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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Meraki is a network equipment manufacturer that provides hardware and software for wireless mesh networks. It creates a wireless network that coordinates with Meraki servers to distribute Internet bandwidth. As of 2007, it is supported by hardware sales and advertising.

Contents 1 Business profile 2 Software 3 Hardware 4 Limitations 5 Community projects 6 Deployment strategies 7 Criticism 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Business profile

Meraki was funded by Google and Sequoia Capital. The organization started in Mountain View, CA, and is currently located in San Francisco, CA. Meraki has many people who worked on the MIT roofnet project.^[1][2][3][4]

[edit] Software

Meraki has taken the roofnet software and created management software (called "Dashboard") to allow the mesh network to be set up. The software uses the SrcRR routing algorithm to determine the routes between the hardware devices. Media access and transport may be handled by ExOR algorithm. Each device periodically broadcasts, and all other devices in range will report their routes. Then the devices use that information to route packets to the nearest gateway. The routing is done primarily to determine a route to the nearest gateway (or device with an internet connection).^[5]

When the node first starts up, it tests the ethernet port for connectivity to the internet. If it has connectivity to the internet, then it labels itself a "gateway device" and prepares to share some of that internet bandwidth with the mesh. If other nodes are within range and the ethernet port is not connected, then the node acts purely as a repeater to extend the mesh. Meraki claims that only about one in ten repeaters needs to be physically connected to the Internet for the design to work well. It then searches for other nearby Meraki nodes and advertises itself. Either through the internet or through the mesh, it then contacts Meraki and, on a regular basis, reports its status and network load. There are software features both to govern the amount of Internet bandwidth consumed by traffic from the wireless mesh as well as a means to meter such bandwidth usage. Central Meraki operations plays a role in helping to balance network loads between the different nodes and report on the global status of the mesh through Meraki's web site.

On the browseable map that Meraki provides, nodes are identified either by the label given to them by their owners during initial configuration or, if unnamed, then their ethernet port MAC address. It identifies the gateway devices and reports how many distinct users cumulative have been active and the cumulative amount of data transferred via this node. The map does not necessarily reflect the on-the-street experience because while a Neighbor Meraki Repeater might act as an adequate wireless base station in a SOHO network, it might not provide a good signal to the outside if it is not placed near a window. The map is updated daily, but most of the registered repeaters report zero users and zero bytes of data transferred. Some nodes show 10 or more distinct visitors. It seems as if old node registrations are never cleared, which suggests that the map over-represents the area where usable coverage exists.

[edit] Hardware

Meraki has a number of access point products, including the Indoor, Outdoor, Solar, and Wall Plug. A limited number of accessories are also available.

Terminology: Meraki's access points have several names: node, gateway (when directly connected to the internet), repeater and signal booster (when not directly connected to the internet).

[edit] Limitations

Unlike some architectures (e.g. Cuwin ^[6]) the wireless clients do not have direct access to each other, and as such cannot share data, printers or other devices which are also clients. This may be seen as a security feature, but it makes a variety of common networking features very difficult. The only solution is to use a bridging VPN such as openvpn.

Management and configuration of the nodes depends upon internet connectivity back to Meraki home base. The DHCP address scheme used by the nodes is a static hash of the MAC address onto the entire 10.0.0.0/8 private network (the whole class A) space. This may cause problems with existing 10/8 networks, in which case Meraki enables you to use only the upper half of the range. The DHCP system also lacks a means of notification to a DNS server for dynamic dns updates for translation of assigned addresses.

[edit] Community projects

One of Meraki's earliest projects is to demonstrate their technology in a large city. They selected San Francisco to launch their community-based Free the Net campaign starting in the Lower Haight. They started by seeding the area with gateway devices to directly provide the Internet bandwidth and giving away repeaters. In the first year of the project, growth of the network was primarily into the Mission District. As of October 2007, they claim 20,000 distinct users (ever connected) and about 5 terabytes of data transferred in this network.^{[7][8][9][10][11]} In July 2008, Meraki claimed 100,000 people in San Francisco used its 'Free the Net' service ^[12].

When you browse the local wireless network, the nearest Meraki repeater will show a SSID of "Free the Net". When you connect to it, you get an RFC 1918 address (starting with 10.*). On the wireless side; the default gateway IP address is always 10.128.128.128 and the MAC address reported via the client-side "arp" command is always 00-18-0a-00-00-01.

After you connect to the Internet, small advertisements appear in your browser's toolbar telling you about businesses that are nearby.

[edit] Deployment strategies

Meraki is a good solution for Wi-Fi hot zones, such as the main street or neighborhood of a city. Meraki can be configured as a free or paid access system. Free access may work if you have sponsors (such as local businesses), and there’s an advantage to drawing people to the area. For example, a city may install a Wi-Fi network along its main street and provide free access to the Internet for visitors. Businesses along the main street will likely donate money to install the network because the free access should draw more people to the downtown area. A paid network may be best for apartments and neighborhoods where users will access the network from their homes.

When configuring a Meraki system, it’s generally best to use channel 1 or 11 because channel 6 is commonly used by other Wi-Fi networks by default. This generally increases the overall capacity of the Meraki network.

Be certain to check with the Internet service provider regarding the legality of sharing Internet access through the Meraki system. Some service providers prohibit Wi-Fi-based Internet sharing. In most cases, a special commercial service offering may be necessary.^[13]

[edit] Criticism

After initially acting in support of open-source development of software on Meraki Mini units, in early 2008 the company introduced a more restrictive EULA covering sales of new equipment requiring that, "Meraki Hardware may only be used with Meraki Software" and prohibiting reverse engineering, adding, removing or otherwise altering the software on the device.^[14] The previous license agreements contained no restrictions on replacing the software on the device.^[15] Shortly after the new EULA was imposed, Meraki sent an unsolicited firmware update to their units in the field which disabled future firmware updates by customers.^[16] This has dismayed mesh network enthusiasts, some of whom have questioned the legality of such restrictions being imposed involuntarily and without advance notice.^[17]

[edit] See also

• IEEE 802.11s
• FON
• Open-Mesh

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Main Homepage
• Meraki's San Francisco homepage
• Meraki Forums
• Meraki Enthusiasts Forums