Engineer Mark Qvist, who has been building computer networks all his life, is currently working on an unusual project – the so-called “Internet survivalist” (prepper internet). The project called Reticulum is conceived as an optimized communication tool that can be quickly deployed in the event of a system failure in telecommunications, with minimal uplift and a greater focus on encryption and privacy. The project is based on a completely new protocol, more stable than IP.
As explained by the engineer, also known online as unsignedmark, Reticulum is a system that will allow everyone to easily build a secure, stable long–range network using available tools. According to him, Reticulum can be collected practically from improvised means, including with the help of Raspberry Pi Zero. Moreover, even people with minimal experience with computers and telecommunication systems are able to do this. They will be able to build a long-range messaging system for their localities using any number of available channels to peer-to-peer communication nodes.
The network can also be extended to a neighboring locality using meter waves (VHF band). To do this, it is enough to have a modern radio and a five-minute time reserve.
Kvist is not the first to create a replacement for the conventional Internet to maintain communication on the scale of a single locality, but his project is different from other similar ones. The rest of the projects are focused, after all, on providing people with access to the Internet, but Reticulum can be used even in the event of a post-apocalyptic scenario.
The system is designed with encryption and privacy in mind, is open and is mainly intended for routing digital information between peer-to-peer communication nodes without using servers or Internet service providers.
As Kvist explained to Mtherboard, Reticulum is an attempt to create an alternative telecommunications protocol of the basic level for data networks. Therefore, it is not the network itself, but a tool for creating networks. It can be compared to the IP stack on which the Internet and almost all other networks work. In fact, Reticulum performs the same tasks as IP – it delivers digital data A to point B, but it does it in a different way.
So far, the project is only at an early stage of development, so Quist needs the help of other enthusiasts in its development and improvement.
Reticulum is available on Github. There is also an instruction that will help beginners get started on the project.