

Ask HN: Using wifi AP in ad-hoc allow free mesh network? - eridal

I&#x27;m reading the 802.11 specs and it seems that our wifi AP could be used in ad-hoc mode, which makes them open to connect to devices <i>and</i> other AP, which end up in an mesh network.<p>I cannot understand, if this tech is already on our homes, why are we not using it yet?<p>There has to be some down side.<p>References:<p>- https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;IEEE_802.11<p>- https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Wireless_ad_hoc_network
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wmf
Let's say Alice can hear Bob and Bob can hear Charlie, but Alice cannot hear
Charlie. AFAIK, in ad-hoc mode Alice and Charlie cannot communicate. You'd
need a real mesh (like 802.11s) where Bob would relay packets (and destroy his
own performance and battery in the process). Then there's the 1/7th problem
that hasn't been solved to my knowledge:
[http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/papers/grid:mobicom01/paper.pdf](http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/papers/grid:mobicom01/paper.pdf)

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opless
Everyone's internal ip range is likely to be similar.

192.168.[0|1|2].0/24 or 10.[0|1].[0|1].0/24

There are some projects that hold a registry of internal ips, for example:
[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ijackson/cam-
grin?li...](http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ijackson/cam-
grin?list=all)

If we all were on ipv6 it might help, but meh.

~~~
eridal
Thant's true!

I can see the problem: wifi ad-hoc does not play well with a private DHCPs on
every home.

But given that with ad-hoc all nodes (AP and devices) become part of mesh
network, do we need a traditional DHCP?

Also, we need to have huge host network while having small broadcast domains
.. not sure which class-type better fits

