A node in the network announces itself. Every other node stores from which node the announce message came the fastest. When a node gets a package for a node, it sends the packet to the node stored in the database which is assumed to be the fastest way.
For more details:
reticulum.network/manual/understanding.html#the-announce-mechanism-in-detail
Not bad. But every node stores an announcement for all nodes that exist? Is the idea that this can scale to billions of nodes?
This is the idea, as far as I understood. But the number of hops is limited to 128 by default. Really large networks, like a full Internet replacement may need some segmentation I guess. From the manual:
"Reticulum enables the construction of both small and potentially planetary-scale networks, without any need for hierarchical or bureaucratic structures to control or manage them, while ensuring individuals and communities full sovereignty over their own network segments."
Also:
"It is important to note that no single node in a Reticulum network knows the complete path to a destination. Every Transport node participating in a Reticulum network will only know the most direct way to get a packet one hop closer to its destination."
https://reticulum.network/manual/understanding.html#reticulum-transport
