RadioLAN 5.8GHz Wireless Interface

Document revision 22-Mar-2001
This document applies to the MikroTik RouterOS V2.4 and V2.5

Overview

The MikroTik RouterOS supports the following RadioLAN 5.8GHz Wireless Adapter hardware:

RadioLAN ISA card (Model 101).

For more information about the RadioLAN adapter hardware please see the relevant User’s Guides and Technical Reference Manuals.

Contents of the Manual

The following topics are covered in this manual:

Wireless Adapter Hardware and Software Installation
Wireless Interface Configuration
Troubleshooting
Wireless Network Applications

Wireless Adapter Hardware and Software Installation

Software Packages

The MikroTik Router should have the radiolan software package installed. The software package file radiolan-2.x.x.npk can be downloaded from MikroTik’s web page www.mikrotik.com. To install the package, please upload the correct version file to the router and reboot. Use BINARY mode ftp transfer. After successful installation the package should be listed under the installed software packages list, for example:

[MikroTik] system package> print
  # NAME                   VERSION               BUILD-TIME           UNINSTALL
  0 radiolan               2.4                   sep/25/2001 05:08:05 no
  1 pptp                   2.4                   sep/25/2001 05:06:44 no
  2 ppp                    2.4                   sep/25/2001 05:06:35 no
  3 pppoe                  2.4                   sep/25/2001 05:06:45 no
  4 ssh                    2.4                   sep/25/2001 05:08:11 no
  5 routing                2.4                   sep/25/2001 05:06:07 no
  6 snmp                   2.4                   sep/25/2001 05:06:09 no
  7 system                 2.4                   sep/25/2001 05:05:48 no
[MikroTik] system package>

Software License

The RadioLAN 5.8GHz wireless adapters require the RadioLAN 5.8GHz wireless feature license. One license is for one installation of the MikroTik RouterOS, disregarding how many cards are installed in one PC box. The wireless feature is not included in the Free Demo or Basic Software License. The RadioLAN 5.8GHz Wireless Feature cannot be obtained for the Free Demo License. It can be obtained only together with the Basic Software License.

System Resource Usage

Before installing the wireless adapter, please check the availability of free IRQ's and I/O base addresses:

[MikroTik] system resource> irq print
 IRQ USED OWNER
 1   yes  keyboard
 2   yes  APIC
 3   no
 4   yes  serial port
 5   no
 6   no
 7   no
 8   no
 9   yes  ether1
 10  no
 11  yes  pc1
 12  no
 13  yes  FPU
 14  yes  IDE 1
 [MikroTik] system resource> io print
 PORT-RANGE            OWNER
 20-3F                 APIC
 40-5F                 timer
 60-6F                 keyboard
 80-8F                 DMA
 A0-BF                 APIC
 C0-DF                 DMA
 F0-FF                 FPU
 1F0-1F7               IDE 1
 2F8-2FF               serial port
 3C0-3DF               VGA
 3F6-3F6               IDE 1
 3F8-3FF               serial port
 EE00-EEFF             ether1
 EF40-EF7F             pc1
 FC00-FC07             IDE 1
 FC08-FC0F             IDE 2
 FC10-FC7F             [CS5530]
[MikroTik] system resource>

Installing the Wireless Adapter

The basic installation steps of the wireless adapter should be as follows:

Check the system BIOS settings and make sure you do not have the 'PnP OS Installed' set to 'Yes'. If you have this setting, make sure it is set to 'No'.
Check the system BIOS settings for peripheral devices, like, Parallel or Serial communication ports. Disable them, if you plan to use IRQ's assigned to them by the BIOS.
Use the RLProg.exe to set the IRQ and Base Port address of the RadioLAN ISA card (Model 101). RLProg must be run from a DOS window. Use a separate computer or a bootable floppy] to run the RLProg utility and set the hardware parameters. The factory default values of I/O 0x300 and IRQ 10 might conflict with other devices.

Please note, that not all combinations of I/O base addresses and IRQ's may work on your motherboard. As it has been observed, the IRQ 5 and I/O 0x300 work in most cases.

Loading the Driver for the Wireless Adapter

The ISA card requires the driver to be loaded by issuing the following command:

[MikroTik] > driver add name=radiolan io=0x300
[MikroTik] > driver print
Flags: I - invalid, D - dynamic
  #   DRIVER                            IRQ IO         MEMORY     ISDN-PROTOCOL
  0 D RealTek RTL8129/8139
  1   ISA RadioLAN                          0x300
[MikroTik] >

There can be several reasons for a failure to load the driver:

The driver cannot be loaded because other device uses the requested IRQ.
Try to set different IRQ using the RadioLAN configuration utility.
The requested I/O base address cannot be used on your motherboard.
Try to change the I/O base address using the RadioLAN configuration utility.

Wireless Interface Configuration

If the driver has been loaded successfully (no error messages), and you have the required RadioLAN 5.8GHz Wireless Software License, then the RadioLAN 5.8GHz Wireless interface should appear under the interfaces list with the name radiolanX, where X is 1,2,... You can change the interface name to a more descriptive one using the 'set' command. To enable the interface, use the 'enable' command:

[MikroTik] interface> print
Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic
  #   NAME                 MTU   TYPE
  0   ether1               1500  ether
  1 X radiolan1            1500  radiolan
[MikroTik] interface>
[MikroTik] interface> enable radiolan1
[MikroTik] interface> print
Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic
  #   NAME                 MTU   TYPE
  0   ether1               1500  ether
  1   radiolan1            1500  radiolan
[MikroTik] interface>

More configuration and statistics parameters can be found under the '/interface radiolan' menu:

[MikroTik] interface> radiolan
[MikroTik] interface radiolan> print
0   name: radiolan1 mtu: 1500 mac-address: 00:A0:D4:20:42:EE distance: 0-150m
    tx-diversity: disabled rx-diversity: disabled default-dst: firstclient
    max-retries: 15 sid: bbbb card-name: 00A0D42042EE
    cfg-destination: 00:00:00:00:00:00 arp: enabled

[MikroTik] interface radiolan>

Argument description:

number - Interface number in the list
name - Interface name
mtu - Maximum Transmit Unit (68...1900 bytes). Default value is 1500 bytes.
mac-address - MAC address. Cannot be changed.
distance - distance setting for the link (0-10.2km)
rx-diversity - Receive diversity (disabled / enabled)
tx-diversity - Transmit diversity (disabled / enabled)
default-dst - deafault destination (alone / ap / cfg / firstap / firstclient). It sets the destination where to send the packet if it is not for a clinet in the radio network.
max-retries - maximum retries before dropping the packet
sid - Service Set Identifier
card-name - Card name
cfg-destination - MAC address of a host in the radio network where to send the packet, if it is for none of the radio clients.
arp - Address Resolution Protocol (disabled / enabled / proxy-arp)

You can monitor the status of the wireless interface:

[MikroTik] interface radiolan> monitor radiolan1
    default: 00:00:00:00:00:00
      valid: no
[MikroTik] interface radiolan>

Here, the wireless interface card has not found any neighbour.

To set the wireless interface for working with another wireless card in a point-to-point link, you should set the following parameters:

The Service Set Identifier. It should match the sid of the other card.
The Distance should be set to that of the link. For example, if you have 6km link, use distance 4.7km-6.6km.

All other parameters can be left as default:

[MikroTik] interface radiolan> set 0 sid ba72 distance 4.7km-6.6km
[MikroTik] interface radiolan> print
0   name: radiolan1 mtu: 1500 mac-address: 00:A0:D4:20:42:EE
    distance: 4.7km-6.6km tx-diversity: disabled rx-diversity: disabled
    default-dst: firstclient max-retries: 15 sid: ba72 card-name: 00A0D42042EE
    cfg-destination: 00:00:00:00:00:00 arp: enabled

[MikroTik] interface radiolan> monitor 0
    default: 00:A0:D4:20:42:47
      valid: yes

[MikroTik] interface radiolan>

You can monitor the list of neighbours having the same sid and being within the radio range:

[MikroTik] interface radiolan> neighbours print radiolan1
NAME             MAC-ADDRESS       FLAGS ACCESS-POINT
00A0D4204247     00:A0:D4:20:42:47    D
[MikroTik] interface radiolan>

You can test the link by pinging the neighbour by its MAC address:

[MikroTik] interface radiolan> ping radiolan1 \
mac-address 00:A0:D4:20:42:47 size 1500 count 50
Sent: 2/50 (4%), Ok: 2/2 (100%) max/avg/min retries: 0/0.0/0
Sent: 12/50 (24%), Ok: 12/12 (100%) max/avg/min retries: 0/0.0/0
Sent: 22/50 (44%), Ok: 22/22 (100%) max/avg/min retries: 0/0.0/0
Sent: 32/50 (64%), Ok: 32/32 (100%) max/avg/min retries: 0/0.0/0
Sent: 42/50 (84%), Ok: 42/42 (100%) max/avg/min retries: 0/0.0/0
Sent: 50/50 (100%), Ok: 50/50 (100%) max/avg/min retries: 0/0.0/0
[MikroTik] interface radiolan>

Wireless Troubleshooting

The radiolan interface does not show up under the interfaces list
Obtain the required license for RadioLAN 5.8GHz wireless feature.
The wireless card does not obtain the MAC address of the default destination
Check the cabling and antenna alignment.

Wireless Network Applications

Two possible wireless network configurations are discussed in the following examples:

Point-to-Point Setup with Routing
Point-to-Point Setup with Bridging

Point-to-Point Setup with Routing

Let us consider the following network setup with two MikroTik Routers having RadioLAN interfaces:

The Router#1 has IP address/netmask 10.1.1.12/24 on the Ethernet interface ether1, and 10.1.0.1/30 on the RadioLAN interface radiolan1.
The Router#2 has IP address/netmask 192.168.0.254/24 on the Ethernet interface ether1, and 10.1.0.2/30 on the RadioLAN interface radiolan1.

The minimum configuration required for the RadioLAN interfaces of both routers is:

Setting the Service Set Identifier (up to alphanumeric characters). In our case we use ssid "ba72".
Setting the distance parameter, in our case we have 6km link.

The IP addresses assigned to the wireless interface of Router#1 should be from the network 10.1.0.0/30, e.g.:

[MikroTik] ip address> add address 10.1.0.1/30 interface radiolan1
[MikroTik] ip address> print
  # ADDRESS         NETMASK         NETWORK         BROADCAST       INTERFACE
  0 10.1.0.1        255.255.255.252 10.1.0.1        10.1.0.3        radiolan1
  1 10.1.1.12       255.255.255.0   10.1.1.12       10.1.1.255      ether1
[MikroTik] ip address>

The default route should be set to the gateway router 10.1.1.254. A static route should be added for the network 192.168.0.0/24:

[MikroTik] ip route> add gateway 10.1.1.254 interface ether1
[MikroTik] ip route> add dst-address 192.168.0.0/24 gateway 10.1.0.2 \
interface radiolan1
[MikroTik] ip route> print
  # DST-ADDRESS     NETMASK         GATEWAY         PREF-ADDRESS    INTE...
  0 10.1.1.0        255.255.255.0   0.0.0.0         10.1.1.12       ether1  D K
  1 10.1.0.0        255.255.255.252 0.0.0.0         10.1.0.1        radi... D K
  2 192.168.0.0     255.255.255.0   10.1.0.2        0.0.0.0         radi...
  3 0.0.0.0         0.0.0.0         10.1.1.254      0.0.0.0         ether1
[MikroTik] ip route>

The Router#2 should have addresses 10.1.0.2/30 and 192.168.0.254/24 assigned to the radiolan and Ethernet interfaces respectively. The default route should be set to 10.1.0.1

Point-to-Point Setup with Bridging

The radiolan interface setup is similar to that in the previous example. However, briding of the desired protocols should be enabled for the radiolan and ethernet interfaces:

[MikroTik] bridge> set ip forward arp forward other forward
[MikroTik] bridge> print
           ip: forward
          arp: forward
          ipx: discard
    appletalk: discard
         ipv6: discard
        other: forward
     priority: 1
[MikroTik] bridge> interface
[MikroTik] bridge interface> print
  # INTERFACE                                                           FORWARD
  0 ether1                                                              no
  1 radiolan1                                                           no
[MikroTik] bridge interface> set 0 forward yes
[MikroTik] bridge interface> set 1 forward yes
[MikroTik] bridge interface> pr
  # INTERFACE                                                           FORWARD
  0 ether1                                                              yes
  1 radiolan1                                                           yes
[MikroTik] bridge interface>

Enable the bridge interface and assign the IP address to it, as well as set the default gateway:

[MikroTik] interface> print
  # NAME                                                    TYPE        MTU
  0 ether1                                                  ether       1500
  1 radiolan1                                               radiolan    1500
( 2)bridge1                                                 bridge      1500
[MikroTik] interface> enable 2
[MikroTik] interface> /ip address
[MikroTik] ip address> add address 10.1.1.12/24 interface bridge1
[MikroTik] ip address> print
  # ADDRESS         NETMASK         NETWORK         BROADCAST       INTERFACE
  0 10.1.1.12       255.255.255.0   10.1.1.12       10.1.1.255      bridge1
[MikroTik] ip address> .. route add gateway 10.1.1.254 interface bridge1
[MikroTik] ip address> .. route print
  # DST-ADDRESS     NETMASK         GATEWAY         PREF-ADDRESS    INTE...
  0 10.1.1.0        255.255.255.0   0.0.0.0         10.1.1.12       bridge1 D K
  1 0.0.0.0         0.0.0.0         10.1.1.254      0.0.0.0         bridge1
[MikroTik] ip address>

The Router#2 should be set similarly, a different IP address assignet to it, e.g., 10.1.1.13/24, the default gateway is 10.1.1.254. Thus, the Ethernet networks are bridged over the RadioLAN point-to-point link.