[Olsr-users] OLSRv2: default ethernet link speed

[Lars Kruse]

Hi,

I am currently setting up OLSRv2 on a number of (openwrt-based) routers in my
wireless community. After connecting 15 nodes I took a look at their estimated
link speeds:

(spam-protected):~# echo /olsrv2info edge | nc ::1 2009
2001:67c:1400:2432:15:6dff:fe80:931     2001:67c:1400:2432:24a4:3cff:fe86:3a59
1689    0       ff_dat_metric   120.47Mbit/s    17
2001:67c:1400:2432:15:6dff:fe80:97b     2001:67c:1400:2432:15:6dff:fe80:8f3
54329   0       ff_dat_metric   73.142Mbit/s    28
2001:67c:1400:2432:15:6dff:fe80:97b     2001:67c:1400:2432:27:22ff:fe44:c32f
54329   0       ff_dat_metric   1020bit/s       2105088
2001:67c:1400:2432:15:6dff:fe80:97b     2001:67c:1400:2432:24a4:3cff:fe86:3a59
54329   0       ff_dat_metric   97.523Mbit/s    21
2001:67c:1400:2432:15:6dff:fec5:c2b2    2001:67c:1400:2432:27:22ff:fe44:c1aa
26703   0       ff_dat_metric   1020bit/s       2105088
2001:67c:1400:2432:15:6dff:fec5:c2b2    2001:67c:1400:2432:5054:ff:fea0:3100
26703   0       ff_dat_metric   1020bit/s       2105088
2001:67c:1400:2432:15:6dff:fec5:c2b2    2001:67c:1400:2432:dc9f:dbff:fef4:34a9
26703   0       ff_dat_metric   1020bit/s       2105088

As you can see in the (mangled) output above: some links are estimated with
many MBit/s (these are the wifi links) and some other are estimated with 1020
Bit/s (these are the ethernet links).
Thus it seems like the default behaviour regarding the estimation of the link
speed of ethernet interface is not optimal.
In order to work around this situation I added the "eth_listener" plugin to the
list of statically compiled plugins. Afterwards the values for ethernet links
reached reasonable values for my setup.

Regarding this topic I went through a discussion of Bastian and Henning from
May 2014 [1]. The conclusion of this thread seems to indicate that the
"eth_listener" plugin is not conceived as a solution for the future but more as
an intermediate hack. The "link_config" plugin was suggested as an alternative
that allows static (configurable) bitrates for each interface [2].

Now I am not sure how to proceed.
Do these two plugins ("eth_listener" and "link_config") conflict with each
other?
Is the current estimation result (1020 Bit/s) for an interface without
further configuration (e.g. via link_config) a reasonable default or is it
supposed to force/remind the user to configure the bandwidth of the interfaces?
Personally, I would prefer a setup that does not require configuration and
works reasonably for the majority (but certainly not all) use cases.

Thank you for your time!

Cheers,
Lars

[1] https://lists.olsr.org/pipermail/olsr-dev/2014-May/007201.html
[2] http://www.olsr.org/mediawiki/index.php/Link_Config_Plugin