Subj : Re: BBSing opportunties
To   : Avon
From : Vk3jed
Date : Sun Dec 19 2021 07:30 pm

-=> On 12-19-21 14:49, Avon wrote to Atreyu <=-

 Av> My concern is around how to build communications resilience. When we
 Av> look back at the way POTS modems and calls over landlines worked, yep
 Av> the time to get a message from A to B and a reply back was longer. But
 Av> I wonder if the overall resilience of the communication was better?

Not necessarily.  The old systems were, by necessity, hierarchical, and had
many built in SPOFs - hubs, etc.  Rerouting was a manual operation that took a
bit of coordinating over the phone.  Today, redundant feeds and virtual
networks are easy to spin up, and the software is (mostly) better at handling
these new topologies.

 Av> Now that we rely on the Internet to be the bridge between nodes and the
 Av> backbone of FTN style networks (and many other networks) I fear we have
 Av> lost a lot of the means to be resilient should a bad actor(s) come
 Av> along and hobble a city or country by taking down its Internet
 Av> connectivity. :(

For me, POTS is out (that uss the Internet too).  Locally, a "community mesh
network" using LoRa devices might be a possible solution.  These have good
range and the efficiency of BBS data transfers is ideally suited to this
medium.  But for longer distances, things get more challenging.  If only we had
a QO-100 like satellite over our side of the world.  

 Av> How best to get packets around a country or between countries without
 Av> an Internet to carry them? <-- open question for anyone really...

Short distance LoRa mesh (Meshtastic and similar networks), longer distances -
limited options (especially legal ones), the US DoD will go after us if we use
their sats. :D



.... A fool with a tool is a well-equipped fool
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