[Olsr-dev] How to leverage OLSR to distribute a common node identifier?

[Aaron Daubman]

Greetings,

I'm looking for a way to distribute naming (but not exactly
DNS/hostname info) among a set of nodes all participating in a OLSR
mesh network.

I've looked at the nameservice plugin, as well as the mdns and p2pd
plugins, but these all seem to be much more heavy-weight or slightly
different than what I'm intending to accomplish.

My goal would be to allow a minimal ZeroConf/Bonjour like messaging
(e.g. the way iChat sends out presence/nick-name information) among
nodes in an OLSR network. Unlike some of the plugins listed above,
there would be no HNA interfaces, as all nodes in the mesh would be
direct OLSR participants.

Am I missing an existing way to include something like a node name or
ID in messages sent out by OLSR (e.g. include not just "my IP is", but
also include "my nickname is" in HELLO messages).

If this isn't currently possible, any pointers on where to start
looking to add this capability? I had hoped to stay away from
modifying OLSRd core functionality, but also don't want to be
introducing any additional traffic into the network (e.g. via a new
plugin sending it's own MYNAMEIS OLSR packets). It seems like if there
is a way to hook the HELLO send/receipt functions this would be the
best way to do this.

Along those lines, are the OLSRd tables documented anywhere, and is
there any current way to extend them? (e.g. if I want to store this
NICKNAME info along with the node IP and other
already-stored-in-some-table information?).

Thanks again,
     Aaron