Testing configuration of low-power wifi adhoc networks on Jetson Orin Nano.

Critical Path

Recommendation: Use a network adapter with 802.11s mesh networking mode for it's redundancy in highly variable and volatile network topologies.

Critical Path:

1. Install a 802.11s mesh USB adapter that fits your sourcing and power requirements.
2. Install Ubuntu package iw to manage wireless configuration.
3. Use script iwup.sh, it:
   • Disables default desktop Network Manager Realtek wi-fi managed service.
   • Renames the USB mesh wi-fi adapter to wlan0.
   • Activates the USB mesh wi-fi adapter for mesh service.
4. Test send and receive across the mesh network with ping.py.
5. Complete above steps on 2+ Jetson Nanos, they should be reporting each others' pings.
6. Debug: iw wlan0 info command should report 802.11s mesh status.

Configuration Attempts History

1. First Steps:

• Tried with Jetson SDK Desktop at first: https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetpack-sdk-60
• Disabled network manager service to avoid fighting configurations.
• Result: Onboard Realtek wifi hardware/drivers report adhoc (ibss) available, but commands failed silently.

2. Eliminating OS/Drivers Setup:

• Update BIOS
• Flash ubuntu server 22 for Jetso Orin Nano: https://ubuntu.com/download/nvidia-jetson
• Update general ubuntu packages

   sudo apt dist-upgrade
   sudo reboot
  

• Install nvidia-tegra drivers per doc Install NVIDIA proprietary software

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-tegra/updates
  sudo apt install -y nvidia-tegra-drivers-36
  sudo usermod -a -G render,video ubuntu
  sudo reboot
  

  • WARNING: When using Ubuntu Desktop 22 from Jetson SDK, installing the nvidia-tegra drivers inexplicably nukes all other drivers (display, network, etc) on the device.
• Install ubuntu package iw to manage wireless config

  sudo apt install -y iw
  

• Result: Onboard Realtek wifi hardware/drivers report adhoc (ibss) available, but commands still failed silently.

3. New NIC Hardware Try:

• Some links for linux-friendly adapters, including second link of 802.11s mesh point compatible ones:
  • https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/blob/main/home/USB_WiFi_Adapters_that_are_supported_with_Linux_in-kernel_drivers.md#n150---usb-2---24-ghz-wifi-4
  • https://github.com/phillymesh/802.11s-adapters
• List of supported drivers in linux kernel: https://wireless.docs.kernel.org/en/latest/en/users/drivers.html .

Likely approved manufacturer/source

• ALFA Network AWUS036ACM wifi USB adapter. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BJS8FXD, DigiKey: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/alfa-network-inc/AWUS036ACM/24388541.
• Testing Result: Wifi hardware/drivers (mt76x2u) report adhoc (ibss) and mesh available, both sets of commands worked.

Likely restricted manufacturer/source:

• Panda wifi USB adapter: https://www.amazon.com/Panda-Ultra-150Mbps-Wireless-Adapter/dp/B00762YNMG
• Testing Result: USB Panda wifi hardware/drivers report adhoc (ibss) and mesh available, both sets of commands worked.

4. Add GUI Components (optional)

• sudo apt install slim ubuntu-desktop

Test scripts, testing mesh mode.

• sudo apt install iw

• sudo ./iwup.sh

• python3 ping.py

  ubuntu@ubuntu:~/adhoc-wifi$ python3 ping.py 3
  Listening on 12345
  Sent broadcast
  Received msg from ('192.168.1.3', 51025): Hello from 3
  Received msg from ('192.168.1.4', 56377): Hello from 4
  Received msg from ('192.168.1.2', 49694): Hello from 2
  Received msg from ('192.168.1.3', 51025): Hello from 3
  Sent broadcast
  Received msg from ('192.168.1.4', 56377): Hello from 4
  Received msg from ('192.168.1.2', 49694): Hello from 2
  Sent broadcast

• iw wlan0 info

  ubuntu@ubuntu:~/adhoc-wifi$ iw wlan0 info
  Interface wlan0
      ifindex 5
      wdev 0X300000001
      addr 00:c0:ca:b7:65:d3
      type mesh point
      wiphy 3
      channe1 3 (2422 MHz), width: 20 MHz (no HT), center1: 2422 MHz
      txpower 20.00 dBm
      multicast TXQ:
          qsz-byt qsz-pkt flows   drops   marks   overlmt hashcol tx-bytes  tx-packets
          0       0       184322  0       0       0       0       14759168  184382

Testing Mesh Network recovery

• Given nodes A, B, C, D arranged "linearly" by position and physical wireless links:

  A ---------- B ------------- C ---------- D
  

  802.11s will automatically route the entire network from/to each node
• When the network topology fragments, e.g.

  A ---------- B               C ---------- D
  

  • Naturally cell division will occur and nodes A,B will still be able to communicate with each other, as will C,D. Connection drops can be simulated by simply setting TX power to 0, which will limit viable connection range to a few feet.
• When either A,B and C,D come back within range of each other, the network will re-merge and be restored for full routing from/to each node once again.

  B ---------- A ------------- C ---------- D
  

  • Note: In simple wireless adhoc mode, this remerge after fragmentation is unreliable, and in fact even first ad-hoc network initialization can result in cell division despite what should be viable physical wireless links.

ROS2

Per https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Installation/Ubuntu-Install-Debs.html

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt update
sudo curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo $UBUNTU_CODENAME) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

And either ROS default graphical bundle if using wiith Ubuntu Desktop, ROS2 and RViz will be installed

sudo apt install ros-humble-desktop

OR just ros-base for ROS2 CLI-only

sudo apt install ros-humble-ros-base

MQTT2UDP (future ROS2UDP) Bridge

We create an example of using UDP to bridge MQTT messages with conceptually similar publish/subscribe functionality. While in this case there is a shared MQTT broker, a drop-in replacement with ROS2 would have each device subscribing and publishing to its own respective local ROS instance.

Next Steps

• Set ROS to loopback only (don't let it interact with mesh subnet)
• Setup Isaac ROS Dev Base containers