(disclaimer: apoligies if I've already talked about this, I tried to find
any previous messages about NDN, but couldn't.)

There are a lot of mentions in the RFBitBanger thread about WiFi and
other current wireless networking protocols, which got me thinking about
content centric networking again and I'd like to ask what others who
know more about this topic think of its suitability for a post-collapse
(or at least near-collapse) scenario.

This is the main implementation of these ideas that I know of:
https://named-data.net/

The TLDR version is: instead of overlaying an end-to-end network on a
broadcast medium why not refer to the name of the data you want.
If you are familiar with secure scuttlebutt, this is a similar idea.

The potential problems I see:

Gossip networks require nodes to have more storage.  microSD cards
should be around for a while, but they can't be rewritten too often.
If you have to build storage yourself than the situation is pretty much
hopeless, but if you can store at least a few hundred meg, then using it
to relay messages via gossip and sneaker networks might be a good use
for them.

NDN uses some cryptography to validate that a piece of data came from an
authorized source.  Performing the necessary calculations is likely too
expensive for something like a 6502, but depending on how hostile the
outside world is, having at least the option to use cryptography might
be worth it.

It's definitely more complex than simple broadcast radio, so you need
more code to implement, which again means more storage.
There is a small-ish implementations in C++ for embedded applications,
so maybe the cost in code size is not that terrible, and again,
depending on other factors, it might be worth it if it frees
communicating parties from having to be online at the same time.
And again, if the environment is hostile, easily trackable radio signals
might be a security risk that a delay tolerant sneakernet can mitigate.


So, there are at least a few cost/benefit dimensions to analyze.

ps.: I'm sending this to the DuskOS list because I think Dusk's
complexity budget might more easily allow for a protocol similar to NDN,
but I CC'd the CollapseOS list too since that's where the RFBitBanger
discussion was happening, I hope the cross posting is not too
disruptive.

> NDN uses some cryptography to validate that a piece of data came from an
> authorized source.  Performing the necessary calculations is likely too
> expensive for something like a 6502, but depending on how hostile the
> outside world is, having at least the option to use cryptography might
> be worth it.
> 

I actually, through a grant from hack club <hackclub.com>, am going to 
be working on a super low-computational power mesh networking system.

The primary use-case is probably going to be social, as I very much 
believe in the power of community post-collapse. The current version 
will basically only run on ESP32's, which are not super collapse 
friendly, but the limitations of the platform should allow for easy-ish 
ports to collapse-ready systems.

The current medium is LoRa, but the idea is to abstract away the 
actually communication medium/latency as fast as possible, so as to 
support the use of sneakernets/ham/T2 or whatever you have lying around.
The reason I'm not using dusk or collapse OS is because of the lack of 
networking/radio support.


 > Gossip networks require nodes to have more storage.  microSD cards
 > should be around for a while, but they can't be rewritten too often.
 > If you have to build storage yourself than the situation is pretty much
 > hopeless, but if you can store at least a few hundred meg, then using it
 > to relay messages via gossip and sneaker networks might be a good use
 > for them.

this could be pretty easily mitigated with allow-list based "federation" 
and gossip, where you can curate what nodes you're allowing to talk to, 
as well as potentially also acting as a "relay" for gossip, while not 
storing it long-term yourself.


So If y'all have any thoughts on this, please do shoot me / the list an 
email!

-- 
Arcade Wise (they/them)
<arcades.agency>