach it from the 65 "bat0" interface: 66 67 # ip link set dev eth0 nomaster 68 69 70 All mesh wide settings can be found in batman's own interface 71 folder: 72 73 # ls /sys/class/net/bat0/mesh/ 74 # aggregated_ogms fragmentation isolation_mark routing_algo 75 # ap_isolation gw_bandwidth log_level vlan0 76 # bonding gw_mode multicast_mode 77 # bridge_loop_avoidance gw_sel_class network_coding 78 # distributed_arp_table hop_penalty orig_interval 79 80 There is a special folder for debugging information: 81 82 # ls /sys/kernel/debug/batman_adv/bat0/ 83 # bla_backbone_table log neighbors transtable_local 84 # bla_claim_table mcast_flags originators 85 # dat_cache nc socket 86 # gateways nc_nodes transtable_global 87 88 Some of the files contain all sort of status information regard- 89 ing the mesh network. For example, you can view the table of 90 originators (mesh participants) with: 91 92 # cat /sys/kernel/debug/batman_adv/bat0/originators 93 94 Other files allow to change batman's behaviour to better fit your 95 requirements. For instance, you can check the current originator 96 interval (value in milliseconds which determines how often batman 97 sends its broadcast packets): 98 99 # cat /sys/class/net/bat0/mesh/orig_interval 100 # 1000 101 102 and also change its value: 103 104 # echo 3000 > /sys/class/net/bat0/mesh/orig_interval 105 106 In very mobile scenarios, you might want to adjust the originator 107 interval to a lower value. This will make the mesh more respon- 108 sive to topology changes, but will also increase the overhead. 109 110 111 USAGE 112 ----- 113 114 To make use of your newly created mesh, batman advanced provides 115 a new interface "bat0" which you should use from this point on. 116 All interfaces added to batman advanced are not relevant any 117 longer because batman handles them for you. Basically, one "hands 118 over" the data by using the batman interface and batman will make 119 sure it reaches its destination. 120 121 The "bat0" interface can be used like any other regular inter- 122 face. It needs an IP address which can be either statically con- 123 figured or dynamically (by using DHCP or similar services): 124 125 # NodeA: ip link set up dev bat0 126 # NodeA: ip addr add 192.168.0.1/24 dev bat0 127 128 # NodeB: ip link set up dev bat0 129 # NodeB: ip addr add 192.168.0.2/24 dev bat0 130 # NodeB: ping 192.168.0.1 131 132 Note: In order to avoid problems remove all IP addresses previ- 133 ously assigned to interfaces now used by batman advanced, e.g. 134 135 # ip addr flush dev eth0 136 137 138 LOGGING/DEBUGGING 139 ----------------- 140 141 All error messages, warnings and information messages are sent to 142 the kernel log. Depending on your operating system distribution 143 this can be read in one of a number of ways. Try using the com- 144 mands: dmesg, logread, or looking in the files /var/log/kern.log 145 or /var/log/syslog. All batman-adv messages are prefixed with 146 "batman-adv:" So to see just these messages try 147 148 # dmesg | grep batman-adv 149 150 When investigating problems with your mesh network it is some- 151 times necessary to see more detail debug messages. This must be 152 enabled when compiling the batman-adv module. When building bat- 153 man-adv as part of kernel, use "make menuconfig" and enable the 154 option "B.A.T.M.A.N. debugging". 155 156 Those additional debug messages can be accessed using a special 157 file in debugfs 158 159 # cat /sys/kernel/debug/batman_adv/bat0/log 160 161 The additional debug output is by default disabled. It can be en- 162 abled during run time. Following log_levels are defined: 163 164 0 - All debug output disabled 165 1 - Enable messages related to routing / flooding / broadcasting 166 2 - Enable messages related to route added / changed / deleted 167 4 - Enable messages related to translation table operations 168 8 - Enable messages related to bridge loop avoidance 169 16 - Enable messages related to DAT, ARP snooping and parsing 170 32 - Enable messages related to network coding 171 64 - Enable messages related to multicast 172 128 - Enable messages related to throughput meter 173 255 - Enable all messages 174 175 The debug output can be changed at runtime using the file 176 /sys/class/net/bat0/mesh/log_level. e.g. 177 178 # echo 6 > /sys/class/net/bat0/mesh/log_level 179 180 will enable debug messages for when routes change. 181 182 Counters for different types of packets entering and leaving the 183 batman-adv module are available through ethtool: 184 185 # ethtool --statistics bat0 186 187 188 BATCTL 189 ------ 190 191 As batman advanced operates on layer 2 all hosts participating in 192 the virtual switch are completely transparent for all protocols 193 above layer 2. Therefore the common diagnosis tools do not work 194 as expected. To overcome these problems batctl was created. At 195 the moment the batctl contains ping, traceroute, tcpdump and 196 interfaces to the kernel module settings. 197 198 For more information, please see the manpage (man batctl). 199 200 batctl is available on https://www.open-mesh.org/ 201 202 203 CONTACT 204 ------- 205 206 Please send us comments, experiences, questions, anything :) 207 208 IRC: #batman on irc.freenode.org 209 Mailing-list: b.a.t.m.a.n@open-mesh.org (optional subscription 210 at https://lists.open-mesh.org/mm/listinfo/b.a.t.m.a.n) 211 212 You can also contact the Authors: 213 214 Marek Lindner <mareklindner@neomailbox.ch> 215 Simon Wunderlich <sw@simonwunderlich.de>