Open-Mesh

For those following the mailing list and other events around the B.A.T.M.A.N.
team the term 'B.A.T.M.A.N. V' probably sounds all too familiar. It has been
more than 5 years since the first ideas for improving the routing protocol
were exchanged. In the following years we had several GSoC projects dedicated
to pull this topic forward, countless hack & brainstorming sessions (including
sleepless nights at each battlemesh). Turns out, replacing a mature protocol
like B.A.T.M.A.N. IV takes more effort than you might think.

Another hurdle we kept running into was the missing separation between routing
logic and feature code preventing any developer and/or tester to quickly
switch from one protocol to the other. Now we have finally completed hiding
all routing logic behind an internal API allowing to change the routing
protocol while still benefiting from all the layer2 features.

With this mail the B.A.T.M.A.N. team announces the availability of the latest
protocol revision: B.A.T.M.A.N. V. Major features are its throughput based
path metric and packet type separation. For a high level overview about the
differences to B.A.T.M.A.N. IV feel invited to continue reading[1]. Technical
protocol specs also are available [2][3].

The code has already undergone stability and performance testing[4], thus is
considered ready for a wider audience testing. In the coming weeks said
patches will be included in the main source tree and sent upstream to the
kernel maintainers. Comments and feedback are welcome!

Next steps involve finishing the throughput meter[5] to enrich B.A.T.M.A.N. V
with an automatic link throughput detection when other mechanisms fail.

Happy routing,

The B.A.T.M.A.N. team