[ale] [Semi-OT] Multicell Wifi Network

[Michael B. Trausch]

I was wondering if anyone on the list knew of a consumer-oriented device
that would enable one to create a multicell Wifi network using an
existing Ethernet network as a backbone.  I don't seem to be having much
luck finding anything.

Someone I know wants to cover their (somewhat large) property with WiFi.
 In the past, they had a repeater-type thing setup, but the way that the
repeater worked was less than optimal; it had two wireless chipsets in
it and it would join one to the existing Wifi network and the other one
would be its own distinct access point.  The result was that any Wifi
device would have to be taught (by the user) about both networks, and
transfer between them was anything but seamless.

I was also looking to see if that was something that DD-WRT knew how to
do, but I am not turning anything up there, either.

The desired feature is to have worry-free roaming throughout the
(intended) four cells in the network, without having problems like loss
of IP sessions.  A transitory delay would be acceptable, so long as it's
not going through a whole network-down, re-associate, DHCP-handshake,
there's-a-new-IP stack for your applications to use type cycle.  TCP
connections should survive the process without having to rely on luck,
in other words.

I know that very large Wifi networks are setup to do this, and I'm
guessing that they use special expensive hardware to do so.  Obviously,
cost is a factor here, so ideally something that uses commodity hardware
would be great.

	--- Mike

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