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Nano-RK 6LoWPAN Installation¶

STEP 1: Install Linux

Install a Linux kernel >= 2.6.32. The 6LoWPAN network driver has only been tested on 2.6.32 and
will not compile on previous versions.

STEP 2: Obtain an IPv6 Address

For 6LoWPAN to work you need to have an IPv6 address. Unfortunately, most ISPs only provide
IPv4 connectivity. If this is the case you can obtain an IPv6 address by using the Freenet6
tunnelling service. You can find more info here: "You will need to register so that their service can give you an IPv6 address.

Once you have registered, you will have to download the 'gw6c' software. This can be obtained from
the previous website, or through your distro's package management system. The latest versions are
available in the repositories for Ubuntu and Gentoo. When the software has been installed, it can
be configured by editing 'gw6c.conf'. This file is installed with gw6c, on Ubuntu it is located at
'/etc/gw6c/gw6c.conf', and on Gentoo it is at '/etc/gateway6/gw6c.conf'. You will have to enter your
login information, and change the server from 'anon' to 'broker'.

Full installation details for Gentoo can be found at [http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/ipv6.xml":http://gogonet.gogo6.com/page/freenet6-services]. under
the section for freenet6. The procedure is similar for Ubuntu.

STEP 3: Obtain an IPv6 Network prefix

Because we will be distributing IPv6 addresses to each node you will also need to acquire a
network prefix. Luckily, freenet6 also offers a service where you can get a full IPv6
network prefix.

To do this make sure to change your gw6c.conf configuration file to 'router':

host_type=router

Also change the Network interface to 6lowpan0:

if_prefix=6lowpan0

If you notice problems, make sure the 6lowpan driver is loaded and that the interface exists.
Also make sure that 'radvd' is installed if it was not pulled down as a dependency of gw6c. It
is required to send router advertisements to the network. Note however that gw6c will configure
and start radvd, you should not have to configure it manually. In fact, doing so could prevent
gw6c from working correctly.

STEP 4: Setup Edge Router Network Device Driver

go to the driver directory...

cd edge/driver/kernel-2.6.32

and compile the driver...

make

now start up the 6LoWPAN module...

sudo insmod sixlowpan.ko

sudo ifconfig 6lowpan0 up

Running "ifconfig" should now display "6lowpan0" as a network interface:

$ifconfig
6lowpan0  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 92:9d:0b:44:66:c2
          inet6 addr: fe80::909d:bff:fe44:66c2/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING NOARP  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

Now start up gw6c...

sudo /etc/init.d/gw6c start

Running "ifconfig" again should now display the IPv6 prefix associated with 6lowpan0

$ifconfig
6lowpan0  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 16:38:96:c7:4f:48  
          inet6 addr: 2001:5c0:1107:9b00::1/64 Scope:Global
          inet6 addr: fe80::1438:96ff:fec7:4f48/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING NOARP  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:298 (298.0 B)

STEP 5: Setup the Edge Router Radio Node

We now need to configure the radio node to be used by the edge router so that it may communicate
with the firefly network.

First go to the radio node directory...

cd edge/node

Compile and program a node...

make && make program

STEP 6: Setup the Edge Router User Level Process

Last thing to setup is the user level process.

Go to the user space process directory

cd edge/user

compile...

make

and run the process...

sudo ./edge

STEP 7: Setup the nodes

See the 6LoWPAN api to find the correct way of programming
on the nodes. Examples can be found in the apps/ folder.

STEP 8: Setup the MAC Addresses

You should now assign each firefly node in your network with a unique 16-bit address. You can
do this by using the config-eeprom program.

./config-eeprom

STEP 9: Test

Congratulations you should now have a network of firefly nodes connected to the internet. Test
that this is in fact true by going to [http://www.ipv6tools.org] and try pinging one of the nodes
in your network.

Nano-RK

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Nano-RK 6LoWPAN Installation¶