serial interface to ethernet interface

Is it possible to make a serial interface looked like a ethernet
interface? This is necessary because I have to bridge the serial
interface with my WLAN connection.

Best Regards
Kenneth


Kenneth Sparre

Kenneth Sparre wrote:

> Is it possible to make a serial interface looked like a ethernet
> interface? This is necessary because I have to bridge the serial
> interface with my WLAN connection.

You can certainly send IP packets over a serial line, though I don't know of
anything in Linux to make that line look like a NIC (I have seen such a
thing in OS/2). Perhaps you'd should give a better description of what
you're trying to do and why. Someone may know of a better way.

James Knott wrote:
> Kenneth Sparre wrote:
>
>
>>Is it possible to make a serial interface looked like a ethernet
>>interface? This is necessary because I have to bridge the serial
>>interface with my WLAN connection.
>
>
> You can certainly send IP packets over a serial line, though I don't know of
> anything in Linux to make that line look like a NIC (I have seen such a
> thing in OS/2). Perhaps you'd should give a better description of what
> you're trying to do and why. Someone may know of a better way.
>
# aptitude show ser2net
Package: ser2net
State: not installed
Version: 2.2-1
Priority: optional
Section: utils
Maintainer: Marc Haber <mh+debian-(E-Mail Removed)>
Uncompressed Size: 168k
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), libwrap0
Suggests: telnet
Description: Allows network connections to serial ports
This daemon allows telnet and tcp sessions to be established with a
unit's serial ports. Combined with a terminal emulation
like xterm or the Linux console, this can be a very simple means of
communicating with routers, other systems' serial
consoles and other equipment with a serial port. This is remarkably
similar to the reverse telnet feature of some Cisco
routers.

Upstream URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ser2net

HTH :-)

James Knott wrote:
> Kenneth Sparre wrote:
>
>
>>Is it possible to make a serial interface looked like a ethernet
>>interface? This is necessary because I have to bridge the serial
>>interface with my WLAN connection.
>
>
> You can certainly send IP packets over a serial line, though I don't know of
> anything in Linux to make that line look like a NIC (I have seen such a
> thing in OS/2). Perhaps you'd should give a better description of what
> you're trying to do and why. Someone may know of a better way.
>

We are a group at Aalborg University who are building a communication
system for an autonomous helicopter. The helicopter has a WLAN
connection and a radio modem connection. Our mission is to construct a
communication system which can switch between these to interfaces
without loosing the connection. Therefore we have a idea to make a
ethernet bridge, but before that is possible we have to make the serial
interface looked like a ethernet interface.

Best regards
Kenneth Sparre

Kenneth Sparre wrote:

> We are a group at Aalborg University who are building a communication
> system for an autonomous helicopter. The helicopter has a WLAN
> connection and a radio modem connection. Our mission is to construct a
> communication system which can switch between these to interfaces
> without loosing the connection. Therefore we have a idea to make a
> ethernet bridge, but before that is possible we have to make the serial
> interface looked like a ethernet interface.
>

Unless I'm mis-reading your needs, you can simply use PPP over a serial
port. I assume you need IP and not just ethernet. Does the software talk
IP or does it need some other protocol?

In the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.networking, in article
<WeOdneUrev-enfneRVn-(E-Mail Removed)>, James Knott wrote:

>Kenneth Sparre wrote:

>> We are a group at Aalborg University who are building a communication
>> system for an autonomous helicopter. The helicopter has a WLAN
>> connection and a radio modem connection.

>Unless I'm mis-reading your needs, you can simply use PPP over a serial
>port. I assume you need IP and not just ethernet. Does the software talk
>IP or does it need some other protocol?

ANU ppp out of the box does IPv4, IPv6, and Novell IPX. The ppp protocol
itself will allows for quite a number of other protocols, including stuff
like Appletalk and Banyan Vines. But the real capability comes in to play
with IPv4, which has over 135 different protocols available _besides_ TCP,
such as protocol 97 (0x61), a.k.a. Ethernet-within-IP Encapsulation RFC3378.

3378 EtherIP: Tunneling Ethernet Frames in IP Datagrams. R. Housley,
S. Hollenbeck. September 2002. (Format: TXT=18803 bytes) (Status:
INFORMATIONAL)

There's more capability out there than you can shake a stick at.

Old guy

Moe Trin wrote:

> There's more capability out there than you can shake a stick at.
>

You can also support almost any protocol, by using GRE over IP.

James Knott wrote:
> Moe Trin wrote:
>
>
>>There's more capability out there than you can shake a stick at.
>>
>
>
> You can also support almost any protocol, by using GRE over IP.
>
Thank you all for your response. If I use GRE over IP for the PPP
connection is it then possible to bridge the connection with a ethernet
connection?

Best Regards
Kenneth

Kenneth Sparre wrote:

>> You can also support almost any protocol, by using GRE over IP.
>>
> Thank you all for your response. If I use GRE over IP for the PPP
> connection is it then possible to bridge the connection with a ethernet
> connection?
>

I get the impression that if you provided more details about your system,
you'd be more likely to get a usable answer. Is there some reason why
bridging is so critical, that you can't use routing? What protocol are you
using to send the data?

James Knott wrote:
> Kenneth Sparre wrote:
>
>
>>>You can also support almost any protocol, by using GRE over IP.
>>>
>>
>>Thank you all for your response. If I use GRE over IP for the PPP
>>connection is it then possible to bridge the connection with a ethernet
>>connection?
>>
>
>
> I get the impression that if you provided more details about your system,
> you'd be more likely to get a usable answer. Is there some reason why
> bridging is so critical, that you can't use routing? What protocol are you
> using to send the data?
>

Yes bridging is critical. We would like to connect to the helicopter
through ssh without loosing the connection when the connection is
switching to radio modem. This is possible with ethernet bridging.


Best regards
Kenneth