Wireless – configuring IBSS WLANs

ieee 802.11wireless

I have searched through wireless books and the web which consistently define what IBSS (ad-hoc, peer-to-peer) is, but have found no examples on how to actually implement one. I'd guess that the steps to set up the IBSS depends on both the OS and NIC, but a guide for any concrete IBSS setup, from any vendor, would still be useful. Can anyone explain what must be done to set up a IBSS, or at least point to resources that explain a full implementation of one?

Best Answer

On Linux for all cards that support it (used to be all, many these days don't) you simply run:

iwconfig wlan0 mode Ad-Hoc
iwconfig wlan0 essid Foo
iwconfig wlan0 channel 6

You can do WEP, and apparently even TKIP-based WPA.

Once configured you can treat it like a classic ethernet bus (Think Coax or 10baseT hubs), with one big caveat, the "hidden node problem", in ad-hoc there's no repeaters so if two nodes can't make direct radio contact with each other they can't talk (at that layer, you can of course bridge or route at a higher level).