Workshop Mesh Networks
07.02 in #Paris. Register here
https://mobilizon.fr/events/d324d913-3cf2-46cb-afe0-82703f4e1655
@joachim @NbYr #mesh #LoRa #meshtastic
Edited 239d ago
mesh
The "Walkaway Stack" video is online now! ✨
https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/J3FLC3-walkaway-stack/
It's a VERY SHORT fragment of the series I did recently at @offline in Berlin.
Hopefully it's useful as a little intro into the p2p space and it's gnarly problems!
Why haven't mesh networks taken off more fully, especially for mobile devices like smartphones? I feel like I heard a lot about MANETs a couple decades ago and then... nothing.
Given the state of society these days, I feel like more democratic and resilient networking options might be important in the near future.
I'm excited for stuff like Velid, but I'm a little surprised that we don't have better options at the lower level of the network stack for resilient networking for it to ride on.
Why are we stuck with fiddly bits of extra hardware running stuff like Meshtastic and Meshcore? Why can't a reasonably sized mesh network be constructed exclusively using already existing onboard smartphone hardware?
I understand that LoRa gets more range between sparsely populated nodes, but it seems to me that most urban and suburban environments should have plenty of density for WiFi/Bluetooth to work.
As someone that's a bit ignorant on the topic, what are the key challenges holding us back? I can think of a few, but I don't know which ones are critical:
Wireless chipset and handset manufacturers might be reluctant if they can't figure out a way to monetize it.
Cell service providers probably see it as a threat, and might want to use their influence on hardware manufacturers to suppress it.
Governments would probably view it as a threat to their surveillance and censorship goals.
A lot of the activity might end up super sketchy, similar to IPFS and Tor, and maybe nobody wants to deal with the liability or hassle.
There might be significant challenges bumping up against the theoretical and practical scalability of mesh networks.
So what's holding us back?
RE: https://post.lurk.org/@adz/116331191107386676
just remembered theres a @p2panda and #mesh networking lecture going on at @offline in an hour!