Node Vendor OS vs AREDN Firmware
Several of us are experimenting with WireGuard tunnels. We started with Mikrotik hAP ac lites,
but recently have expanded to use UBNT XW-class and other vendors’ radios that have enough memory
to support tunneling. We disable the AREDN RF, and configure the radio to connect to a local
WiFi LAN, then configure it as a WG Tunnel Client or Server. We hope that existing hardware
can be upgraded with latest AREDN firmware and used on a tunnel mesh.
To what extent does the AREDN firmware replace the basic vendor operating system
(e.g., RouterOS or airOS)? Or is AREDN a wrapper that uses the transceiver, routing,
and other functions of the vendor OS while providing GUIs and other apps? Is it possible
to access the functions of the vendor OS from the AREDN interface?
Is there an easy way to backup and restore the AREDN radio configuration to simplify
the restoration after an incident?
Thanks.
--Tim K5RA
Not super helpful I'm afraid but it's something I've never tried. Maybe others can chime in.
Orv W6BI
The other approach would be to have native vendor OS devices providing the long haul tunnel (or RF) connections. In that case you would treat those links as "cross-links" so that AREDN devices on either end can seamlessly pass AREDN data across a non-AREDN intermediate link. Cross-links are described here.
I appreciate the insights on AREDN firmware overwriting most of vendor OS.
We have a WG tunnel between an AREDN hAP ac lite (server) and AREDN NSM5 XW (client) that gets Ethernet
via local 5.8G WiFi.
We think we can also do it with other AREDN nodes that have sufficient RAM.
-Tim K5RA