[Battlemesh] the relationship of BSSID to anything...

[elektra]

Hi -

> I only hope I haven't obscured it even further :)

I guess you didn't, but I may do that now ;)

The cell-id, BSSID in 802.11 terms, is a MAC-like identifier that logically determines which radios are associated to which wireless cell. The term BSSID is used in managed (APs and stations) WiFi networks, the term IBSSID is used in unmangaged (ad-hoc) WiFi networks.

The protocol in 802.11 that automatically determines the IBSSID (independent base station subset id, if I remember correctly) in ad-hoc mode is error-prone, as it depends on timestamps that are broadcasted in beacons and the ability of the cell to synchronize them. The idea was that the network uses the cell-id of the node with the oldest timestamp and everyone else has to synchronize with both timestamps and IBSSID. 

What good possibly go wrong?!

I could come up with a long list, but I rather save the time ;)

Cheers,
Elektra