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Add a Model for creating WLAN PtMP Infrastructure #9641

Open jmmk11 opened 2 years ago

jmmk11 commented 2 years ago

NetBox version

v.3.2.4

Feature type

New functionality

Proposed functionality

There is already a methode for establishing wireless links, but as far as I know still no method for a Point to Multipoint Connection. Envoirements such as WLAN Mesh cannot be shown with the current possibilities.

There was a issue to that before: https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox/issues/3979

But that issue was closed because wireless links were implemented. But as I already told that is no Solution for mUlitpoint Connections.

For Example my Envoirment has multiple Antenna which get there Signal by meshing from one Access Point Antenna. But I can only attach one 5 Ghz Interface with one other Interface (Point to Point) but what I would like to do is connect more than one Interface to the Access Point Interface.

I hope my request is clear and you may consider looking into that or maybe there already is a solution to PtMP which I simple am not able to find

Use case

This functionality would benefit user who would like to display Envoirments such as WLAN Mesh or diretional Point to Multipoint Radio Connections.

Database changes

No response

External dependencies

No response

morten-starvik commented 2 years ago

I totally support this feature request. I have been looking for a way to document PtMP links, but find it difficult. The only viable way is to create multiple wireless interfaces, one for each link, but this does not give a correct representation. I had hopes for the child interface function, but this only allows virtual interface, which cannot be linked to other interfaces. Maybe a possible way is to allow wireless interfaces as child interfaces, if the data model allows it?

joni1993 commented 2 years ago

Maybe a possible way is to allow wireless interfaces as child interfaces, if the data model allows it?

That would be great - many vendors model multiple SSIDs one same interface as "child"/virtual sub-interfaces of the physical wireless interface. Currently you can either:

github-actions[bot] commented 2 years ago

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. NetBox is governed by a small group of core maintainers which means not all opened issues may receive direct feedback. Do not attempt to circumvent this process by "bumping" the issue; doing so will result in its immediate closure and you may be barred from participating in any future discussions. Please see our contributing guide.

jonkerj commented 1 year ago

That would be great - many vendors model multiple SSIDs one same interface as "child"/virtual sub-interfaces of the physical wireless interface. Currently you can either:

  • set Wireless Sub-Interface of type "Virtual" => No Wireless (SSID, etc) options but "Parent Interface" can be set
  • set Wireless "Sub-Interface" of any wireless type => Wireless options present, but you can't set a "Parent Interface"

I'm running into similar issues. I'm modelling my infrastructure into netbox, where accesspoints typically have a single 'radio' interface (with a MAC, frequency, etc) and several child interfaces for every SSID (with an ESSID, .1q settings, etc.). Using parent/child modelling, I have to choose between these options.

njohnsn commented 1 year ago

I'm Interested in this feature as well. We have several PtMP mesh networks on campus and would like to be able to document them in netbox. I'd be happy to work with others to come up with a data model.

adparis99 commented 1 year ago

I support this idea as well and hope it comes to fruition. We have a complex video camera network with many point-to-multipoint connections that I hope to be able to accurately model in NetBox at some point.

BarbarossaTM commented 1 year ago

Fully agree, this would be neat to have.

I think there are (at least) two options to model this:

a) Add a boolean switch to the Wireless link to allow more than 2 end points. This would obviously not be nice for backward compatibility and introduces some foreseeable tech debt, so I don't think this isn't "the way".

b) Add a Wireless PTMP Link model which is basically the same as the Wireless Link but allows more than 2 stations to be connected and allows to distinguish the two flavors of Wireless links. Maybe it would be worth renaming the existing Wireless Links to Wireless PTP Links to be explicit about what they represent.

I'd be open to take a stab at this is there were to be consensus that this is a good way forward :-)

dBitech commented 2 weeks ago

Has there been any movement on this feature, I would find it very useful