southern ontario packet radio association, inc. in association with: gta west ares packet working...

Southern Ontario Packet Radio Association, Inc.

In association with:GTA West ARES Packet Working GroupPeel ARC inc. http://www.peelarc.org/West Side Radio Club Toronto http://www.ve3jj.com/

SOPRA and the GTA West

GTA West / Medium and High Speed back bone link infrastructure

first draft proposal Sept 2008 / updated March 2009

March 17, 2009http://www.packetradio.ca

Simplex station to station

A typical Packet radio user node is an AX.25 1200 bps 2M/VHF or a 9600 bps or 1200 bps 70cm/UHF link. For those using 20M HF Packet, the data rate is fixed at 300 bps.

Point to Point Simplex operation using connected or un-connect mode AX.25 mode frames is a reasonable local open access model. However, it does not scale to allow direct access to stations beyond the useable reach of the frequency being used.


Simplex station to station to station

Outside of using HF for long distance packet, the AX.25 standard relied on digipeating along a common frequency.

In the early days of packet radio 145.010MHz was used and in was possible to digipeat from Toronto north to Sudbury or east to Ottawa. However the DCD access model allowed two stations to walk on each others signal as hidden transmitters. In many cases resulting in an increase in retries. This further reduced the maximum channel usage expected for an Aloha packet model.

For this reason BBS and USER access NODES no longer use a common packet radio frequency. This Local Area Network organization allows regional/frequency based access without the congestion resulting from hidden transmitters.


LAN to LAN internetworking

To achieve networking between user LAN frequencies many BBS and Network Node operators make use of dual port TNCs that support gateway or hardware or software based network cluster.

Hardware only solutions (diode bridge/matrix)

Node operators have used hardware only solutions such as a diode matrix arrays that allows NETROM nodes to intercommunicate via bridging the RS232 Serial ports of many TNCs. This is a practical solution for many remote nodes as no Personal Computer hardware is required to support. However the down side is that only one TNC can talk over the diode bridge at a time in a half duplex fashion.


Networking Technologies

NETROM

The biggest challenge in linking network nodes as been identifying which nodes are available, what is the best path. This challenge was first overcome by making use of a network node technology called NETROM. With NETROM each node beacons it node name and call sign at a regular interval and also retransmits the node names and call signs that it has heard.

Limits and timers are established to age out dead nodes and arbitrary quality value is assigned to different radio ports to assist managing duplicate link paths. Ideally you would be linked via the best quality path in the case where multiple paths exist to the destination you are routing too.


Networking Technologies … continued

INSERT NETROM EXAMPLE HERE


Networking Technologies … continued

IP Networking

IPv4 networking has been around for a number years. Most notably IP Networking is the foundation of the Internet and makes use of static and dynamic routing solution to bridge LAN subnets together. The dynamic routing solutions employed on the Internet today allow for self healing networks and load balancing to make efficient use of multiple paths from one end point to another.

The use of this technology for Amateur Packet Radio was advanced by several amateur including KA9Q the creator of the first practical networking operating system (NOS) that bridged TCP/IP, AX.25, NETROM and provided a simplified BBS.


Network Operating System(s)

NOS

Today we have several flavours of NOS such as TNOS and JNOS. The key point is they are all Network Operating Systems that bridge between physical layers such as Wired Ethernet, Serial PPP, and Radio port solutions running AX.25 and NETROM.

Note: INSERT MORE BACK GROUND ON KA9Q NOS AND ITS SPIN OFFS!


GTA West

RF Based Packet Network

Phase I – user nodes

VE3PRC-7User port 1200bps / 145.01 MHz

WESTON:VE3CON-7User port 1200bps / 145.03 MHz

ACTON:VE3INF-7User port 1200bps /145.05 MHz


145.01

145.03

145.05

VE3PRC

VE3INF

VE3CON

GTA West … continued

Phase II – establish AX.25/NETROM RF Backbone link

SOPRA has several 220MHz data link radio previously used To link Oshawa, Toronto, Brampton and Georgetown. These radios can be re-crystalled and tuned up band if needed.

VE3CON 220/1 VE3PRC 220/2 VE3INF

The 220 MHz band allows for maximum 100KHz band width and has a lower noise floor than the 145 MHz channels. This will allow for faster than 9600 bps link speeds.



Phase III – Turn on AMPRnet / IPv4 network via RF Backbone link

The IPv4 network space for Amateur use has established assignments for the greater Toronto area:

IPv4 address RF Region44.135.88.0/24 Toronto44.135.89.0/24 Pickering-Oshawa44.135.90.0/24 Halton44.135.91.0/24 Mississauga44.135.92.0/24 York Region44.135.93.0/24 Etobicoke North44.135.94.0/24 Orangeville44.135.95.0/24 Halton-Hills44.135.200.0/24 Mississauga West



In the phase III roll out we can enable IPv4 routing to the three initial locations using the VE3PRC location as the primary hub to link East to Toronto and North to Halton-Hill.

As additional club nodes come online additional links south to VE3MIS Mississauga, Burlington, and Oakville can be established.



Phase IV – Establish a 1.2GHz high speed link (D-STAR)

Making use of new ICOM ID-1 radios, local club and SOPRA sponsored packet radio nodes VE3PRC, VE3CON, VE3INF and add them in parallel to the existing 220MHz network.

VE3CON 1.2GHz VE3PRC 1.2GHz VE3INF parallel / redundant networks

VE3CON 220/1 VE3PRC 220/2 VE3INF



When the ID-1 Radios provide reliable direct links, the existing 220MHz links radios can then be redeploy to other clubs wishing to link into the network.

VE3CON 1.2GHz VE3PRC 1.2GHz VE3INF

VE3CON 220/1 East to GTA-EAST (Scarborough/Pickering/Oshawa)

VE3PRC 220/2 VE3MISWest/South

VE3INF 220/3 (Guelph/Kitchener/Barrie/York Region) North/West/East



Phase IV – Establish a 1.2GHz high speed mobile packet go kit

Making use of a ICOM ID-1 radios to create a TCP/IP go kit that can be deployed at ARES direct sites such as regional hospitals.

Proposed key components: ICOM ID-1, Antenna, Industrial Network controller, Ethernet cables, power cables.

Mode of operationThe ICOM ID-1 data radio natively makes use of IPv4 address to pass data on 1200MHz using the D-STAR networking protocol. The radio has a Ethernet port with a fix ip address. The Industrial Network controller will act as a DHCP server bridging a normal Windows OS PC or Laptop and the ID-1 radio. This will allow any computer available to ARES to be networked into the AMPRnet without requiring additional software. The operator can make use of a Web Browser and normal mail client.


Network Players

To build a viable network:

Southern Ontario Packet Radio Association Inc. (VE3CON, VE3INF, VE3TDS, VE3PKG, VE3YAP) – http://www.packetradio.ca

GTA West ARES Packet Working Group

West Side Radio Club – http://www.ve3jj.com

Peel ARC Inc.(VE3PRC) http://www.peelarc.org/packet_radio.htm

Mississauga ARC Inc. (VE3MIS) http://www.marc.on.ca

and you!


Example BBS/NETROM node

Moving data between AX.25 LAN user frequencies has typically involved dual port TNCs, diode bridge node stacks, or other bridging technologies. In the case of many modern node stack (software based) solutions each radio port is addressable as a separate KISS serial port.


145.03 MHz1200bps LAN

VE3CONBBS

NETROM

220MHzLink radio

Extra slide(s)

southern ontario packet radio association, inc. in association with: gta west ares packet working...

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