[ovs-discuss] Can we add a wifi network interface to an OVS bridge?

Matthias May matthias.may at westermo.com
Fri Aug 21 20:37:02 UTC 2020


On 21/08/2020 15:38, Jordan Sandri wrote:
> Hello,
> I would like to know if it is possible to add a wifi network interface
> to an OVS bridge? Let me explain first what I achieved.
> As you can see in the first diagram I have 2 raspberry pis with an OVS
> bridge and each of them is connected to ONOS. Using Docker on each pi
> I have 2 containers and there are linked to my bridge thanks to
> ovs-docker (int stands for interface). Then, the network interface
> eth0 from each pi is added to the bridge and raspberry pis are linked
> with an ethernet cable through eth0 of course. Finally, CTN1 is able
> to ping CTN3 for example.
>
> Now, I would like to replace eth0 by a wifi network interface wlan1 as
> you can see in the second diagram. I was thinking maybe using iptables
> to forward flow to the second pi or adding virtual interfaces included
> to the bridge as in the diagram3. Then I could use iptables to forward
> flow from vport to wlan and from wlan to wlan of the second pi. What
> will be the best way to carry out this?
>
> Thank you for you help
>
>
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Hi
For "normal" wifi you can't simply bridge the wlan interface of the client.
You can bridge it on the AP.
This is, because in wifi you don't have a source-MAC and a
destination-MAC, but also a transmitter-MAC and a receiver-MAC.
As an optimisation, in ap2sta direction the destination and the receiver
are a single field.
In sta2ap direction, the source and the transmitter are a single field

Take a look at 4addr mode which solves the issue by having actually all
4 fields.
This is a linux specific implementation and may not be available on all
types of cards.

An alternative would be to have a routed connection between the two
devices and bridge your ovs-instances via GRETAP.

BR
Matthias


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