[aprssig] On flow control/smart beaconing...

[Curt, WE7U]

On Tue, 21 Mar 2006, Jim Lux wrote:

> One might argue that this is an anomaly.. I'm running a 5W transmitter, and
> the digis see hundreds of miles, and dozens of 50W transmitters,

It's not an anomaly.  Perhaps the real solution here is to optimize
these yet-to-be-invented smart digi's so that they keep xx% of the
air-space available for these stations to make it into the network.
That'd save having to create a separate input channel for the
low-power stations.

Just a few stations transmitting often can ruin it for everybody
this way though, particularly if they are running higher power or
have an antenna/height advantage over others.  The digi's would have
to attempt to rectify that situation too, but there's only so much
they can do in that instance.

I can see human nature getting in the way of this scheme though:  If
people try a few test transmissions and some of them don't get
digipeated because the digi's are throttling back to make airspace
available, these people will most likely crank up their power level
and/or reduce their interval until they get "enough" packets
through.

--
Curt, WE7U.   APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
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