mirror of
https://github.com/markqvist/Reticulum.git
synced 2024-11-30 09:10:18 +00:00
258 lines
13 KiB
HTML
258 lines
13 KiB
HTML
|
|
|||
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
<html>
|
|||
|
<head>
|
|||
|
<meta charset="utf-8" />
|
|||
|
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
|
|||
|
<title>Building Networks — Reticulum Network Stack 0.2.6 beta documentation</title>
|
|||
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/pygments.css" />
|
|||
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/classic.css" />
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
<script data-url_root="./" id="documentation_options" src="_static/documentation_options.js"></script>
|
|||
|
<script src="_static/jquery.js"></script>
|
|||
|
<script src="_static/underscore.js"></script>
|
|||
|
<script src="_static/doctools.js"></script>
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
<link rel="index" title="Index" href="genindex.html" />
|
|||
|
<link rel="search" title="Search" href="search.html" />
|
|||
|
<link rel="next" title="Supported Interfaces" href="interfaces.html" />
|
|||
|
<link rel="prev" title="Using Reticulum on Your System" href="using.html" />
|
|||
|
</head><body>
|
|||
|
<div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation">
|
|||
|
<h3>Navigation</h3>
|
|||
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
<li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px">
|
|||
|
<a href="genindex.html" title="General Index"
|
|||
|
accesskey="I">index</a></li>
|
|||
|
<li class="right" >
|
|||
|
<a href="interfaces.html" title="Supported Interfaces"
|
|||
|
accesskey="N">next</a> |</li>
|
|||
|
<li class="right" >
|
|||
|
<a href="using.html" title="Using Reticulum on Your System"
|
|||
|
accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li>
|
|||
|
<li class="nav-item nav-item-0"><a href="index.html">Reticulum Network Stack 0.2.6 beta documentation</a> »</li>
|
|||
|
<li class="nav-item nav-item-this"><a href="">Building Networks</a></li>
|
|||
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
<div class="document">
|
|||
|
<div class="documentwrapper">
|
|||
|
<div class="bodywrapper">
|
|||
|
<div class="body" role="main">
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
<div class="section" id="building-networks">
|
|||
|
<span id="networks-main"></span><h1>Building Networks<a class="headerlink" href="#building-networks" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
|
|||
|
<p>This chapter will provide you with the knowledge needed to build networks with
|
|||
|
Reticulum, which can often be easier than using traditional stacks, since you
|
|||
|
don’t have to worry about coordinating addresses, subnets and routing for an
|
|||
|
entire network that you might not know how will evolve in the future. With
|
|||
|
Reticulum, you can simply add more segments to your network when it becomes
|
|||
|
necesarry, and Reticulum will handle the convergence of the entire network
|
|||
|
automatically.</p>
|
|||
|
<div class="section" id="concepts-overview">
|
|||
|
<h2>Concepts & Overview<a class="headerlink" href="#concepts-overview" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
|
|||
|
<p>There are important points that need to be kept in mind when building networks
|
|||
|
with Reticulum:</p>
|
|||
|
<blockquote>
|
|||
|
<div><ul>
|
|||
|
<li><div class="line-block">
|
|||
|
<div class="line">In a Reticulum network, any node can autonomously generate as many adresses
|
|||
|
(called <em>destinations</em> in Reticulum terminology) as it needs, which become
|
|||
|
globally reachable to the rest of the network. There is no central point of
|
|||
|
control over the adress space.</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</li>
|
|||
|
<li><div class="line-block">
|
|||
|
<div class="line">Reticulum was designed to handle both very small, and very large networks.
|
|||
|
While the adress space can support billions of endpoints, Reticulum is
|
|||
|
also very useful when just a few devices needs to communicate.</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</li>
|
|||
|
<li><div class="line-block">
|
|||
|
<div class="line">Reticulum provides sender/initiator anonymity by default. There is no way
|
|||
|
to filter traffic or discriminate it based on the source of the traffic.</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</li>
|
|||
|
<li><div class="line-block">
|
|||
|
<div class="line">All traffic is encrypted using ephemeral keys generated by an Elliptic Curve
|
|||
|
Diffie-Hellman key exchange on Curve25519. There is no way to inspect traffic
|
|||
|
contents, and no way to prioritise or throttle certain kinds of traffic.
|
|||
|
All transport and routing layers are thus completely agnostic to traffic type,
|
|||
|
and will pass all traffic equally.</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</li>
|
|||
|
<li><div class="line-block">
|
|||
|
<div class="line">Reticulum can function both with and without infrastructure. When <em>transport
|
|||
|
nodes</em> are available, they can route traffic over multiple hops for other
|
|||
|
nodes, and will function as a distributed cryptographic keystore. When there
|
|||
|
is no transport nodes available, all nodes that are within communication range
|
|||
|
can still communicate.</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</li>
|
|||
|
<li><div class="line-block">
|
|||
|
<div class="line">Every node can become a transport node, simply by enabling it in it’s
|
|||
|
configuration, but there is no need for every node on the network to be a
|
|||
|
transport node. Letting every node be a transport node will in most cases
|
|||
|
degrade the performance and reliability of the network.</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<blockquote>
|
|||
|
<div><p>In general terms, if a node is stationary, well-connected and kept running
|
|||
|
most of the time, it is a good candidate to be a transport node. For optimal
|
|||
|
performance, a network should contain the amount of transport nodes that
|
|||
|
provides connectivity to the intended area / topography, and not many more
|
|||
|
than that.</p>
|
|||
|
</div></blockquote>
|
|||
|
</li>
|
|||
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
</div></blockquote>
|
|||
|
<p>Reticulum allows you to mix very different kinds of networking mediums into a
|
|||
|
unified mesh, or to keep everything within one medium. You could build a “virtual
|
|||
|
network” running entirely over the Internet, where all nodes communicate over TCP
|
|||
|
and UDP “channels”. You could also build such a network using MQTT or ZeroMQ as
|
|||
|
the underlying carrier for Reticulum.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>However, most real-world networks will probably involve either some form of
|
|||
|
wireless or direct hardline communications. To allow Reticulum to communicate
|
|||
|
over any type of medium, you must specify it in the configuration file, by default
|
|||
|
located at <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">~/.reticulum/config</span></code>.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>Any number of interfaces can be configured, and Reticulum will automatically
|
|||
|
decide which are suitable to use in any given situation, depending on where
|
|||
|
traffic needs to flow.</p>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<div class="section" id="example-scenarios">
|
|||
|
<h2>Example Scenarios<a class="headerlink" href="#example-scenarios" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
|
|||
|
<p>This section illustrates a few example scenarios, and how they would, in general
|
|||
|
terms, be planned, implemented and configured.</p>
|
|||
|
<div class="section" id="interconnected-lora-sites">
|
|||
|
<h3>Interconnected LoRa Sites<a class="headerlink" href="#interconnected-lora-sites" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
|
|||
|
<p>An organisation wants to provide communication and information services to it’s
|
|||
|
members, which are located mainly in three separate areas. Three suitable hill-top
|
|||
|
locations are found, where the organisation can install equipment: Site A, B and C.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>Since the amount of data that needs to be exchanged between users is mainly text-
|
|||
|
based, the bandwidth requirements are low, and LoRa radios are chosen to connect
|
|||
|
users to the network.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>Due to the hill-top locations found, there is radio line-of-sight between site A
|
|||
|
and B, and also between site B and C. Because of this, the organisation does not
|
|||
|
need to use the Internet to interconnect the sites, but purchases four Point-to-Point
|
|||
|
WiFi based radios for interconnecting the sites.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>At each site, a Raspberry Pi is installed to function as a gateway. A LoRa radio
|
|||
|
is connected to the Pi with a USB cable, and the WiFi radio is connected to the
|
|||
|
ethernet port of the Pi. At site B, two WiFi radios are needed to be able to reach
|
|||
|
both site A and site C, so an extra ethernet adapter is connected to the Pi in
|
|||
|
this location.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>Once the hardware has been installed, Reticulum is installed on all the Pis, and at
|
|||
|
site A and C, one interface is added for the LoRa radio, as well as one for the WiFi
|
|||
|
radio. At site B, an interface for the LoRa radio, and one interface for each WiFi
|
|||
|
radio is added to the Reticulum configuration file. The transport node option is
|
|||
|
enabled in the configuration of all three gateways.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>The network is now operational, and ready to serve users across all three areas.
|
|||
|
The organisation prepares a LoRa radio that is supplied to the end users, along
|
|||
|
with a Reticulum configuration file, that contains the right parameters for
|
|||
|
communicating with the LoRa radios installed at the gateway sites.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>Once users connect to the network, anyone will be able to communicate with anyone
|
|||
|
else across all three sites.</p>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<div class="section" id="bridging-over-the-internet">
|
|||
|
<h3>Bridging Over the Internet<a class="headerlink" href="#bridging-over-the-internet" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
|
|||
|
<p>As the organisation grows, several new communities form in places too far away
|
|||
|
from the core network to be reachable over WiFi links. New gateways similar to those
|
|||
|
previously installed are set up for the new communities at the new sites D and E, but
|
|||
|
they are islanded from the core network, and only serve the local users.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>After investigating the options, it is found that it is possible to install an
|
|||
|
Internet connection at site A, and an interface on the Internet connection is
|
|||
|
configured for Reticulum on the Raspberry Pi at site A.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>A member of the organisation at site D, named Dori, is willing to help by sharing
|
|||
|
the Internet connection she already has in her home, and is able to leave a Raspberry
|
|||
|
Pi running. A new Reticulum interface is configured on her Pi, connecting to the newly
|
|||
|
enabled Internet interface on the gateway at site A. Dori is now connected to both
|
|||
|
all the nodes at her own local site (through the hill-top LoRa gateway), and all the
|
|||
|
combined users of sites A, B and C. She then enables transport on her node, and
|
|||
|
traffic from site D can now reach everyone at site A, B and C, and vice versa.</p>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<div class="section" id="growth-and-convergence">
|
|||
|
<h3>Growth and Convergence<a class="headerlink" href="#growth-and-convergence" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
|
|||
|
<p>As the organisation grows, more gateways are added to keep up with the growing user
|
|||
|
base. Some local gateways even add VHF radios and packet modems to reach outlying users
|
|||
|
and communities that are out of reach for the LoRa radios and WiFi backhauls.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>As more sites, gateways and users are connected, the amount of coordination required
|
|||
|
is kept to a minimum. If one community wants to add connectivity to the next one
|
|||
|
over, it can simply be done without having to involve everyone or coordinate address
|
|||
|
space or routing tables.</p>
|
|||
|
<p>With the added geographical coverage, the operators at site A one day find that
|
|||
|
the original internet bridged interfaces are no longer utilised. The network has
|
|||
|
converged to be completely self-connected, and the sites that were once poorly
|
|||
|
connected outliers are now an integral part of the network.</p>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
<div class="clearer"></div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation">
|
|||
|
<div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper">
|
|||
|
<h3><a href="index.html">Table of Contents</a></h3>
|
|||
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Building Networks</a><ul>
|
|||
|
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#concepts-overview">Concepts & Overview</a></li>
|
|||
|
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#example-scenarios">Example Scenarios</a><ul>
|
|||
|
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#interconnected-lora-sites">Interconnected LoRa Sites</a></li>
|
|||
|
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#bridging-over-the-internet">Bridging Over the Internet</a></li>
|
|||
|
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#growth-and-convergence">Growth and Convergence</a></li>
|
|||
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
</li>
|
|||
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
</li>
|
|||
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
<h4>Previous topic</h4>
|
|||
|
<p class="topless"><a href="using.html"
|
|||
|
title="previous chapter">Using Reticulum on Your System</a></p>
|
|||
|
<h4>Next topic</h4>
|
|||
|
<p class="topless"><a href="interfaces.html"
|
|||
|
title="next chapter">Supported Interfaces</a></p>
|
|||
|
<div role="note" aria-label="source link">
|
|||
|
<h3>This Page</h3>
|
|||
|
<ul class="this-page-menu">
|
|||
|
<li><a href="_sources/networks.rst.txt"
|
|||
|
rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li>
|
|||
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<div id="searchbox" style="display: none" role="search">
|
|||
|
<h3 id="searchlabel">Quick search</h3>
|
|||
|
<div class="searchformwrapper">
|
|||
|
<form class="search" action="search.html" method="get">
|
|||
|
<input type="text" name="q" aria-labelledby="searchlabel" />
|
|||
|
<input type="submit" value="Go" />
|
|||
|
</form>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<script>$('#searchbox').show(0);</script>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<div class="clearer"></div>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="related navigation">
|
|||
|
<h3>Navigation</h3>
|
|||
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
<li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px">
|
|||
|
<a href="genindex.html" title="General Index"
|
|||
|
>index</a></li>
|
|||
|
<li class="right" >
|
|||
|
<a href="interfaces.html" title="Supported Interfaces"
|
|||
|
>next</a> |</li>
|
|||
|
<li class="right" >
|
|||
|
<a href="using.html" title="Using Reticulum on Your System"
|
|||
|
>previous</a> |</li>
|
|||
|
<li class="nav-item nav-item-0"><a href="index.html">Reticulum Network Stack 0.2.6 beta documentation</a> »</li>
|
|||
|
<li class="nav-item nav-item-this"><a href="">Building Networks</a></li>
|
|||
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<div class="footer" role="contentinfo">
|
|||
|
© Copyright 2021, Mark Qvist.
|
|||
|
Created using <a href="https://www.sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> 4.0.1.
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
</body>
|
|||
|
</html>
|