[aprssig] APRS routing strategies

[Bill Vodall]

> On Feb 15, 2005, at 2:40 PM, Henk de Groot wrote:
> > This proposal is to introduce 4 new generic digipeater calls, living
> > besides the existing WIDE, TRACE and RELAY calls (thanks to Bill Vodal
> > for the names :-)). These are:
> >
> > LOCAL, REGION, WORLD and IGATE
> 
> The LOCAL/REGION/WORLD idea is simpler for the end user, but it doesn't 
> necessarily give a good feel for how far a packet will really go, since 
> the actual number of hops is based on local load and configuration, and 
> the distance between those hops is a geographical issue.  It would be 
> great for appliance operators, 

That's exactly the point.

> but a ham should be more sophisticated, 

Hams should also know CW at 20 WPM.

> IMO (at least enough to understand the idea of a hop count).

Or at least to know 5 W.P.M.   :-)


That's far more useful, interesting and productive activies involving
APRS then spending hours and hours tweaking paths and beacon rates.

When I send Email or load a web page on the Internet, I don't care what my
IP number is, the IP number of the destination, the time to live and the hop counts.
All that info is there if I want to dig, but for general day to day operation, it's
not needed.  I give it the name and the system does the magic for me. 


> Is there any mechanism to suppress/modify a bad configuration?  For 
> example, what happens if my path is WORLD,WORLD,WORLD?

Trivial with a smart digipeater like Digi_ned.   The folks configuring the
network have complete control of what it does.

> -Jason
> kg4wsv

Bill - WA7NWP