This chapter will briefly describe the overall purpose and operating principles of Reticulum. It should give you an overview of how the stack works, and an understanding of how to develop networked applications using Reticulum.

This chapter is not an exhaustive source of information on Reticulum, at least not yet. Currently, the only complete repository, and final authority on how Reticulum actually functions, is the Python reference implementation and API reference. That being said, this chapter is an essential resource in understanding how Reticulum works from a high-level perspective, along with the general principles of Reticulum, and how to apply them when creating your own networks or software.

After reading this chapter, you should be well-equipped to understand how a Reticulum network operates, what it can achieve, and how you can use it yourself. This chapter also seeks to provide an overview of the sentiments and the philosophy behind Reticulum, what problems it seeks to solve, and how it approaches those solutions.

The primary motivation for designing and implementing Reticulum has been the current lack of reliable, functional and secure minimal-infrastructure modes of digital communication. It is my belief that it is highly desirable to create a reliable and efficient way to set up long-range digital communication networks that can securely allow exchange of information between people and machines, with no central point of authority, control, censorship or barrier to entry.

Almost all of the various networking systems in use today share a common limitation: They require large amounts of coordination and centralised trust and power to function. To join such networks, you need approval of gatekeepers in control. This need for coordination and trust inevitably leads to an environment of central control, where it’s very easy for infrastructure operators or governments to control or alter traffic, and censor or persecute unwanted actors. It also makes it completely impossible to freely deploy and use networks at will, like one would use other common tools that enhance individual agency and freedom.

Reticulum aims to require as little coordination and trust as possible. It aims to make secure, anonymous and permissionless networking and information exchange a tool that anyone can just pick up and use.

Since Reticulum is completely medium agnostic, it can be used to build networks on whatever is best suited to the situation, or whatever you have available. In some cases, this might be packet radio links over VHF frequencies, in other cases it might be a 2.4 GHz network using off-the-shelf radios, or it might be using common LoRa development boards.

At the time of release of this document, the fastest and easiest setup for development and testing is using LoRa radio modules with an open source firmware (see the section Reference Setup), connected to any kind of computer or mobile device that Reticulum can run on.

The ultimate aim of Reticulum is to allow anyone to be their own network operator, and to make it cheap and easy to cover vast areas with a myriad of independent, interconnectable and autonomous networks. Reticulum is not one network, it is a tool to build thousands of networks. Networks without kill-switches, surveillance, censorship and control. Networks that can freely interoperate, associate and disassociate with each other, and require no central oversight. Networks for human beings. Networks for the people.