XBLink

XBLink is a program that allows for networking between two computers using XBee modules. The aim is to send IP packets through TUN devices to create a network.

Requirements

• Two XBee modules configured properly (see below).
• Linux with access to /dev/net/tun and /dev/urandom (you will also need super user permissions for ip commands).
• g++ >= 4.7 for C++11 (modify makefile if you are using some other compiler).
• libxbee 3.0.11 installed in a place where g++ can find it.

XBee Configuration

Configure your modules using X-CTU by Digi.

• Recommended baud rate <= 57600.
• Hardware flow control (RTS and CTS).
• Both modules should be in API mode.
• API output mode should be native.

WARNING: If using XBee Series 2 (ZigBee) modules, one of the modules should be the coordinator and the other one can be either an end device or a router (watch out, end devices fall asleep, best to use router mode). Both modules should have the correct PAN ID set.

Using XBLink

Run make and then execute xblink with the arguments explained below for both computers.

xblink [device path] [type] [baud] [dest address] [tun device]

• Device path: The path to the XBee module (e.g. /dev/ttyS1, /dev/ttyUSB0, etc.).
• Type: xbee1, xbee2, xbee3, xbee5, xbee6b or xbeeZB (depending on which one you have).
• Baud: The baud rate you configured for your module.
• Destination address: The 64-bit address of the recipient module.
• TUN device: Some name for the TUN device, like tun77.

Once XBLink is running without errors, you must set the TUN device up and assign IP addresses for both computers.

1. ip link set {TUN} up
2. ip addr add {IP} dev {TUN}

where {TUN} is the name you gave to your TUN device (like tun77) and {IP} is the IP in CIDR format (e.g. 10.0.0.1/24 for first computer and 10.0.0.2/24 for the second one).

Credits

• libxbee is licensed under LGPL.
• tun_alloc from the Linux kernel documentations.

License

Copyright (C) 2015 Tekin Ozbek, Benjamin Yan

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.