batman-adv: network coding - add the initial infrastructure code

Network coding exploits the 802.11 shared medium to allow multiple
packets to be sent in a single transmission. In brief, a relay can XOR
two packets, and send the coded packet to two destinations. The
receivers can decode one of the original packets by XOR'ing the coded
packet with the other original packet. This will lead to increased
throughput in topologies where two packets cross one relay.

In a simple topology with three nodes, it takes four transmissions
without network coding to get one packet from Node A to Node B and one
from Node B to Node A:

 1.  Node A  ---- p1 --->  Node R                Node B
 2.  Node A                Node R  <--- p2 ----  Node B
 3.  Node A  <--- p2 ----  Node R                Node B
 4.  Node A                Node R  ---- p1 --->  Node B

With network coding, the relay only needs one transmission, which saves
us one slot of valuable airtime:

 1.  Node A  ---- p1 --->  Node R                Node B
 2.  Node A                Node R  <--- p2 ----  Node B
 3.  Node A  <- p1 x p2 -  Node R  - p1 x p2 ->  Node B

The same principle holds for a topology including five nodes. Here the
packets from Node A and Node B are overheard by Node C and Node D,
respectively. This allows Node R to send a network coded packet to save
one transmission:

   Node A                  Node B

    |     \              /    |
    |      p1          p2     |
    |       \          /      |
    p1       > Node R <       p2
    |                         |
    |         /      \        |
    |    p1 x p2    p1 x p2   |
    v       /          \      v
           /            \
   Node C <              > Node D

More information is available on the open-mesh.org wiki[1].

This patch adds the initial code to support network coding in
batman-adv. It sets up a worker thread to do house keeping and adds a
sysfs file to enable/disable network coding. The feature is disabled by
default, as it requires a wifi-driver with working promiscuous mode, and
also because it adds a small delay at each hop.

[1] http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki/Catwoman

Signed-off-by: Martin Hundebøll <martin@hundeboll.net>
Signed-off-by: Marek Lindner <lindner_marek@yahoo.de>
Signed-off-by: Antonio Quartulli <ordex@autistici.org>

1 files changed, 14 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/net/batman-adv/types.h b/net/batman-adv/types.h
index 4cd87a0..83bfe7c 100644
--- a/net/batman-adv/types.h
+++ b/net/batman-adv/types.h
@@ -428,6 +428,14 @@ struct batadv_priv_dat {
 #endif
 
 /**
+ * struct batadv_priv_nc - per mesh interface network coding private data
+ * @work: work queue callback item for cleanup
+ */
+struct batadv_priv_nc {
+	struct delayed_work work;
+};
+
+/**
  * struct batadv_priv - per mesh interface data
  * @mesh_state: current status of the mesh (inactive/active/deactivating)
  * @soft_iface: net device which holds this struct as private data
@@ -470,6 +478,8 @@ struct batadv_priv_dat {
  * @tt: translation table data
  * @vis: vis data
  * @dat: distributed arp table data
+ * @network_coding: bool indicating whether network coding is enabled
+ * @batadv_priv_nc: network coding data
  */
 struct batadv_priv {
 	atomic_t mesh_state;
@@ -522,6 +532,10 @@ struct batadv_priv {
 #ifdef CONFIG_BATMAN_ADV_DAT
 	struct batadv_priv_dat dat;
 #endif
+#ifdef CONFIG_BATMAN_ADV_NC
+	atomic_t network_coding;
+	struct batadv_priv_nc nc;
+#endif /* CONFIG_BATMAN_ADV_NC */
 };
 
 /**