[Bugs] #1007 UNSP: Mesh icon to indicate network number

[SugarLabs Bugs]

#1007: Mesh icon to indicate network number
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    Reporter:  Yamaplos                   |          Owner:  tomeu                      
        Type:  enhancement                |         Status:  new                        
    Priority:  Unspecified by Maintainer  |      Milestone:  Unspecified by Release Team
   Component:  sugar                      |        Version:  Unspecified                
    Severity:  Unspecified                |     Resolution:                             
    Keywords:                             |   Distribution:  Unspecified                
Status_field:  New                        |  
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Comment(by garycmartin):

 Replying to [comment:4 SeanDaly]:
 > I understood Yamaplos to mean mesh networks, not all APs. On an XO, when
 away from my usual AP in the company of other XOs (but possibly showing
 other APs in Neighborhood View), all I care about is the mesh connection;
 I can identify the three icons, but I need to hunt and hover just to find
 their numbers and/or to see which one I am connected to if connected
 already.

 Ahhh! Sorry all, my brain must have lost a neuron or few. OLPC mesh 1, 6,
 11 :-)

 My understanding is that 0.82 was the last version of Sugar to create mesh
 networks? I think the only reason you end up seeing the 3 round AP like
 icons titled olpc-mesh in a 0.84 release is because there is some 0.82
 machine polluting the airwaves somewhere in your vicinity. 0.82 at boot
 tries to chat to olpc-mesh on 1, 6, 11, listening for a school server
 response. 0.84 machines seem to show this chatter like an AP (and there's
 quite a long time-out for removing an AP so it only needs to be tickled
 every 10min or so to hang about). If you have a room full of XOs running
 0.84, I don't think you'd see any of those 3 icons.

 FWIW: The last UI related mesh plan I remember seeing (just prior to
 OLPC/SugarLabs) was that the mesh icons were proposed to be removed from
 the neighbourhood view all together, as they are actually a property of
 the laptop device, not some external network entity. The functionality was
 to be replaced with a mesh device icon in the bottom frame where you would
 just pick 1, 6, 11 from its palette to connect to. Not sure I completely
 agree with that proposed change (seems to add UI complexity for little
 gain):

 http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Frame-09.jpeg

 FWIW2: Tomeu has a demo implementation for a frame device that creates a
 local-link network. This covers most of the use cases we have today (and
 allows 3 kids under a tree to collaborate). The only benefit to mesh seems
 to be packet forwarding (each node does not need to see all other nodes),
 but OLPC disabled the packet forwarding mesh feature pretty quick, as it
 starts to saturate the wireless spectrum as soon as you have 10-20 or so
 laptops within range – no good for a class/school...

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Ticket URL: <http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ticket/1007#comment:5>
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