Node Status Display#
Once you have completed the initial setup on your AREDN® node, you can connect your computer to a LAN port on the device or the PoE and use a web browser to navigate to the node status page.
http://localnode.local.mesh
or http://<your-nodename>.local.mesh
This display has been designed to present all of the important information about your node in one view. Someone navigating to your node’s status display will be able to see all of the key elements of interest without having to click to multiple pages. This display consists of a top navigation bar, a left navigation bar, and three columns of information about your node.
Left Column#
Several sections of node information are presented here (listed from top to bottom).
- Node Description
This is not a required field, but node owners typically use it to list their contact information or the tactical purpose for the node.
- Node Time, Uptime, Load Average, and Free Memory
The node time is displayed and if an NTP or GPS time source is available, that source will be displayed in parentheses. If an Internet connection or a local NTP server is available, your node’s NTP client will sync its time with that source. If a local GPS source is available, your node can use that source.
The
uptime
is also displayed, which is the time since the last reboot.load
is the average system utilization for the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes.free flash
andfree ram
shows how much storage space is remaining on your node.flash
is the internal non-volatile storage where the operating system, configuration files, and software packages are kept.ram
is the amount of RAM available for running processes on the node.- Firmware Information
This displays the node’s current firmware version. A badge on the right indicates the status of the firmware, with valid values including
Up to date
,Update available
, andCustom
. If your node has access to the Internet you can also click the issues label below the firmware version, and this will open the AREDN® Issues page on GitHub. Clicking the release notes label will open the Changelog page on the AREDN® website.- Network Information
The Mesh IP address/netmask is displayed using CIDR notation, followed by the LAN IP address/netmask. If the WAN interface is enabled, the WAN IP address/netmask is displayed along with whether this address was obtained via DHCP or assigned as a static IP address. The WAN gateway IP address is also displayed.
- Node Location Information
At the bottom of the left column is the node location information. Initially there will be no location values since the latitude, longitude, and grid square have not yet been entered. After the latitude, longitude, and grid square have been entered (as described in the Node Admin guide), your node will attempt to display a thumbnail map with its location in the center. If your node has no access to the Internet or to a local map tile server, then the map will not be displayed. The latitude, longitude, and grid square values will be shown below the map thumbnail.
Center Column#
The center column has four main sections (listed from top to bottom).
- Local Services
This section displays the service links for any mesh services on your node or its locally-connected devices. These service links are displayed side by side in two columns. Clicking any of the links will navigate to the selected service.
- Local Devices
This section displays any devices that are directly connected to your node. This includes devices that are connected to your node’s LAN via Ethernet cable (such as VoIP phones, IP cameras, or service computers). Be aware that DHCP devices with Do Not Propagate checked will not be displayed.
- Local Nodes
This section displays any local DtD nodes that are directly connected to your node, typically via Ethernet cable. If you hover the cursor over the node name, a popup will appear showing the relative link quality of the connection to that node. Clicking the node name will navigate to that node’s status page. For Local Nodes the snr, nsnr, mbps, and distance columns will always be blank.
Basic Link Quality Metrics
Several link quality statistics can be displayed for different types of connections that are mentioned below. Before introducing those link types, here is a brief explanation of the link quality metrics that may be displayed.
lq
or Link Quality is your node’s view of the percent of OLSR (Optimized Link State Routing protocol) packets received from the neighbor node. These packets exchange mesh routing and advertised services information, and they include a sequence number that is used to identify missing packets. For example, if 7 of 10 packets sent by the neighbor were received, then the probability for a successful packet transmission from this neighbor is 7/10 = 0.7 = 70%.nlq
or Neighbor Link Quality is the neighbor node’s view of the percent of OLSR packets received from your node.snr
or Signal-to-Noise Ratio is expressed in decibels (dB). This metric only applies to RF links and represents the level of signal which is detected above the noise floor. SNR is shown for both sides of the radio link (snr and n snr).errors
is calculated as the moving average of (total sent packets) divided by (total sent packets plus retransmissions) and expressed as a percent. For example, if the node had to send every packet twice for it to be successfully received, the error rate would be 50%. An additional penalty is subtracted if the neighbor node is unpingable.mbps
is a rolling average of the data rate achieved across any radio (RF) link. This column may show zero if the data being transmitted between these nodes is not sufficient for the metric to be calculated.dist
is the line of sight distance between your node and the remote node, calculated from the GPS coordinates if they are entered for both nodes. This value will be expressed in miles or kilometers based on the locale settings in the web browser.
- Neighborhood Nodes
This section displays any nodes that are direct neighbors of your node, whether via RF, an xlink, or a tunnel over an Internet connection. Each type of connection will display a different icon to the right of the node name, and this indicates the type of link (for example, the small radio signal icon in the screenshot above indicates an RF link). If a node is reachable from your node, you can click the node name to navigate to that node. Not all the columns for link quality statistics will be populated for Neighborhood Nodes. If you hover the cursor over the node name, a popup will appear showing the relative link quality of the connection to that node.
Node Status Indicators
For nodes in the Local Nodes and Neighborhood Nodes sections, different colors, styles, and hover text may be displayed based on the quality of the connection to each node.
In the example above, the node name and statistics are displayed in red, and hovering over the node name displays status text indicating that the RF status is “bad”. The following list shows how the standard theme text colors are mapped to link quality.
- green:
excellent
- dark green:
good
- blue:
okay
- orange:
poor
- red:
bad
- gray:
idle
- strikethrough:
blocked
Right Column#
The right column displays additional details about your node (listed from top to bottom).
- Radio section
Your device manufacturer and model are displayed at the top of the column. If a radio is configured as a
Mesh
radio, you will see the channel number and frequency range, followed by the channel width (in MHz). Next is the transmit power (in dBm), the maximum distance (in miles or kilometers), and the minimum snr (in dB) for communication with other RF nodes.If a radio is configured as a
LAN Hotspot
, you will see the channel number and the SSID that wifi clients can use to connect to your node’s hotspot. If a radio is configured as aWAN Client
you will see the SSID of the wifi AP to which your node connected, as well as the status of the connection (no connection, connected but no internet, connected with internet). Your node’s antenna information is listed next, including the type of antenna, the azimuth, height above ground level, and tilt angle / elevation (if directional).- Mesh section
Next there are summary statistics showing how many nodes are currently visible on the network, as well as the total number of devices on the mesh.
- LAN DHCP section
By default each node runs a DHCP server which is capable of automatically providing IP addresses for any LAN-connected devices. This section shows the DHCP server status, the IP address/netmask of your node functioning as the gateway for its LAN-connected devices, and the IP address range served by your node. It also shows the number of active leases and IP addresses reserved for specific devices on its LAN. In addition, counts are displayed for the number of DHCP tags and options that are defined on your node.
- Ethernet Ports & Xlinks
If you have a multiport node or one which supports xlinks, then the Ethernet Ports & Xlinks section will be displayed. This shows the number of Ethernet ports on the device, as well as how many of them are actively in use. You will also see the number of xlinks that you have defined on this node.
- Tunnels section
This section displays statistics on any tunnel connections you may have on your node. The Wireguard section shows information for Wireguard tunnels, while the Legacy section shows information for the older vtun tunnels. Counts are displayed for active / allocated tunnel client connections as well as for active / allocated tunnel server connections on your node.