Progress is ongoing in the AREDN development arena. There are four substantial projects being worked in parallel:
1. Removal of the Perl software language, to be replaced with more modern and appropriate languages. When completed it will result in lighter weight, more responsive software.
2. Modernizing the user interface.
3. AREDN being rebased to OpenWrt 21.02, which includes a LOT of changes.
4. Support for 802.11ac devices (which arrived in OpenWrt 21.02). The first two devices being targeted for support by AREDN are the Nanobeam 5ac Gen2 and the Nanostation 5ac. After those are converted, the other 802.11ac devices targeted for support will follow in fairly short order. However, to get that accomplished a lot of code has to be rearranged, device definitions are changing, plus the software needs to be able to accommodate more than one wireless port (!)
While the order and timing are still being discussed, look for these to appear in nightly builds eventually:
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The backend conversion work from Perl to lua (should be transparent to end users).
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The interim UI conversion work from Perl to lua (should also be transparent to end users).
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The final UI conversion/modernization using Vue+Nuxt+Vuetify.
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The RF & OS updates.
These nightly builds at least initially will not be appropriate for production nodes and nodes that are hard to get to, while bugs are being wrung out by you, the loyal users :-)
Note that while the conversion is going on, both the Perl and Lua libraries have to be present in the code, making the image somewhat larger than it is now.
73
Orv W6BI
For the AREDN development team