WFB-NG - the next generation of long-range packet radio link based on raw WiFi radio
This is the next generation of long-range packet radio link based on raw WiFi radio
:warning: Warranty/Disclaimer
This is free software and comes with no warranty, as stated in parts 15 and 16 of the GPLv3 license. The creators and contributors of the software are not responsible for how it is used. See License and Support for details.
If you like WFB-ng you can support author via:
bitcoin:bc1qfvlsvr0ea7tzzydngq5cflf4yypemlacgt6t05
For detailed instructions on how to get started read through PX4-Guide and follow the Setup HowTo
*.img.gz
).*.img
file and flash it to 2-SD Cards.192.168.0.111
with their IP-Address). Password: raspberry
ssh [email protected]
sudo systemctl enable wifibroadcast@gs
sudo systemctl enable rtsp
sudo systemctl enable fpv-video
sudo systemctl enable osd
sudo reboot
sudo systemctl enable wifibroadcast@drone
sudo systemctl enable fpv-camera
sudo reboot
wfb-cli gs
RTL8812AU
driver:sudo apt-get install dkms
git clone -b v5.2.20 https://github.com/svpcom/rtl8812au.git
cd rtl8812au/
sudo ./dkms-install.sh
unmanaged
state.nmcli
ifconfig
wlan0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 2312
ether 0c:91:60:0a:5a:8b txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
wifi0
with the previously copied name of the WiFi card.git clone -b stable https://github.com/svpcom/wfb-ng.git
cd wfb-ng
sudo ./scripts/install_gs.sh wifi0
wfb-cli gs
Failing to get connection?
Make sure the WiFi channel on the ground and on the drone are the same. To check, use:
head /etc/wifibroadcast.cfg
You should see output similar to:
[common]
wifi_channel = 161 # 161 -- radio channel @5825 MHz, range: 5815–5835 MHz, width 20MHz
# 1 -- radio channel @2412 Mhz,
# see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels for reference
Ensure the WiFi channel selected is the same on the ground and on the drone.
Q: What type of data can be transmitted using WFB-NG?
A: Any UDP with packet size <= 1445. For example x264 inside RTP or Mavlink.
Q: What are transmission guarantees?
A: Wifibrodcast uses FEC (forward error correction) which can recover 4 lost packets from 12 packets block with default settings. You can tune it (both TX and RX simultaneously!) to fit your needs.
Q: Is only Raspberry PI supported?
A: WFB-NG is not tied to any GPU - it operates with UDP packets. But to get RTP stream you need a video encoder (which encodes raw data from camera to x264 stream). In my case RPI is only used for video encoding (because RPI Zero is too slow to do anything else) and all other tasks (including WFB-NG) are done by other board (NanoPI NEO2).
Q: What is a difference from original wifibroadcast?
A: Original version of wifibroadcast uses a byte-stream as input and splits it to packets of fixed size (1024 by default). If radio packets were lost and this is not corrected by FEC you'll get a hole at random (unexpected) place of stream. This is especially bad if data protocol is not resistant to (was not desired for) such random erasures. So i've rewritten it to use UDP as data source and pack one source UDP packet into one radio packet. Radio packets now have variable size depending on payload size. This reduces video latency a lot.
WFB-NG puts the wifi cards into monitor mode. This mode allows to send and receive arbitrary packets without association and waiting for ACK packets. Analysis of Injection Capabilities and Media Access of IEEE 802.11 Hardware in Monitor Mode 802.11 timings
Camera -> gstreamer --[RTP stream (UDP)]--> wfb_tx --//--[ RADIO ]--//--> wfb_rx --[RTP stream (UDP)]--> gstreamer --> Display
For encoding logitech c920 camera:
gst-launch-1.0 uvch264src device=/dev/video0 initial-bitrate=6000000 average-bitrate=6000000 iframe-period=1000 name=src auto-start=true \
src.vidsrc ! queue ! video/x-h264,width=1920,height=1080,framerate=30/1 ! h264parse ! rtph264pay ! udpsink host=localhost port=5600
To encode a Raspberry Pi Camera V2:
raspivid -n -ex fixedfps -w 960 -h 540 -b 4000000 -fps 30 -vf -hf -t 0 -o - | \
gst-launch-1.0 -v fdsrc ! h264parse ! rtph264pay config-interval=1 pt=35 ! udpsink sync=false host=127.0.0.1 port=5600
To decode:
gst-launch-1.0 udpsrc port=5600 caps='application/x-rtp, media=(string)video, clock-rate=(int)90000, encoding-name=(string)H264' \
! rtph264depay ! avdec_h264 ! clockoverlay valignment=bottom ! autovideosink fps-update-interval=1000 sync=false
For development (inline build)
make
For binary distribution RHEL or Fedora
make rpm
For binary distribution Debian or Ubuntu
sudo apt install python3-all libpcap-dev libsodium-dev python3-pip python3-pyroute2 \
python3-future python3-twisted python3-serial python3-all-dev iw virtualenv \
debhelper dh-python build-essential -y
sudo make deb
For binary distribution (tar.gz)
make bdist
You need to generate encryption keys for gs(ground station) and drone:
wfb_keygen
Leave them in place for development build or copy to /etc
for binary install.
Put drone.key
to drone and gs.key
to gs.
My primary hardware target is Realtek RTL8812au. 802.11ac capable. Easy to buy. Requires external patched driver! System was tested with ALPHA AWUS036ACH on both sides in 5GHz mode.
See https://github.com/svpcom/wfb-ng/wiki for additional info
Telegram group: (wfb-ng support) https://t.me/wfb_ng Please note, that it is only one official group.