# gnrc_border_router using automatic configuration This setup uses a single serial interface, ethos (Ethernet Over Serial) and UHCP (micro Host Configuration Protocol). Ethos multiplexes serial data to separate ethernet packets from shell commands. UHCP is in charge of configuring the wireless interface prefix and routes on the BR. The script `start_network.sh` enables a *ready-to-use* BR in only one command. ## Requirements This functionality works only on Linux machines. Mac OSX support will be added in the future (lack of native `tap` interface). ## Setup First, you need to compile `ethos`. Go to `/dist/tools/ethos` and type: ```bash make clean all ``` Then, you need to compile UHCP. This tool is found in `/dist/tools/uhcp`. So, as for `ethos`: ```bash make clean all ``` Afterwards, proceed to compile and flash `gnrc_border_router` to your board: ```bash make clean all flash ``` ## Usage Start the `start_network.sh` script by doing on `dist/tools/ethos`: ```bash sudo sh start_network.sh /dev/ttyACMx tap0 2001:db8::/64 ``` This will execute the needed commands to setup a `tap` interface and configure the BR. Notice that this will also configure `2001:db8::/64` as a prefix. This prefix should be announced to other motes through the wireless interface. As said previously, `ethos` allows to send IP packets and shell commands. This is done through the same serial interface. By typing `help` you will get the list of available shell commands. At this point you should be able to ping motes using their global address. For instance, if you use the [`gnrc_networking`](https://github.com/RIOT-OS/RIOT/tree/master/examples/gnrc_networking) example on the mote, you can ping it from your machine with: ``` > ping6 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1 ``` Just replace this address by your mote's address. Using `ifconfig` on the shell of your mote shows you the addresses of your mote, for instance: ``` Iface 7 HWaddr: 59:72 Channel: 26 Page: 0 NID: 0x23 Long HWaddr: 5a:46:10:6e:f2:f5:d9:72 TX-Power: 0dBm State: IDLE max. Retrans.: 3 CSMA Retries: 4 AUTOACK CSMA MTU:1280 HL:64 6LO RTR RTR_ADV IPHC Source address length: 8 Link type: wireless inet6 addr: ff02::1/128 scope: local [multicast] inet6 addr: fe80::5846:106e:f2f5:d972/64 scope: local inet6 addr: ff02::1:fff5:d972/128 scope: local [multicast] inet6 addr: 2001:db8::5846:106e:f2f5:d972/64 scope: global inet6 addr: ff02::2/128 scope: local [multicast] ``` The script also sets up a ULA (Unique Local Address) address on your Linux `tap0` network interface. You can check your ULA on your PC with `ifconfig` Linux command. On this example, such address can be pinged from 6lo motes: ``` > ping6 fd00:dead:beef::1 ``` Thus far, IPv6 communication with between your PC and your motes is enabled. ## Issues A known issue [#5122](https://github.com/RIOT-OS/RIOT/issues/5122) is that after ~15min global addresses on the BR Neighbour Cache dissappear. We are investigating why it happens and we'll propose a solution soon. If you experience it, just reboot your nodes and they will come again on-line. # gnrc_border_router with manual config You can use `ethos` as a standalone driver, if you want to setup the BR manually. ## Setup To select ethos as the serial driver, be sure that the `Makefile` has the following: ```make ifeq (,$(filter native,$(BOARD))) GNRC_NETIF_NUMOF := 2 USEMODULE += ethos gnrc_netdev CFLAGS += '-DETHOS_UART=UART_DEV(0)' -DETHOS_BAUDRATE=115200 -DUSE_ETHOS_FOR_STDIO FEATURES_REQUIRED += periph_uart endif # include UHCP client USEMODULE += gnrc_uhcpc ``` You'll need IPv6 access to the nodes attached to the BR from your Linux PC. To do this, it is necessary to add a `tap` interface. As an example, you can do it as follows: ```bash sudo ip tuntap add tap0 mode tap user ${USER} ``` This will setup your `tap` interface. Then configure it to route the packets coming from your 6lo network: ```bash sudo ip link set tap0 up sudo ip a a 2001:db8::1/48 dev tap0 sudo ip r d 2001:db8::/48 dev tap0 sudo ip r a 2001:db8::2 dev tap0 sudo ip r a 2001:db8::/48 via 2001:db8::2 dev tap0 ``` Please note that the prefix `2001:db8::` is used as an example. Then you can flash the `gnrc_border_router` example on your board: ```bash make clean all flash ``` On this RIOT BR two interfaces are present. A wired interface represents the serial link between Linux and your mote. A wireless interface represents the 802.15.4 radio link. In order to route packets between this two interfaces, you can do the following: ``` > ifconfig 6 add 2001:db8::2/48 > ifconfig 5 add 2001:db8::3/64 > fibroute add :: via dev 6 ``` By adding the address to the wireless interface the prefix will be disseminated. This prefix will be automatically added by the motes in the radio range. ## Usage Run ethos by choosing a serial interface according to your board. For instance `/dev/ttyUSB*` or `/dev/ttyACM*`. ```bash sudo ./ethos tap0 /dev/ttyACM0 ``` Now, you should be able to ping your nodes. Use the global address starting by your prefix, on our case `2001:db8::`: ``` > ping6 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1 ``` # gnrc_networking_border_router with SLIP ## Requirements In order to setup a 6LoWPAN border router on RIOT, you need either a board that offers an IPv6 capable network interface (e.g. the `encx24j600` Ethernet chip) or connect it over the serial interface to a Linux host and use the SLIP standard [1]. The example application in this folder assumes as a default to be run on an Atmel SAM R21 Xplained Pro evaluation board using an external UART adapter for the second serial interface. However, it is feasible to run the example on any RIOT supported platform that offers either more than one UART or be equipped with an IPv6 capable network device. In this case only the Makefile of this application has to be slightly modified, e.g. by replacing the line ``` USEMODULE += ethos gnrc_netdev ``` with something like ``` USEMODULE += encx24j600 ``` and specify the target platform as `BOARD = myplatform`. In order to use the border router over SLIP, please check the `periph_conf.h` of the corresponding board and look out for the `UART_NUMOF` parameter. Its value has to be bigger than 1. Be sure that you have replaced on your `Makefile` the lines to use SLIP. You should have something like this: ```make ifeq (,$(SLIP_UART)) # set default (last available UART) SLIP_UART="UART_DEV(UART_NUMOF-1)" endif ifeq (,$(SLIP_BAUDRATE)) # set default SLIP_BAUDRATE=115200 endif GNRC_NETIF_NUMOF := 2 INCLUDES += -I$(CURDIR) CFLAGS += -DSLIP_UART=$(SLIP_UART) CFLAGS += -DSLIP_BAUDRATE=$(SLIP_BAUDRATE) # Include SLIP package for IP over Serial communication USEMODULE += slipdev ``` ## Configuration In order to connect a RIOT 6LoWPAN border router over SLIP you run a small program called tunslip6 (imported from Contiki) [2] on the Linux host. The program can be found in the `dist/tools/tunslip` folder and has to be compiled before first use (simple calling `make` should be enough). Now, one can start the program by calling something like: ```bash cd dist/tools/tunslip make sudo ./tunslip6 2001:db8::1/64 -t tun0 -s /dev/ttyUSB0 ``` Assuming that `/dev/ttyUSB0` is the device descriptor for the (additional) UART interface of your RIOT board. On the RIOT side you have to configure the SLIP interface by configuring a corresponding IPv6 address, e.g. ``` ifconfig 6 add 2001:db8::2 ``` and adding the SLIP interface to the neighbor cache (because Linux won't respond to neighbor solicitations on an interface without a link-layer address) by calling ``` ncache add 6 2001:db8::1 ``` Then, to propagate the prefix you should add an address to the wireless interface: ``` ifconfig 5 add 2001:db8::3 ``` After this you're basically done and should be able to ping between the border router and the outside world (assuming that the Linux host is properly forwarding your traffic). Additionally, you can configure IPv6 addresses on the 6LoWPAN interface for communication with other 6LoWPAN nodes. See also the `gnrc_networking` example for further help. [1] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1055 [2] https://github.com/contiki-os/contiki/blob/master/tools/tunslip.c