Mesh: Not Just for Your Home Network
This decentralized communication network operates independently of cell towers, providing security, autonomy, and reliability; here is how you can plug in!
by Rob Ott
For months, I’d been hearing about mesh networks as various friends started getting into learning about them and attending educational events (often held at DECAY, which, along with so many other good things can be found on the DECAY community events calendar).
I had a long career in tech at the State, during which I studiously avoided becoming a supervisor and also, despite knowing many good humans who worked in this field, also avoided hardware or network setup. My brain is great at a lot of things. Understanding how physical things are built, configured, or operate is not one of them. Mesh falls into this category and therefore not intuitive to me. So, I kept asking people in mesh-land for a simple, easy intro document but none were offered. And as you know when you repeatedly ask for things like that, sometimes it is suggested that you create what it is that you are looking for. This is my bare bones attempt. With the research I have done so far, it is clear that I could spend many hours diving into this rabbit hole because there is so much more to learn. Here’s what I’ve got.
What is it?
Mesh is technically a type of network topology. You can buy mesh devices for your house to extend your Wi-Fi, but that isn’t the mesh THIS article is about. This article is about the build-out/implementation of a mesh long-range radio network, which doesn’t rely on cell towers or the internet to operate. This kind of network doesn’t have the bandwidth to transmit massive quantities of data (like streaming videos or even voice), but can transmit text and, when enabled, GPS coordinates. As you might imagine, this makes it very useful for emergency situations where cell towers and the internet might be down or unavailable, and also for remote area situations where those services do not exist in the first place.
Why are so many people increasingly talking about Mesh and working to expand and improve it?
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but our current world situation is…fraught, fragile, pretty unnerving. It feels like we’re getting squeezed from a lot of different directions whether it’s the crazy cost of living increases, how our data (including surveillance) is being sold everywhere to everyone, or maybe a data center will pop up down the way sucking up all our power and water but we won’t know about it because our elected officials signed non-disclosure agreements. It is getting harder to trust in systems and corporations, and it feels like there’s not a lot we have control over. Plus, many of us are seeking to build true community and that can feel similar to building out a network. And, there are humans who just enjoy tinkering and trying to make stuff work. These are just some of the factors driving the current interest in mesh radio networks.
“Mesh networking gives communities a communication lifeline that doesn’t depend on cell towers or the grid. When a disaster knocks out infrastructure, or in remote backcountry where coverage never existed, mesh devices route messages peer-to-peer, hopping from node to node to keep people connected. For emergency preparedness, that means neighborhoods can coordinate and share critical information even when the network goes dark. For search and rescue teams, it means maintaining contact across canyons, forests, and dead zones where a phone is just dead weight. it’s resilient, decentralized, and exactly the kind of tool that could prove its worth when everything else fails.” - Grace, SW Olympia Neighborhood Association (SWONA) treasurer and Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) Program and Events Coordinator
“Real community safety means we don’t depend on infrastructure we don’t control. Meshcore is a radio network built by us, for us. It keeps neighbors talking to neighbors, without a carrier, without a capitalist company, without permission.” - Kenny, Oly Whistles
Some people are researching it for Continuity of Operations or Emergency Preparedness planning, others are looking for ways to take back some control from big tech or monopolistic companies, and some are people whose brains function very differently than mine and who LOVE digging into details (such as the finer details of which antenna to buy and where/how to place it to live its best life) and figuring out ways to not only set up but improve upon the hardware (and firmware) designs that have been improving this network rapidly over the past year.
More details? What is involved in this network?
There are two different approaches here — one is meshtastic which is better for shorter distances and the other is meshcore which is better for longer distances. You can use both, or decide which one meets your needs or interests better.
The hardware falls into a few categories:
Repeaters: These are essentially optimally located relay nodes, with antennas that allow them to catch and send the radio transmissions they pick up onto the next node and the next node and the next node until they reach their intended destination. They need a source of power, whether battery or solar.
Sensors: These are add-on extras that gather specific info so it can be included - for example, weather details.
Node, or companion devices: These are the little bluetooth devices that you pair with your phone. Each node will have it’s own ID, so if you have a few (like one for the car, and one for the house), you won’t have the same ID on each of them.
Software and Firmware
Phone apps allow you to pair and setup your companion device/node and send/receive messages. They also allow you to check coverage, follow particular channels (in meshcore) or rooms (in meshtastic) that may interest you.
There are also online apps available to get a sense of network performance (https://analyzer.cascadiamesh.org/#/home) or allow you to look around and see all the different repeaters in your area such as https://meshmapper.net/ (zoom in and you’ll get to the PNW region to see the Cascadia mesh network). Think of this as looking at a carrier map to identify where you will and won’t have cell phone coverage.
There is firmware installed on the devices that will occasionally need to be upgraded, just like there is firmware on the home router you probably never upgrade. Just like any other firmware/software, it is occasionally updated to fix things or provide improved functionality. You’ll get notified and can decide which upgrades you might want and when. Once you upgrade you’ll benefit from all the changes made since the last time you upgraded. (In the last year, upgrades have drastically reduced the use of power, making batteries in these devices last way longer).
All the coding (firmware and software) is open source — made for/by a community (not a corporation) and is free. The community determines what it will work on and how it will evolve.
Want to get involved/learn more?
I am at nearly the end of what I feel confident enough to share, as I am just now exploring my new meshcore app and newly purchased companion device. But check the DECAY calendar and you’ll see that there’s a decentralized tech meeting on the first Wednesday evening of each month (mesh is a subtopic, but you can also learn about getting off of Google, better digital security, and other topics). There is also a dedicated mesh workshop on the second Sunday afternoon of each month. That’s where I learned most of what I’ve shared here, and where I purchased a companion device.
Also, they regularly schedule additional workshops that assemble devices or go into more detail about particular topics (which antenna should I buy, are there easy ways to upgrade firmware without crawling onto my roof, etc). Again, all of this is driven by community. The people at DECAY are so knowledgeable and so welcoming. I fully anticipate I will be going back to learn more. Maybe I will meet some of you there too!