RadioLAN 5.8GHz Wireless Interface

Overview

• RadioLAN ISA card (Model 101)
• RadioLAN PCMCIA card

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

Contents of the Manual

• Wireless Adapter Hardware and Software Installation
• Software Packages
• Software License
• System Resource Usage
• Installing the Wireless Adapter
• Loading the Driver for the Wireless Adapter
• Wireless Interface Configuration
• Wireless Troubleshooting
• Wireless Network Applications
• Point-to-Point Setup with Routing

Wireless Adapter Hardware and Software Installation

Software Packages

[admin@MikroTik] interface> /system package print
Flags: I - invalid
  #   NAME                  VERSION              BUILD-TIME           UNINSTALL
  0   ssh                   2.6beta2             jul/05/2002 13:43:42 no
  1   radiolan              2.6beta2             jul/05/2002 13:47:46 no
  2   system                2.6beta2             jul/05/2002 13:42:26 no
  3   vlan                  2.6beta2             jul/05/2002 14:13:43 no
  4   pptp                  2.6beta2             jul/05/2002 13:46:11 no
  5   ppp                   2.6beta2             jul/05/2002 13:45:40 no
  6   pppoe                 2.6beta2             jul/05/2002 13:46:40 no
[admin@MikroTik] interface>

Software License

System Resource Usage

[admin@MikroTik] interface> /system resource irq print
Flags: U - unused
   IRQ OWNER
   1   keyboard
   2   APIC
 U 3
   4   serial port
 U 5
 U 6
 U 7
 U 8
   9   ether1
 U 10
 U 11
 U 12
 U 13
   14  IDE 1
[admin@MikroTik] interface> /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
 CF8-CFF           [PCI conf1]
 EF00-EFFF         [Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139]
 EF00-EFFF         [8139too]
 FC00-FC7F         [Cyrix Corporation 5530 IDE [Kahlua]]
 FC00-FC07         IDE 1
 FC08-FC0F         IDE 2
[admin@MikroTik] interface>

Installing the Wireless Adapter

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

1. 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.
2. Use the RLProg.exe to set the IRQ and Base Port address of the RadioLAN ISA card (Model 101). RLProg must not 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.

For more information on installing PCMCIA cards, check Notes on PCMCIA Adapters first.

Loading the Driver for the Wireless Adapter

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

[admin@MikroTik] interface> print
Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic, R - running
  #    NAME                 TYPE             MTU
  0  R ether1               ether            1500
  1 X  radiolan1            radiolan         1500
  2 X  vlan1                vlan             1500
[admin@MikroTik] interface> enable radiolan1
[admin@MikroTik] interface> print
Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic, R - running
  #    NAME                 TYPE             MTU
  0  R ether1               ether            1500
  1  R radiolan1            radiolan         1500
  2 X  vlan1                vlan             1500
[admin@MikroTik] interface>

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

[admin@MikroTik] interface radiolan> print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
  0  R name="radiolan1" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:A0:D4:20:4B:E7 arp=enabled
       card-name="00A0D4204BE7" sid="bbbb" default-destination=first-client
       default-address=00:00:00:00:00:00 distance=0-150m max-retries=15
       tx-diversity=disabled rx-diversity=disabled


[admin@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-destination - default destination (ap, as-specified, first-ap, first-client, no-destination). It sets the destination where to send the packet if it is not for a client in the radio network.
default-address - MAC address of a host in the radio network where to send the packet, if it is for none of the radio clients.
max-retries - maximum retries before dropping the packet
sid - Service Set Identifier
card-name - Card name
arp - Address Resolution Protocol, one of the:

• disabled - the interface will not use ARP protocol
• enabled - the interface will use ARP protocol
• proxy-arp - the interface will be an ARP proxy (see corresponding manual)
• reply-only - the interface will only reply to the requests originated to its own IP addresses, but neighbour MAC addresses will be gathered from /ip arp statically set table only.

You can monitor the status of the wireless interface:

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

[admin@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.

[admin@MikroTik] interface radiolan> set 0 sid ba72 distance 4.7km-6.6km
[admin@MikroTik] interface radiolan> print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
  0  R name="radiolan1" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:A0:D4:20:4B:E7 arp=enabled
       card-name="00A0D4204BE7" sid="ba72" default-destination=first-client
       default-address=00:00:00:00:00:00 distance=4.7km-6.6km max-retries=15
       tx-diversity=disabled rx-diversity=disabled


[admin@MikroTik] interface radiolan> monitor 0
    default: 00:A0:D4:20:3B:7F
      valid: yes

[admin@MikroTik] interface radiolan>

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

[admin@MikroTik] interface radiolan> neighbor radiolan1 print
Flags: A - access-point, R - registered, U - registered-to-us,
D - our-default-destination
      NAME                 ADDRESS           ACCESS-POINT
    D 00A0D4203B7F         00:A0:D4:20:3B:7F
[admin@MikroTik] interface radiolan>

[admin@MikroTik] interface radiolan> ping 00:a0:d4:20:3b:7f radiolan1 \
\... size=1500 count=50
                 sent: 1
    successfully-sent: 1
          max-retries: 0
      average-retries: 0
          min-retries: 0

                 sent: 11
    successfully-sent: 11
          max-retries: 0
      average-retries: 0
          min-retries: 0

                 sent: 21
    successfully-sent: 21
          max-retries: 0
      average-retries: 0
          min-retries: 0

                 sent: 31
    successfully-sent: 31
          max-retries: 0
      average-retries: 0
          min-retries: 0

                 sent: 41
    successfully-sent: 41
          max-retries: 0
      average-retries: 0
          min-retries: 0

                 sent: 50
    successfully-sent: 50
          max-retries: 0
      average-retries: 0
          min-retries: 0

[admin@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

Point-to-Point Setup with Routing

• 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.

1. Setting the Service Set Identifier (up to alphanumeric characters). In our case we use ssid "ba72".
2. 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.:

[admin@MikroTik] ip address> add address=10.1.0.1/30 interface=radiolan1
[admin@MikroTik] ip address> print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic
  #   ADDRESS            NETWORK         BROADCAST       INTERFACE
  0   10.1.1.12/24       10.1.1.0        10.1.1.255      ether1
  1   10.1.0.1/30        10.1.0.0        10.1.0.3        radiolan1
[admin@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:

[admin@MikroTik] ip route> add gateway=10.1.1.254
comment  copy-from  disabled  distance  dst-address  netmask  preferred-source
[admin@MikroTik] ip route> add gateway=10.1.1.254 preferred-source=10.1.0.1
[admin@MikroTik] ip route> add dst-address=192.168.0.0/24 gateway=10.1.0.2 \
\... preferred-source=10.1.0.1
[admin@MikroTik] ip route> print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic, J - rejected,
C - connect, S - static, R - rip, O - ospf, B - bgp
    #    DST-ADDRESS        G GATEWAY         DISTANCE INTERFACE
    0  S 0.0.0.0/0          u 10.1.1.254      1        radiolan1
    1  S 192.168.0.0/24     r 10.1.0.2        1        radiolan1
    2 DC 10.1.0.0/30        r 0.0.0.0         0        radiolan1
    3 DC 10.1.1.0/24        r 0.0.0.0         0        ether1
[admin@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