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Deployment overview

Deployment in Reticulum means running infrastructure beyond a single client. A lone Ratspeak install talking over a public TCP transport server is a user, not a deployment. Once you put up a transport node so your friends can reach each other, run an Offline Inbox/propagation node so messages survive while peers are offline, gateway a LoRa segment to the internet, or hand out IFAC keys to lock a private mesh — you are deploying.

The four scenarios below cover the shapes most operators end up in. They are not exclusive: a community mesh usually contains several home-or-friend-group deployments, and an emergency kit is just a community mesh with the IP backhaul cut. Pick the scenario closest to what you want and follow its guide.

Pick a scenario​

Home or Friend Group — A small private mesh for a household, a band, a study group, a guild. A few Ratspeak clients, optionally one always-on transport node on a cheap VPS, a Raspberry Pi, or a desktop that's already on. IFAC pre-shared key locks the network so strangers can't join. This is the most common starting point; do not overbuild.

Community Mesh — A multi-node LoRa mesh covering a neighborhood, a campus, or a town, with one or more IP gateways for backhaul between segments. Public or semi-public, multiple operators each running their own node. Uses Boundary or Gateway interface modes and stitches local AutoInterface segments together over TCP. Pick this when you want coverage and the operator pool is bigger than one person.

Off-grid & Emergency — RNode plus handheld only, no internet, LoRa for everything, batteries and solar for power. Designed to keep working when the grid does not. Pick this for field exercises, disaster preparedness kits, or remote sites with no backhaul.

Infrastructure & Ops — The operator's reference for running an Offline Inbox/propagation node or transport router as a service: Docker and systemd deployments, monitoring with rnstatus-rs, rnpath-rs, and rnprobe-rs, and remote management. Read this once you've picked one of the above and need to run it reliably.

Common building blocks​

Every scenario reuses the same primitives. You will see them again on each page; what changes is how they are combined.

  • Transport nodes forward packets between interfaces and announce paths on behalf of the network. One always-on transport per region of the mesh is usually enough.
  • Offline Inbox / propagation nodes store-and-forward LXMF messages so a recipient who is offline still receives them when they next come online. Without one, delivery is best-effort and synchronous.
  • IFAC pre-shared key authenticates an interface so only nodes that know the key can join. This is what turns a public-by-default protocol into a private mesh.
  • RNode and LoRa provide the radio layer for off-grid and community meshes. Any RNode-compatible hardware works over USB, BLE, or a TCP bridge; firmware is loaded with rnodeconf.
  • The rnsd-rs daemon runs the Reticulum stack as a background service. It owns interfaces, routing state, and the local control surface used by the other rsReticulum tools.