Looking for information on how to connect two or more nodes via Ethernet cable when they are co-located at one site to minimize RF loading, i.e. more broadcast messages to find and check on nodes and maybe speed up the connections between the co-located nodes.

Using the Ubiquiti devices, which are single antenna devices, when you need an Omni for local and directional for the distance nodes at one location is going to be a different setup as well. Since the two antennas should not be able to see each, other for one reason is de-sensing issues  The WRT54G routers which have built-in network switches which the Ubiquit devices don't, so how would that be accomplished as well or would it be different?

All of this is to minimize the hops when they are right next to each other and keep the bandwidth up as much as possible.

What needs to be changed in the olsrd.conf and how to save the file to make this happen in version 1.x

Don't you have to enable the OLSRd code to use the eth0 as another path to route the nodes if they cannot be seen by the wireless default method? How is that done?

The answer to your question is really quite complex. There are books written about router configuration. An approach to the question should start by realizing that the wrt54g platform includes routing capability on the LAN. When you use a bullet, which has only one LAN port, the routing needs to be handled with an external router. So think about how you would duplicate the LAN routing of the WRT54G in a router that does not have a radio included.

Per K5KTF:

"If you tie two (or more) rnodes together via the LAN port(s), and you want to be able to mesh all of them as if it was over RF, you need to edit:
/etc/config/olsrd.conf
/etc/config.mesh /olsrd.conf

And down where the Interface section is, by default it just has wl0 and its section.

What I do is right above the wl0, and after #### Interface ### I add:

Interface "eth0.0"
{
}

(those are curly braces)

save both files and reboot.

That tells OLSR to also mesh over the LAN ports.
In 0.4.3 and before, OLSR had a problem handling more than one interface, and would crash horribly and frequently."

Per WX5U:

"I haven't tried it myself, so try this out and see what happens.  Please back here with success/failure."

I think I've got something working, just need to edit one more file.

So far it is working, the only thing that I had to do to get it to broadcast is add a line in the "olsrd.conf" in both folder locations, on both routers is Ip4Broadcast 255.255.255.255 and they started talking to each other. When I looked at what each router had for BCAST setting they were based on their IP settings on the LAN side.

The setup is in my house. I have cabled between two routers and whether I put antenna on the one I am connected to a PC on or not changes the route tables accordingly or shows both wl0 and/or eth0.0 as the route(s). I'm going to let it run for a while to see if I have any crashes. I am not putting any data through yet.

Based on another person doing a similar scheme, he added some longer times which would help loading at least on the processor. I don't know if those times are the best that he selected, see below. Someone else could chime in on what the timing should be for the Ethernet interface.

Interface "eth0.0"
{
Ip4Broadcast 255.255.255.255
HelloInterval 6.0
HelloValidityTime 108.0
TcInterval 4.0
TcValidityTime 324.0
MidInterval 18.0
MidValidityTime 324.0
HnaInterval 18.0
HnaValidityTime 108.0
}

Happy to see the forward thinking.

I know this answer doesn't solve the need for performing this 'right now today' but want to give a bit of the road map.

A standardized protocol for device to device linking is currently being looked into, preferably with the intent of allowing it to be "plug the nodes together and be done" (if possible) in order to keep with the simple setup nature.

This was always expected to be an item to need to be addressed with Ubiquiti gear only having 1 physical port and some devices only have 1 antenna port, or no external RF feeds (Bullets or NanoStations for example).

The goal of the initial UBNT release (1.0.1) was to maintain as much the same to being with (as possible) and start adding features as we go down the road.

Some thoughts and configurations have already been bounced around on the subject and are going through various stages of testing an analysis to be sure they are the best way.

I would suggest looking for a much easier method on the Ubiquiti build in the next release, and the linksys build to follow it as well.

Best Regards,
Conrad Lara
KG6JEI