The built-in announce control mechanisms and the default announce_cap option described above are sufficient most of the time, but in some cases, especially on fast interfaces, it may be useful to control the target announce rate. Using the announce_rate_target, announce_rate_grace and announce_rate_penalty options, this can be done on a per-interface basis, and moderates the rate at which received announces are re-broadcasted to other interfaces.

The announce_rate_target option sets the minimum amount of time, in seconds, that should pass between received announces, for any one destination. As an example, setting this value to 3600 means that announces received on this interface will only be re-transmitted and propagated to other interfaces once every hour, no matter how often they are received.

The optional announce_rate_grace defines the number of times a destination can violate the announce rate before the target rate is enforced.

The optional announce_rate_penalty configures an extra amount of time that is added to the normal rate target. As an example, if a penalty of 7200 seconds is defined, once the rate target is enforced, the destination in question will only have its announces propagated every 3 hours, until it lowers its actual announce rate to within the target.

These mechanisms, in conjunction with the annouce_cap mechanisms mentioned above means that it is essential to select a balanced announce strategy for your destinations. The more balanced you can make this decision, the easier it will be for your destinations to make it into slower networks that many hops away. Or you can prioritise only reaching high-capacity networks with more frequent announces.

Current statistics and information about announce rates can be viewed using the rnpath -r command.

It is important to note that there is no one right or wrong way to set up announce rates. Slower networks will naturally tend towards using less frequent announces to conserve bandwidth, while very fast networks can support applications that need very frequent announces. Reticulum implements these mechanisms to ensure that a large span of network types can seamlessly co-exist and interconnect.

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