Nanostations, OLSR, and OpenWRT

Well, it has been an interesting period of time since my last post.

Please understand that I have been simultaneously working on the technical aspects of the Ayrstone AyrMesh(TM), updating the web page, writing the business plan, and preparing to show the product at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA.

So, first, the technology. While OLSR does definitely work on Ubiquiti's AirOS, the odd fact is that they have somehow messed with MadWiFi so that you cannot create a VAP running in adhoc or ahdemo mode. This, of course, effectively prevents the creation of a mesh network using AirOS.

Ubiquiti must have had some very good reason for doing this, but I have not yet had the temerity to ask them.

I decided at this point to start working with the open-source OpenWRT OS, a Linux distribution originally built for the Linksys WRT54G. It has been ported to the Atheros chipset used by Ubiquiti and runs very well on the NanoStations while providing a lot more control. I started by studing two existing meshing packages: RoBIn and NightWing. From them I was able to figure out how to build a version of OpenWRT that (1) fits in the 4 MB space on the NanoStation and (2) does what we want it to do. So far it's working very, very nicely.

A very nice added bonus is that it works perfectly on the new Ubiquiti Bullet2HP, which is better-suited to our purposes than the NanoStation. I have one of the early units, and it is working very well.

In the meantime, we showed the Ayrstone AyrMesh at the World Ag Expo and were very well-recieved there. People asked what we had and, when we explained, were simultaneously very surprised and very interested. Those who were able to fully understand the capabilities and potential of the concept were eager to try it out, although, in fairness, not everyone really understood it. This is the bane of the high-tech marketer's existance: figuring out how to explain technology so that people understand the full potential of the device - the facsimile machine being a "classic" example.

Meanwhile, we are polishing up the business plan and starting to look for funding. Anyone with a few hundred thousand that you'd like to use to buy into the next high-growth agricultural technology company, please form an orderly line...