this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
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Hardware

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WiFi: Is 802.11s "mesh point" mode dead? (dubvee.org)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/hardware
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In all of my recent wifi cards, none of them seem to support 802.11s mesh mode. Is that standard "dead", or do I just need to look for better/specific-brands of wifi adapter? Or perhaps have Linux drivers just not kept up with the latest wifi chipsets?

I've been wanting to revive the B.A.T.M.A.N mesh project I've toyed with off-and-on for the last few years, but I'm having a hard time finding wireless cards that support native meshing. Seems like nothing above Wifi 4 (11n) supports it, or at least none of my devices with Wifi 5 or 6 support that mode.

IBSS/ad-hoc mode is available, but getting different brands (or even different models of the same card) to work and with WPA3 encryption has been an ongoing nightmare, but 802.11s always "just worked".

Curious if I just missed a memo along the way or if it's something more mundane like mesh mode not being a priority for the latest chipset drivers.

Edit: Looking at the output of iw phy on one of my devices, it does list mesh point in the Supported TX/RX frame types but not in the supported interface modes. So I'm leaning toward driver support, but would love to hear a more educated voice chime in.

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[–] doczombie 3 points 4 months ago

It was never much use to enterprise so never got wide adoption.

It relied on a lot of different hardware and drivers all working nicely together as both client and host, which is a lot more difficult than a WAP-client relationship in practice.

Companies make the stuff, if no one uses it, no market, no money for development or maintenance.