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One of the truly valuable aspects of Reticulum is the ability to use it over

almost any conceivable kind of communications medium. The interface types

available for configuration in Reticulum are flexible enough to cover the use

of most wired and wireless communications hardware available, from decades-old

packet radio modems to modern millimeter-wave backhaul systems.

If you already have or operate some kind of communications hardware, there is a

very good chance that it will work with Reticulum out of the box. In case it does

not, it is possible to provide the necessary glue with very little effort using

for example the PipeInterface or the TCPClientInterface

in combination with code like TCP KISS Server

by simplyequipped.

It is also very easy to write and load custom interface modules

into Reticulum, allowing you to communicate with more or less anything you can think of.

While this broad support and flexibility is very useful, an abundance of options

can sometimes make it difficult to know where to begin, especially when you are

starting from scratch.

This chapter will outline a few different sensible starting paths to get

real-world functional wireless communications up and running with minimal cost

and effort. Two fundamental devices categories will be covered, RNodes and

WiFi-based radios. Additionally, other common options will be briefly described.

Knowing how to employ just a few different types of hardware will make it possible

to build a wide range of useful networks with little effort.

It is useful to combine different link and hardware types when designing and

building a network. One useful design pattern is to employ high-capacity point-to-point

links based on WiFi or millimeter-wave radios (with high-gain directional antennas)

for the network backbone, and using LoRa-based RNodes for covering large areas with

connectivity for client devices.

Reliable and general-purpose long-range digital radio transceiver systems are

commonly either very expensive, difficult to set up and operate, hard to source,

power-hungry, or all of the above at the same time. In an attempt to alleviate

this situation, the transceiver system RNode was designed. It is important to

note that RNode is not one specific device, from one particular vendor, but

an open plaform that anyone can use to build interoperable digital transceivers

suited to their needs and particular situations.

An RNode is a general purpose, interoperable, low-power and long-range, reliable,

open and flexible radio communications device. Depending on its components, it can

operate on many different frequency bands, and use many different modulation

schemes, but most commonly, and for the purposes of this chapter, we will limit

the discussion to RNodes using LoRa modulation in common ISM bands.

Avoid Confusion! RNodes can use LoRa as a physical-layer modulation, but it

does not use, and has nothing to do with the LoRaWAN protocol and standard, commonly

used for centrally controlled IoT devices. RNodes use raw LoRa modulation, without

any additional protocol overhead. All high-level protocol functionality is handled

directly by Reticulum.

RNode has been designed as a system that is easy to replicate across time and

space. You can put together a functioning transceiver using commonly available

components, and a few open source software tools. While you can design and build RNodes

completely from scratch, to your exact desired specifications, this chapter

will explain the easiest possible approach to creating RNodes: Using common

LoRa development boards. This approach can be boiled down to two simple steps:

1. Obtain one or more supported development boards

2. Install the RNode firmware with the automated installer

Once the firmware has been installed and provisioned by the install script, it

is ready to use with any software that supports RNodes, including Reticulum.

The device can be used with Reticulum by adding an RNodeInterface

to the configuration.

To create one or more RNodes, you will need to obtain supported development

boards or completed devices. The following boards and devices are supported

by the auto-installer.

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1262 or SX1268

• Device Platform ESP32

• Manufacturer LilyGO

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1262, SX1268, SX1276 or SX1278

• Device Platform ESP32

• Manufacturer LilyGO

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1262, SX1268, SX1276 or SX1278

• Device Platform ESP32

• Manufacturer LilyGO

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1262 or SX1268

• Device Platform nRF52

• Manufacturer RAK Wireless

!image

• Transceiver ICs Semtech SX1262 and SX1280 (dual transceiver)

• Device Platform nRF52

• Manufacturer Liberated Embedded Systems

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1276 or SX1278

• Device Platform ESP32

• Manufacturer unsigned.io

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1276 or SX1278

• Device Platform ESP32

• Manufacturer LilyGO

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1276 or SX1278

• Device Platform ESP32

• Manufacturer LilyGO

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1276 or SX1278

• Device Platform ESP32

• Manufacturer LilyGO

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1262 or SX1268

• Device Platform ESP32

• Manufacturer LilyGO

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1262 or SX1268

• Device Platform nRF52

• Manufacturer LilyGO

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1262 or SX1268

• Device Platform nRF52

• Manufacturer Heltec Automation

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1262

• Device Platform ESP32

• Manufacturer Heltec Automation

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1262 or SX1268

• Device Platform ESP32

• Manufacturer Heltec Automation

!image

• Transceiver IC Semtech SX1276 or SX1278

• Device Platform ESP32

• Manufacturer Heltec Automation

Once you have obtained compatible boards, you can install the RNode Firmware

using the RNode Configuration Utility.

If you have installed Reticulum on your system, the T383838rnodeconf program will already be

available. If not, make sure that T383838Python3 and T383838pip is installed on your system, and

then install Reticulum with with T383838pip:

T282828

Once installation has completed, it is time to start installing the firmware on your

devices. Run T383838rnodeconf in auto-install mode like so:

T282828

The utility will guide you through the installation process by asking a series of

questions about your hardware. Simply follow the guide, and the utility will

auto-install and configure your devices.

When the devices have been installed and provisioned, you can use them with Reticulum

by adding the relevant interface section to the configuration

file of Reticulum. In the configuraion you can specify all interface parameters,

such as serial port and on-air parameters.

It is possible to use all kinds of both short- and long-range WiFi-based hardware

with Reticulum. Any kind of hardware that fully supports bridged Ethernet over the

WiFi interface will work with the AutoInterface in Reticulum.

Most devices will behave like this by default, or allow it via configuration options.

This means that you can simply configure the physical links of the WiFi based devices,

and start communicating over them using Reticulum. It is not necessary to enable any IP

infrastructure such as DHCP servers, DNS or similar, as long as at least Ethernet is

available, and packets are passed transparently over the physical WiFi-based devices.

Below is a list of example WiFi (and similar) radios that work well for high capacity

Reticulum links over long distances:

• Ubiquiti airMAX radios

• Ubiquiti LTU radios

• MikroTik radios

This list is by no means exhaustive, and only serves as a few examples of radio hardware

that is relatively cheap while providing long range and high capacity for Reticulum

networks. As in all other cases, it is also possible for Reticulum to co-exist with IP

networks running concurrently on such devices.

Reticulum can run over any kind of hardware that can provide a switched Ethernet-based

medium. This means that anything from a plain Ethernet switch, to fiber-optic systems,

to data radios with Ethernet interfaces can be used by Reticulum.

The Ethernet medium does not need to have any IP infrastructure such as DHCP servers

or routing set up, but in case such infrastructure does exist, Reticulum will simply

co-exist with.

To use Reticulum over Ethernet-based mediums, it is generally enough to use the included

AutoInterface. This interface also works over any kind of

virtual networking adapter, such as T383838tun and T383838tap devices in Linux.

Using Reticulum over any kind of raw serial line is also possible with the

SerialInterface. This interface type is also useful for

using Reticulum over communications hardware that provides a serial port interface.

Any packet radio modem that provides a standard KISS interface over USB, serial or TCP

can be used with Reticulum. This includes virtual software modems such as

FreeDV TNC and Dire Wolf.