Mp01 Administrator Manual; Introduction; Mesh Networking; The Client-Mp01 - ATCOM MP01 Administrator's Manual

MP01 Administrator Manual

This document describes detailed information for the MP01, and it will guide you
through the installation for setting up telephony system and providing Internet
access with MP01.

1. Introduction

The MP01 is a WiFi mesh VoIP ATA (analog terminal adapter) operating in the
license-exempt 2.4GHz ISM band. The MP01 is the first WiFi mesh ATA in the
market, using a wireless mesh network as backhaul to interconnect phones and
host LAN/WAN access to computers connected to its Ethernet port. MP01 WiFi
mesh ATA helps you to build the wireless VoIP communication system with open
hardware design and open source firmware. It provides affordable voice and
data services for people.
1.1

Mesh networking

Mesh networking is a type of networking wherein each node in the network may
act as an independent router, regardless of whether it is connected to another
network or not. It allows for continuous connections and reconfiguration around
broken or blocked paths by "hopping" from node to node until the destination is
reached. A mesh network whose nodes are all connected to each other is a fully
connected network. Mesh networks differ from other networks. Mesh networks
can be seen as one type of ad hoc network.
Mesh networks are self-healing: the network can still operate when one node
breaks down or a connection goes bad. As a result, the network may typically be
very reliable, as there is often more than one path between a source and a
destination in the network.
1.2

The client-MP01

MP01 is an 802.11b/g mesh router with a single FXS port and one 10/100Mbit
Ethernet port. The Mesh Potato hardware and software is open. The power,
Ethernet and FXS ports are robust in order to deal with developing-world
conditions like static electricity, lightning, bad power and accidental abuse. It
comes in a weatherproof box for outdoor mounting and costs about the same as
any other Wi-Fi router.
An analogue phone connects to the MP01 via the FXS port. FXS (Foreign
eXchange Station) is a telephone interface that supplies power, dial tone and
generates ringing voltage. The mesh network can be augmented via backbone
links and connected to the rest of the world using VoIP trunks.
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