Reticulum. To Be Or Not To Be

So with our efforts in the Meshtastic and MeshCore, in learning and obtaining an off-grid network for communications, I came across a post on one of the sites that referred to a networking protocol named Reticulum. The thing is, Reticulum isn’t a bound system like both Meshtastic and MeshCore, and should be thought more of a system that is an alternate ‘internet’.

The Reticulum core principle is ‘security,’ in that every ‘node’ has to pass encrypted data or it is ignored. The designers of Reticulum haven’t built their system with the limitations that come with Meshtastic and MeshCore, in that it is a system of networking, not a system of ‘communication’ which is dependent upon one platform.

I am nowhere near an expert in networking, in general, however I have enough experience with networking to say that what I have read directly from Reticulum’s website is promising. The design principles of Reticulum turn traditional networking upside down, with respect to addressing and security. I will attempt to explain it in layman’s terms here, so that those of us who aren’t familiar with networking protocols can hang, and with enough technicality in mind that those of us who understand networking a little better aren’t bored stiff, but bear with me. As always, if I say something in this post that you have found to be inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise not correct, please speak out and I will make corrections, but please assume that the information I’m presenting is to be as simplified as possible so that the ‘in the weeds’ isn’t over anyone’s head.

Traditional Networking

If you visualize traditional networking as very similar to the postal system that has been built over centuries, your ability to understand computer networking, IT, and internet structure will be better than you think.

When you write a letter or other form of communication that you wish to send to another person, you have to have known information that you can then attach to the form of communication so that it reaches the person you are sending it to. We call this ‘addressing an envelope’ in the traditional sense. In the accepted format that has been passed down for centuries, the intended recipient of the letter is placed prominently on the front center portion of the envelope, with the return address at the top left of the envelope and a postage stamp placed on the top right of the envelope. The form of communication is then placed into a physical box to be collected by our mailman and transported to the sorting center which handles your postal mail. They then determine the destination of the envelope by reading the address written on the piece of mail and then send that piece of mail to the sorting center that handles the delivery to the intended address. Once that sorting center has received the piece of mail, the address is again read, and the piece of mail is sorted to the carrier with which it gets delivered. This has worked for centuries, with exceptions.

Those exceptions include whether or not the intended recipient still lives that the targeted address. In the event that recipient doesn’t live at the address anymore, the piece of mail simply gets returned as unreachable, right? Well, maybe, it first gets delivered to the intended address, and then the occupants of that address then either return it, or, well, simply discard it.

Internet routing is very similar to the postal system, in that each device that has interaction with the traditional internet has an address, called an internet protocol (IP) address. Each time we visit a website, such as the one you’re reading this information on, the internet postal service, called Domain Name Service (or Servers) then tells your device what IP address to look for in the sea of IP addresses attached to the internet network. In most cases this works fine, and you’re able to read the information that you’re reading now. The trouble that arises out of the system of networking that has been placed into service and accepted over the years is in movement of a device. IP addresses are set by region and internet service providers’ internal protocols. This means that if you have an address of ‘123XYZ Anywhere Street’ and you move your computer next door to ‘124XYZ Anywhere Street’ any traffic that was sent to you at the 123 address now dies in the ether because it is not deliverable. Most often, we don’t even notice this, however in a networking sense, this creates issues that are unseen to most of us. Those issues are that there are a finite (limited) number of addresses that can be used. The limited nature of addressing has made the industry contemplate how to fix the problem of running out of possible addresses. We now have two versions of IP addressing that have become prevalent in traditional networking. IPV4 and IPV6. In IPV4, only integers (numbers) are used, separated by a decimal between each group of three integers to create a ‘unique’ address. 192.168.0.1 (typically reserved for INTERNAL networking) is an example of an IPV4 address. To solve the mathematical problem of running out of IP addresses, IPV6 was established, which allows for both integers and alphabetical characters to be implemented into the addressing. Well, that’s one way to solve the issue.

But I’m talking about a networking protocol that supposedly turned traditional networking ideology on it’s head, right? Yes. Yes, I am. Reticulum designers have taken the addressing problem on head first. We, as individuals, have our own name that was given to us at birth. We all experienced the moment in life when growing up where our mother would yell our name at the top of her lungs, and we KNEW the message was directed at us, making us pay attention immediately. Reticulum’s protocol is very similar.

Each device that is placed into service on the Reticulum protocol is addressed by it’s unique name, which is then encrypted as its address. BillyBobThornBush becomes XYZ123b93… (whatever it would hash to be, actually) and that is the permanent address to the device. Regardless of WHERE the device is placed in the network, all traffic destined to that device will be sent to that device, received by the device, and considered delivered, as long as the device is listening for traffic. The address will never change, regardless of where in the network the device is placed. If you think of it as the old postal problem, it’s as if everyone ‘in town’ knows you, and then tells the postal carrier, ‘he’s over there’.

Just as our current internet technology works, the traffic is routed from one ‘node’ to the next until it is delivered, however unlike our current internet technology, even if the physical location changes mid-stream. We’re no longer looking for 192.168.0.1, we’re looking for BillyBobThornBush, period, end of story. Unless you are BillyBobThornBush, you will also not be able to read or interpret the message sent, because you don’t have the ability to open the envelope (the encryption key), which is not the case with traditional networking.

Traditional networking uses encryption, however that encryption is done after the fact, which is a completely different subject that would take ten posts to explain. With that said, Reticulum will not allow any traffic to even enter the system unless it is encrypted. Unencrypted traffic is simply ignored or dropped, unlike traditional networking.

For those of us interested in the off-grid capabilities, Reticulum offers us a system that is truly independent and not reliant on any centralized point of transfer. Like LoRa protocol, it allows us to mesh networks without sharing the information that travels over them. When one thinks of the current state of the internet, the euphemisms that are used to sell us products, like all euphemisms, are put out there so that we feel oh so good about buying those products (or ideas). When one thinks of the latest, one certainly thinks of ‘The Cloud’ or ‘cloud computing’ at some point. Naming it ‘cloud computing’ is much better than naming it ‘put your stuff through our network so we can collect data’. ‘The Cloud’ isn’t some mythical place, it is a collection of other peoples’ computers and devices that collect your information. Thus, Reticulum offers us a chance at once again controlling our data, our routing, and our privacy among ‘our’ network, which the internet was always supposed to be.

I will be learning how to use and implement Reticulum, and hope that you are interested in taking the journey with me. It is not like Meshtastic or MeshCore in the sense that it is designed for simple messaging. It is designed as a network strategy, and the LoRa radios we use for Meshtastic and MeshCore are simply one aspect of the devices we can use for the purpose of networking with Reticulum.

I haven’t had a project peak my interest in a long time like Reticulum has, and I am standing just at the precipice of the cliff looking down at the technology from afar. But I have attached the ropes and rappelling gear, and I am about to dive off the cliff into the crevasse of understanding and implementing Reticulum for some of our ‘services’ and ‘stuff’. If you’re interested in helping me understand and implement it, awesome, I’m all about teamwork! If you just want to enjoy the fruits of the research and all that, awesome, I’m all about teamwork!

More can be found on the subject at this website. It ain’t perty, but it’s full of information we need to absorb!