Is it feasible to create a mesh network using Bluetooth on participating smart phones? In crowded places like college campuses, we could run campus IM on it for instance
Meshtastic: An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network
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Re: Meshtastic: An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network
#32We used it at Burning Man in 2023. Burning Man is hard on gear and a surprisingly busy RF environment. It was reliable and has a good user experience. I really liked it.
Re: Meshtastic: An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network
#33Isn't there an open source Android mesh network? Based on Wifi or Bluetooth? I thought I heard about mesh networks being used in protests years ago...? Do we still not have something viable?
I've heard of Briar and Bridgeify and Serval and Meshenger, what others are there?
Re: Meshtastic: An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network
#34Re: Meshtastic: An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network
#35Isn't there an open source Android mesh network? Based on Wifi or Bluetooth? I thought I heard about mesh networks being used in protests years ago...? Do we still not have something viable?
Manyverse can use WiFi for decentralised social networking - https://www.manyver.se/. They're currently in the middle of a rewrite of the backend and a protocol switch away from Secure Scuttlebutt to their own protocol currently named PPPPP.
Reticulum/Sideband offers a P2P messaging system over WiFi or other mediums - https://github.com/markqvist/sideband
Re: Meshtastic: An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network
#36Isn't there an open source Android mesh network? Based on Wifi or Bluetooth? I thought I heard about mesh networks being used in protests years ago...? Do we still not have something viable?
I've heard of Briar and Bridgeify and Serval and Meshenger, what others are there?
Re: Meshtastic: An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network
#37Before anyone gets too excited about this - half duplex/TDD-like mesh radio systems with omnidirectional antennas are one of the LEAST efficient possible ways of building a wireless village/town scale IP network. The thing about an omni antenna talking to another omni is that an omnidirectional antenna is also a 360 degree noise gatherer, and gathers traffic/timeslot occuyping stuff that might be coming from other, s…
That's a whole lot of commenting from someone who clearly doesn't know what meshtastic is. It's text messaging with channels, some provisions for nodes transmitting sensor data, and some location data. It's not intended to provide TCP/IP networking.
DIY things capable of a few hundred kbps and text only are a very niche application. "Mesh" at very low data rates and duty cycles has very good purposes when purchased in a fully packaged single purpose industrial/embedded system from a vendor with support, such as how electrical grid operators implement some forms of smart meters.
Re: Meshtastic: An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network
#38We used it at Burning Man in 2023. Burning Man is hard on gear and a surprisingly busy RF environment. It was reliable and has a good user experience. I really liked it.
Re: Meshtastic: An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network
#39We used it at Burning Man in 2023. Burning Man is hard on gear and a surprisingly busy RF environment. It was reliable and has a good user experience. I really liked it.
Re: Meshtastic: An open source, off-grid, decentralized, mesh network
#40Isn't there an open source Android mesh network? Based on Wifi or Bluetooth? I thought I heard about mesh networks being used in protests years ago...? Do we still not have something viable?
And it was discontinued in 2018 and not open source.