2 posts tagged with "technical"

Meshtastic began with a straightforward goal: to keep hiking buddies connected in the outdoors when cell service was unavailable. What started as a simple project has grown, thanks to a passionate community pushing the boundaries of what's possible. Today, Meshtastic is used in Search and Rescue operations, off-grid communication, disaster recovery, and even grid-down scenarios. Whether it's preparing for the next flood or tornado, extending communication over the Internet with MQTT, or simply enjoying an off-grid adventure, Meshtastic has become an essential tool for many.

Designing a low-bandwidth wireless mesh network to run on low-power microprocessors with limited memory is challenging. Arguably the simplest mesh routing protocol is Flood Routing: each radio receiving a packet will rebroadcast this again, up to a defined hop limit. Although Meshtastic is based on this strategy, there are a few subtle, but significant enhancements. Most importantly, before a node rebroadcasts, it waits a short while and listens if anyone else is already rebroadcasting. If so, it will not rebroadcast again. Therefore, “Managed Flood Routing” would be a better name. For more details on the enhancements, please review our documentation.