Summary

Add support for BATMAN-adv (Better Approach To Mobile Ad-hoc Networking) mesh networking protocol and 802.11s wireless mesh interfaces to the OpenWrt backend of
netjsonconfig.

Motivation

BATMAN-adv is a popular Layer 2 mesh networking protocol used in decentralized mesh networks, community networks, and IoT deployments. Currently, netjsonconfig lacks native
support for configuring BATMAN-adv interfaces, forcing users to manually configure mesh networks or use workarounds.

Requested Functionality

BATMAN-adv Main Interface Support

Support for configuring the main BATMAN-adv virtual mesh interface with options for:

• Routing algorithm selection (BATMAN_IV or BATMAN_V)
• Bridge loop avoidance
• Gateway mode configuration (off/client/server)
• Hop penalty tuning
• MTU configuration
• Fragmentation control

BATMAN-adv Hard Interface Support

Support for configuring physical/wireless interfaces that participate in the mesh network:

• Binding physical devices to the mesh
• Association with master BATMAN-adv interface
• Support for 802.11s wireless mesh interfaces

Mesh-Specific Wireless Properties

Support for 802.11s mesh-specific wireless configuration:

• Mesh forwarding control
• RSSI threshold configuration
• WPA3 encryption for mesh networks

Use Cases

This feature would enable:

• Community mesh network deployments
• Redundant wireless backhaul networks
• IoT mesh networks with automatic routing
• Disaster recovery communication networks
• Rural connectivity projects using mesh topologies
• OpenWISP-managed mesh network infrastructure

Expected Behavior

Users should be able to define BATMAN-adv mesh networks using NetJSON configuration, and netjsonconfig should automatically generate the correct OpenWrt UCI configuration
for mesh networking.

Example Use Case

A user wants to configure a mesh node with a BATMAN-adv interface and a wireless mesh hard interface. They should be able to express this declaratively in NetJSON format,
and netjsonconfig should generate the appropriate OpenWrt configuration files.