GOOD HANDOFF MATERIAL
Short messages, asynchronous replies, bulletins, compact text resources, small files, service notices, and selected machine or sensor data.
GATEWAY_LOGIN.TXT
What is Reticulum?
Reticulum is a cryptography-based networking stack designed to move data across very different communications links, including links that are slow, intermittent, local, improvised, or completely disconnected from the public internet.
It is not another chat application, and it is not tied to one particular radio. Reticulum sits underneath applications and gives them destinations, path discovery, encrypted transport, multi-hop routing, and a common way to move traffic across whatever interfaces are available.
Those interfaces can include local Wi-Fi and Ethernet, TCP or UDP over existing IP networks, serial links, packet-radio interfaces, I2P, and RNode radios using raw LoRa modulation.
THE SHORT VERSION: Reticulum is less “a network you join” and more “the layer that allows several very different networks to behave like one useful communications fabric.”
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Where the pieces actually live
ESONET HANDOFFmessages, bulletins, short text resources
NOMADNET / SIDEBANDhuman-facing Reticulum applications
FIELD SOFTWAREsensor telemetry, tools, future services
↓ ↓ ↓
LXMF
messaging / store-and-forward / machine data / bulletins
messaging / store-and-forward / machine data / bulletins
↓
RETICULUM
destinations / encryption / path discovery / transport / multi-hop routing
destinations / encryption / path discovery / transport / multi-hop routing
↓ ↓ ↓
RNODE / RAW LORAlow-bandwidth long-range radio
LOCAL LINKSWi-Fi / Ethernet / serial / packet radio
IP CARRIERSTCP / UDP / I2P / internet or private networks
MESHTASTIC IS NEXT DOOR, NOT INSIDE THIS STACK:
SolarHive nodes can eventually participate in Meshtastic traffic and also support Reticulum-capable hardware, but Meshtastic and Reticulum are separate protocols. A dual-stack node or gateway must deliberately bridge the worlds.
DESTINATIONS.NFO
Destinations, not allocated addresses
Traditional networks usually depend on addresses allocated from a managed space. Reticulum instead lets nodes create cryptographically derived destinations without coordinating address ranges, DHCP scopes, or subnets with a central authority.
A destination can announce itself to the network. Other nodes learn paths to it, and transport nodes can remember and propagate those paths across multiple interfaces.
traditional-ish thinking:
device → assigned address → router → other assigned address
reticulum thinking:
identity → destination hash → announce → discovered path → encrypted delivery
the destination can move.
the medium can change.
the application does not have to care nearly as much.
A Reticulum instance can simply send and receive for itself. A node explicitly configured as a Transport Node can also forward traffic, propagate announces, maintain path information, and help other nodes discover routes.
THE_HANDOFF.SYS
Where ESONET meets Reticulum
The full ESONET BBS does not need to squeeze itself through a LoRa straw.
The existing web client and Telnet paths remain the proper home for the interactive ANSI BBS. The proposed Reticulum Handoff is a second path for information that tolerates delay and lower bandwidth better.
KEEP ON THE BIGGER PIPE
Full interactive ANSI sessions, heavy media, large web interfaces, or anything whose usefulness depends on fast continuous round trips.
LXMF is the obvious messaging layer here. Its propagation nodes can store messages for recipients who are offline and can support distributed bulletin or discussion systems. NomadNet adds compact pages and file hosting over Reticulum for cases where a tiny text-first information service makes more sense than a conventional website.
EXISTING_PATHS.DIR
Where Reticulum overlaps existing Esoteric Networks work
ESONET
Reticulum gives ESONET a lower-bandwidth asynchronous side door. LXMF can carry messages and bulletins while the full BBS remains on web and Telnet.
SolarHive Nodes
The modular field platform already has solar power, sensors, and LoRa ambitions. A SolarHive configuration could host Meshtastic, Reticulum/RNode, or both, provided the radio and software architecture keeps the protocols distinct.
Love Burn Balloon Node
A high-position event node could become a temporary transport or gateway point between different Reticulum interfaces, giving low field nodes a better horizon while handing traffic toward faster local or IP links.
Local-First Services
Reticulum can operate on local Wi-Fi or Ethernet without depending on the wider internet. Raspberry Pi hosts and local services can therefore remain useful when the upstream connection disappears.
ATAK-Capable Nodes
Position, secure messaging, telemetry, and resilient field links strongly overlap with the ATAK research direction. Any bridge into TAK/CoT remains an integration project rather than a native Reticulum feature.
Smart Inventory Presence
LXMF can carry sensor and machine messages, so inventory state could eventually use Reticulum. The existing focused LoRa pilot does not need that complexity unless the sheds become part of a larger routed field network.
CARRIER_WEATHER.CSV
What Reticulum can ride over
| CARRIER / INTERFACE | ROLE | ESOTERIC NETWORKS RELEVANCE |
|---|---|---|
| RNode / raw LoRa | Long-range, low-bandwidth radio | Field nodes, remote coverage, future SolarHive configurations |
| Wi-Fi / Ethernet | Local high-capacity links | Pi hosts, field gateways, local-first services |
| TCP / UDP | Reticulum carried across existing IP networks | Bridge remote islands and ESONET-side infrastructure |
| Serial / KISS / packet radio | Radio and hardware interfaces outside ordinary IP | Experimental gateways and radio interoperability |
| I2P | Internet-carried Reticulum path | Potential remote connectivity without requiring a public-facing IP endpoint |
| Meshtastic | Separate neighboring mesh protocol | SolarHive / field mesh overlap requires dual-stack hardware or an explicit bridge |
HONEST_LIMITS.NFO
The network stack does not negotiate with physics
Reticulum can move arbitrary data, but the carrier still sets the practical experience.
A gigabit Ethernet path and a few-hundred-bit-per-second radio path can exist in the same network. That does not make the radio path gigabit Ethernet.
For Esoteric Networks, the low-bandwidth sweet spot is asynchronous material: short messages, status, bulletins, telemetry, compact pages, and small files. The full ANSI BBS stays on links that can actually sustain it.
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