[OLSR-users] Commercial point-to-point links over OLSR

[Andrew McGill]

A question, out of the ether ... (hoping that this is a good 
place to raise it ...)

Does the OLSR protocol allow a router to discriminate between its 
friends and strangers?  The idea is that my links are better for 
my friends than for strangers (due to deliberate traffic 
shaping). I would like to be able to prioritise traffic between 
my own routers, but still provide my spare capacity to strangers.

This would make it possible to use a chain of OLSR routers for 
commercial point to point links which have the side-effect of 
creating a public service network.

In ASCII art ...

                FooCorp north .....Freeloader1
                      |
                      |
                      |
                     Foo1
                      |
                      |
                      |
ACME                  |                                    ACME
east--------ACME1-----------ACME2--------------ACME3-------west
                     Foo2 .     :                  
                      |    ` Freeloader2
                      |    .'
                      |   ;
                      |  '
                     Foo3
                      |
                      |
                      |
                FooCorp south
  
 . ACME east buys lots of expensive equipment for the purpose of 
   linking to ACME west

 . FooCorp makes a point to point link to FooCorp north.  They 
   lease/borrow/steal office space in a tall building, etc, etc.

 . As a result of the commercial imperatives, FreeLoader2 can now 
   talk to Freeloader1 over the mesh.

 . If Foo2 fails, FreeLoader2 and ACME2 can help out (i.e.  
   everyone wins)

The commercial carrot is that 80% of the link serves the 
corporate interest.

The private carrot is that the other 20% is free.  

The question is whether OLSR can accommodate a router having 
better link quality for its friends than for others.

&:-)