The goal of this project is to implement the Wi-SUN protocol on Linux devices and allow the use of Linux hosts as Border Routers for Wi-SUN networks. For the time being, the implementation is mostly a port of Silicon Labs' embedded stack on a Linux host. However, the ultimate goal is to replace services currently provided by the stack with native Linux services.
This project provides the wsbrd daemon, which is responsible for running the
Wi-SUN protocol high-level layers. It is paired with an RF device RCP (Radio
Co-Processor) handling the low-level layers and RF activities. The RCP devices
currently supported are the EFR32FG12 and EFR32MG12.
The RCP needs to be flashed with a specific firmware to communicate with the daemon. This firmware is provided in binary format. To help users deploy and evaluate the solution, a wisun-br-linux-docker repository is provided. It contains a bundle of all the necessary software components (including a compiled RCP firmware image) to run the Linux Wi-SUN border router.
Alternatively, Application Note 1332 explains how to build RCP firmware and flash it.
The communication between the Linux host and the RCP is supported through a
serial link (UART). On Silicon Labs mainboards, this serial link is provided
over USB. The /dev/ACMx device should appear when you connect the mainboard.
If it is not yet done, start by cloning this repository:
git clone https://github.com/SiliconLabs/wisun-br-linux.git
The build requires mbedTLS (> 2.18), libnl-3, libnl-route-3, and cmake.
libcap and libsystemd are also recommended (note that libsystemd can be
replaced by elogind if you do not want to pull systemd). Optionally, you can
also install libpcap and Rust/Cargo.
We also encourage the use of Ninja as the cmake back-end.
On Debian and its derivatives, install the necessary dependencies (except for mbedTLS) with:
sudo apt-get install libnl-3-dev libnl-route-3-dev libcap-dev libpcap-dev \
libsystemd-dev libdbus-1-dev cargo cmake ninja-build pkg-config lrzsz
Debian does not (yet) package mbedTLS > 2.18 so you must build it from
sources. Note that support for cmake has been added to mbedTLS 2.27. So, if
you want to use mbedTLS < 2.27, the following process does not work. In
addition, since wsbrd is mainly tested with mbedTLS 3.0, we suggest using
this version.
git clone --branch=v3.0.0 https://github.com/ARMmbed/mbedtls
cd mbedtls
cmake -G Ninja .
ninja
sudo ninja install
MbedTLS is highly customizable. The default configuration is sane. However, if
you want a stripped-down version, you can configure it with the configuration
file provided in examples/mbedtls-config.h:
CFLAGS="-I$FULL_PATH_TO_WSBRD_SRC/examples -DMBEDTLS_CONFIG_FILE='<mbedtls-config.h>'" cmake -G Ninja .
This configuration file has been written for
mbedtls3.0. Adapt it if necessary.
Optionally, wsbrd can be compiled with support for Silabs
CPC. To install Silabs CPC library:
git clone https://github.com/SiliconLabs/cpc_daemon.git
cd cpc_daemon
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja
ninja -C build
sudo ninja -C build install
sudo ldconfig
Then, you can compile wsbrd with:
cd wisun-br-linux/
cmake -G Ninja .
ninja
Finally, install the service with:
sudo ninja install
No script for any start-up service is provided for now.
You must provide a configuration file to the Wi-SUN border router. A commented
example is available in /usr/local/share/doc/wsbrd/examples/wsbrd.conf.
cp -r /usr/local/share/doc/wsbrd/examples .
<edit examples/wsbrd.conf>
You can copy and edit it. You will notice that you need certificates and keys to
authenticate your network's Wi-SUN nodes. The generation of these files is
described in [[Generate Wi-SUN PKI]]. For now, you can use the certificate
examples installed in /usr/local/share/doc/wsbrd/examples/.
You also must provide the path of the UART representing your RCP device.
Finally, launch wsbrd with:
sudo wsbrd -F examples/wsbrd.conf -u /dev/ttyACM0
wsbrd lists the useful options in the output of wsbrd --help.
A suite of tools is provided for various tasks around wsbrd and its RCP. For
more detail, refer to the README.md present in the relevant source folder
(under tools/), or the --help message output by the application.
Some of these are not compiled by default and require setting
COMPILE_DEVTOOLS=ON when configuring the project with CMake.
| Application | Description |
|---|---|
wsbrd_cli |
A simple application for querying the D-Bus interface |
wsbrd-fwup |
A tool for updating the RCP firware |
wsbrd-fuzz |
A tool for fuzzing and debugging wsbrd |
wshwping |
A tool for testing the serial link |
wsbrd_cli is a small utility to retrieve the status of the Wi-SUN network. Its
usage is described in the output of wsbrd_cli --help. The tool relies on the
D-Bus interface provided by wsbrd, which is described in DBUS.md.
The certificate generation process is described in section 6.5.1 of the Wi-SUN specification. It uses the standard X.509 certificate format. Some fields and algorithms are enforced.
The process to get official certificates is described on the Wi-SUN alliance Web site (restricted access).
wsbrd provides a built-in DHCPv6 server. However, it is still possible to use
an external DHCPv6 server. If the DHCP server runs on a remote host, you need to
launch a DHCPv6 relay.
wsbrd has been tested with ISC DHCP and dnsmasq. Both projects provide DHCP
server and DHCP relay implementations.
First you have to deactivate the internal dhcp server of wsbrd in wbsrd.conf:
internal_dhcp = false
Obviously, the DHCP server/relay needs a network interface to run. You can
launch the DHCP server/relay just after wsbrd (you have to ensure the DHCP
service is started before Wi-SUN nodes connect, but they will not connect before
at least several dozen seconds) or create the interface before launching
wsbrd.
Because of this issue, dnsmasq is supported from the version 2.87.
dnsmasq does not need any specific options. A classical invocation can be
used. We suggest increasing the lease time (336h) and disabling DNS server
(-p 0):
sudo dnsmasq -d -C /dev/null -p 0 -i tun0 --dhcp-range 2001:db8::,2001:db8::ffff,64,336h
To start the DHCP relay, you have to bind the Wi-SUN and the upstream network
interfaces (tun0 and eth0). Then specify the IP addresses of the DHCP server
(2001:db8:a::1) and of the wsbrd interface (2001:db8:b::1) to the
--dhcp-relay option. You can also disable the DNS server (which is useless in
this case) with -p 0:
sudo dnsmasq -d -C /dev/null -p 0 -i tun0,eth0 --dhcp-relay 2001:db8:a::1,2001:db8:b::1
Note that ISC DHCP needs to be patched to comply with Wi-SUN specification (for
relay and server). We provide the needed patches in misc/.
isc-dhcpd will not start if the lease file does not exist:
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/dhcpd/
sudo touch /var/lib/dhcpd/dhcpd.leases
We provide a sample configuration file for isc-dhcp. See examples/dhcpd.conf
for details:
sudo dhcpd -6 --no-pid -lf /var/lib/dhcpd/dhcpd.leases -cf examples/dhcpd.conf tun0
To start the DHCP relay, you have to provide the wsbrd network interface
(tun0), the address of the DHCP server (2001:db8::1 in the example below),
and the network interface associated with this address (see dhcprelay
manpage):
sudo dhcrelay -6 --no-pid -l tun0 -u 2001:db8::1%eth0
To run wsbrd without root permissions, first ensure you have permission to
access the UART device (you will have to logout/login after this command):
sudo usermod -aG dialout YOUR_USER
Then, you have to take over the creation of the network interface. This process
can also be useful to set up unusual configurations, or if you need to access
tun interface before wsbrd is launched.
First, create the network interface to give your user the permission to use it:
sudo ip tuntap add mode tun tun0 user YOUR_USER
The MTU must be set to 1280 bytes to comply with 802.15.4g:
sudo ip link set dev tun0 mtu 1280
Silicon Labs suggests reducing the queue size of the interface to avoid huge latencies:
sudo ip link set dev tun0 txqueuelen 10
The Wi-SUN interface cannot be configured through SLAAC, so do not pollute your network with unnecessary Router Solicitations:
sudo sysctl net.ipv6.conf.tun0.accept_ra=0
Wi-SUN needs a link-address matching the EUI64 of the node. Therefore, Linux should not generate any link-local address by itself.
sudo sysctl net.ipv6.conf.tun0.addr_gen_mode=1
Then, wsbrd can automatically set up the IP addresses (Global and Link-Local)
of the interface. However, to run without root privileges, you have to do it
yourself.
Disable the tun_autoconf parameter in wsbrd's configuration. Then add IP
addresses:
sudo ip addr add dev tun0 fe80::200:5eef:1000:1/64
sudo ip addr add dev tun0 2001:db8::200:5eef:1000:1/64
The 64 least significant bits of these addresses must match with the EUI-64 of
the RCP (you can check logs of wsbrd to find it).
The network mask of the GUA must match with the ipv6_prefix parameter.
Finally, bring up the interface:
sudo ip link set dev tun0 up
Also note, the internal DHCP will not be able to bind ports 546 and 547 without
root privilege. You can run an external DHCP server (with internal_dhcp=false)
or you can configure your system to allow normal users to bind port 546 and
above:
sudo sysctl net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start=546
Finally, you can run wsbrd.
Transparent IPv6 proxy provides IPv6 connectivity to the Wi-SUN network without changing configuration of existing IPv6 infrastructure. Once enabled:
- The Wi-SUN nodes will appear as classical hosts on the network.
- The other hosts on the network will be able to reach them.
- The Wi-SUN nodes will be able to reach the Internet through the gateway of the host.
- If the upstream gateway provides global addresses and there is no firewall on the way (which is uncommon), hosts on the Internet can reach the Wi-SUN nodes.
To enable this feature:
- The
neighbor_proxyparameter must be set to the name of the upstream network interface. - The
ipv6_prefixparameter must be set to the same prefix as the hosting network. - IPv6 forward must be enabled on the host (with
sysctl net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=1). Note that enabling forwarding per interface does not work.
Under the hood, when neighbor_proxy is in use:
- NDP proxy (
/proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/*/proxy_ndp) is enabled. - Wi-SUN nodes are automatically added to the neighbor proxy list (user can
dump them with
ip -6 neigh show proxy). - IPv6 routes are automatically added for the Wi-SUN nodes (user can dump
them with
ip -6 route show). - The delay before answering multicast neighbor solicitations
(
/proc/sys/net/ipv6/neigh/*/proxy_delay) is set to 0.
CPC protocol relies on an external service (CPCd). Therefore, plain UART allows an easier integration for simple setups. However, CPC offers some features:
- Support for SPI bus.
- Support for encrypted link with the RCP.
- Support for Dynamic MultiProtocol (DMP). Thus, CPCd can share the RCP between several network stacks (that is, Bluetooth, Zigbee, OpenThread, and Wi-SUN)
The last update of GitHub seems incompatible with the git version bundled with Rust 1.45. The issue and the workaround are described here and the root cause is solved here.
Before launching cmake, you can run:
export CARGO_NET_GIT_FETCH_WITH_CLI=true
First, check you have followed the installation process. Especially, check you
have run ninja install.
There are several DBus instances on your system:
- One system instance
- An instance for each user
By default, wsbrd tries to use the user instance and falls back to system
instance.
The DBus session used is shown in the first lines of the log output:
Successfully registered to system DBus
Then, use busctl --system or busctl --user accordingly.
Note that if you use sudo to launch wsbrd as root user, it will use the
system instance.
You can enforce the session used with an environment variable
DBUS_STARTER_BUS_TYPE=system or DBUS_STARTER_BUS_TYPE=user. If you use
sudo, you must define this variable inside the sudo environment:
sudo env DBUS_STARTER_BUS_TYPE=system wsbrd ...
Low function nodes (LFN) that are connected directly to the border router do
not appear as having parent when querrying the D-Bus Nodes API. This is due
to them being routed differently, and will be fixed in an future version. Tools
like wsbrd_cli and the web GUI that rely on this D-Bus API are affected by
this limitation.
Path MTU Discovery works as expected on the Wi-SUN network. The Border Router
replies with ICMPv6/Packet Too Big if necessary. (Remember that in IPv6,
routers cannot fragment packets, therefore the sender is responsible for the
size of the packet). Direct neighbors of the Border Router can receive frames up
to 1504 bytes, while the other nodes can receive frames up to 1280 bytes.
If you try to send a UDP frame larger than the MTU, there are two options:
- The packet has been sent with
IPV6_DONTFRAG, and the operating system will return an error. - The packet is not marked with
IPV6_DONTFRAG, and the operating system will fragment the packet.
On the receiver, the buffer must be large enough (up to 64 kB) to handle the fragmented packet. This feature is sometimes limited on embedded devices. IPv6 requires at least 1500 bytes available during reception, and warns on sending more:
A node must be able to accept a fragmented packet that, after reassembly, is as large as 1500 octets. A node is permitted to accept fragmented packets that reassemble to more than 1500 octets. An upper-layer protocol or application that depends on IPv6 fragmentation to send packets larger than the MTU of a path should not send packets larger than 1500 octets unless it has assurance that the destination is capable of reassembling packets of that larger size.
Typically, on Silicon Labs nodes, the default fragmentation buffer size is 1504 bytes. Therefore, if you send a buffer greater than 1504 bytes (including IP and MAC headers), the packet will be silently dropped.
As another consequence, the commonly used tool nc cannot be used to stress
Wi-SUN networks with a continuous data stream, as nc sends 16 kB-long UDP
when fed an endless source such as /dev/urandom. There is no option to reduce
frame size (or to enable IPV6_DONTFRAG).
Therefore, sending UDP packets with IPV6_DONTFRAG is recommended. Use
IPV6_PATHMTU and IPV6_RECVPATHMTU to determine the optimal packet size.
Read RFC 8900 for more insights on the question.