A number of general configuration options are available on most interfaces. These can be used to control various aspects of interface behaviour.

The enabled option tells Reticulum whether or not to bring up the interface. Defaults to False. For any interface to be brought up, the enabled option must be set to True or Yes.

The mode option allows selecting the high-level behaviour of the interface from a number of options.

The default value is full. In this mode, all discovery, meshing and transport functionality is available.

In the access_point (or shorthand ap) mode, the interface will operate as a network access point. In this mode, announces will not be automatically broadcasted on the interface, and paths to destinations on the interface will have a much shorter expiry time. This mode is useful for creating interfaces that are mostly quiet, unless when someone is actually using them. An example of this could be a radio interface serving a wide area, where users are expected to connect momentarily, use the network, and then disappear again.

The outgoing option sets whether an interface is allowed to transmit. Defaults to True. If set to False or No the interface will only receive data, and never transmit.

The network_name option sets the virtual network name for the interface. This allows multiple separate network segments to exist on the same physical channel or medium.

The passphrase option sets an authentication passphrase on the interface. This option can be used in conjunction with the network_name option, or be used alone.

The ifac_size option allows customising the length of the Interface Authentication Codes carried by each packet on named and/or authenticated network segments. It is set by default to a size suitable for the interface in question, but can be set to a custom size between 8 and 512 bits by using this option. In normal usage, this option should not be changed from the default.

The announce_cap option lets you configure the maximum bandwidth to allocate, at any given time, to propagating announces and other network upkeep traffic. It is configured at 2% by default, and should normally not need to be changed. Can be set to any value between 1 and 100.

If an interface exceeds its announce cap, it will queue announces for later transmission. Reticulum will always prioritise propagating announces from nearby nodes first. This ensures that the local topology is prioritised, and that slow networks are not overwhelmed by interconnected fast networks.

Destinations that are rapidly re-announcing will be down-prioritised further. Trying to get “first-in-line” by announce spamming will have the exact opposite effect: Getting moved to the back of the queue every time a new announce from the excessively announcing destination is received.

This means that it is always beneficial to select a balanced announce rate, and not announce more often than is actually necesarry for your application to function.

The bitrate option configures the interface bitrate. Reticulum will use interface speeds reported by hardware, or try to guess a suitable rate when the hardware doesn’t report any. In most cases, the automatically found rate should be sufficient, but it can be configured by using the bitrate option, to set the interface speed in bits per second.

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