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B.A.T.M.A.N. V (DRAFT)

Metric: Estimated throughput (from RC algorithm for wireless devices)
Neighbour Discovery: ELP (Echo Locating Protocol)
Path Metric Computation: OGMv2

General Overviev
This is a draft of how the algorithm should work and what it needs.
Later all this information will be split and reported into the proper pages (e.g. ELP or OGMv2)

  • ELP bandwidth aware
    • Broadcast message for neighbour discovery (one per interface). [Beacon might be used on wifi interfaces]
    • Unicast message for thgoughput sampling (one per neighbour). This is useful when there is no traffic towards a given neighbor.
  • OGMv2
    • Broadcast message for metric propagation:
      • one OGM per interface is sent when the node generates the OGM
      • one OGM per interface is sent when the node is forwarding one received OGM

Stub Algorithm

Link Metric estimation and exchange
Each node in the network estimates the throughput towards each of its neighbours (one hop throughput)
The throughput information is shared with the related neighbour by means of ELP
No need to count sequence numbers anymore since it was related to packet loss, but time since last ELP packet can be considered in order to quickly switch route.

Path Metric computation
Each node, say SRC, creates and sends its own OGMs to let all the other peers in the network build their routing table
  • For each interface I belonging to SRC:
    • one OGM is sent as broadcast over I containing the link metric value (namely OGM.metric) equal to 0
  • A generic node P receiving an OGM from R on interface I_IN
    • computes next_hop_metric = nhm(OGM.metric, R, I_IN)
      where nhm(x, r, i_in) is a metric alterating function which computes the path metric towards OGM.SRC by combining OGM.metric and the estimated throughput on the link P <-> r (through interface i_in).
    • For each interface I
      • computes forw_metric = fwm(next_hop_metric, I_IN, I)
        where fwm(x, i_in, i) is a metric alterating function which computes the metric value that a node has to propagate over the given interface i that the path goes through interface i_in
      • a new packet OGM' is created and OGM'.metric = forw_metric is set
      • OGM' is sent as broadcast over I
  • Information to store in the routing table
    • one classic routing table for each interface containing
      • the best next-hop towards each possible destination: the best next-hop is chosen based on the best next_hop_metric towards the destination
Routing
  • The outgoing interface is chosen depending on the incoming one (full/half duplex attribute may affect the choice).
  • After having chosen the interface, the next-hop is the best-next-hop for the given destination

One Hop Throughput Estimation

  • wireless: maximum throughput from rc_stats (this stats exist only for the minstrel RC algorithm. Therefore a new API in struct rate_control_ops will be added to let each implementation return the maximum throughput based on its internal stats). Devices implementing RC in HW do not export any stats. In this case a new API to be implemented in the driver can be evaluated. Ath9k, which is one of the most used driver, uses software RC.
  • wired: ethtool for half/full duplex and theoretical bandwidth (this may be falsified by Ethernet bridges in the LAN)
  • VPN: 1Mbps, configurable via netlink
  • Unknown: 1Mbps
  • generic: the bandwidth meter might be used to estimate the real (current) throughtput on non-wireless interfaces