Nostr Web Client

Why the 100’ rule?

shortwavesurfer2009 4mo ago 💬 2

So the routing algorithm works like this. There's something called the contention window. And the very first part is for routers and repeaters. And they will always broadcast anything they hear no matter what.

The second part of the contention window is reserved for clients to rebroadcast any transmission that they only heard one time and the farthest away node by signal strength is the one that rebroadcasts it.

The third part of the contention window is used by what are called router late nodes, which are meant to fill in coverage gaps. They will always rebroadcast whatever they hear, but they will only do so after all routers have already broadcasted, and after all clients have already broadcasted, if needed.

By using router mode at low elevation you cause something called hop gobbling where the router will broadcast the message and not end up letting it broadcast to a node that would be better positioned to broadcast it farther.

100 feet isn't a hard and fast rule, but it's a good general idea because the higher the node is, the better it would work as a router.

A node that is, say, 50 feet on a tower on top of a mountain would be a great router, even though it's only 50 feet above the ground. It's way above the valleys around the mountain, so it would work fine.

If you live in a flat land, the absolute highest towers would be the best place for routers.

Generally, if you have access to such a high spot, you will probably want to coordinate with other local mesh users in order to optimize the placement of your nodes.

Also, since routers broadcast as soon as they hear a message, a badly placed router can actually decrease the distance a message can travel across the mesh and therefore hurts everybody.

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Discussion

Silas Thornbrook 4mo ago 💬 1

Super informative. Thank you for the explanation. 👍

shortwavesurfer2009 4mo ago 💬 1

Glad I can help. I firmly believe in decentralization and meshtastic is doing a great job at starting to decentralize communications, so I would want to do my absolute best to promote it and help it grow properly. Like, sure, right now we are only using it to send text messages over long distances, but as the density of nodes increases, you can up the bandwidth and shorten the links, and you could easily start to send data over these links like files and audio and possibly even video, depending on the compression algorithms and link speeds.

db 4mo ago 💬 1

I see the possibilities as the network grows and agree that decentralization is key. Are there any resources that you’d recommend to help me figure out the scenario that I’m trying to accomplish?

I was planning on a repeater that’s waterproof and solar but now youve got me second guessing and realizing that I need more knowledge. I don’t want to do something that could make communications worse.

Thanks again.

shortwavesurfer2009 4mo ago 💬 1

I've learned what I know through just asking questions of the community, just like you have been, and watching all the YouTube videos I can get my hands on about meshtastic.

You might also run into another system called meshcore, and it's very similar to meshtastic, but at least I won't touch it, because it's not fully open source. The firmware for the devices is open source, but the application that you install on your phone to interact with it is not open source, and therefore I will not touch it.

db 4mo ago 💬 1

Right on, it’s been nice chatting. I’m sure I’ll see you around the halls of nostr. Meshtastic bedtime videos last night for me. Thanks for the fyi on meshcore, one less rabbit hole.

shortwavesurfer2009 4mo ago 💬 1

Welcome. I did think of one good resource if you're not already using it and that would be the main website at meshtastic.org. They have a ton of documentation and stuff like that on that site.

db 4mo ago

I’ve been scouring that site

db 4mo ago 💬 1

Wow, this goes way deeper than I thought. Thanks for that info. So being on the outskirts of a city that’s fairly flat, I probably shouldn’t use a repeater?

What would you think about a scenario with an off grid location with no one around but me and my homies wanting to communicate? We have a hill approximately 1 mile to the top (very steep) from our cabin. We use the area between the cabin and the top of the hill. We also venture to the river below directly opposite the hill from our cabin. Would a repeater be best at the top of this hill instead of at our cabin? Or all client nodes?

Thank you for your input. I wish you had a wallet setup to ϟ for this invaluable V4V.

🤙

shortwavesurfer2009 4mo ago

I would put a client on the top of that hill that's solar powered. That way you can communicate with the cabin and with the river on the other side of the hill. You can set it to be an unmessageable node so that nobody tries to contact it directly.

The difference between a router and a repeater is that a router shows up in the list of nodes that exist, whereas a repeater does not. So it's probably better to use router instead of repeater on a normal basis.

The only way I would suggest using router mode is if that hill is the absolute highest point around for quite a long distance.

Even then though, I would suggest using client mode at first, and if there's anybody else in the area who has meshtastic coordinate with them to see if a router would make sense at the top of that hill.