[aprssig] Worst Path of the Day

[Rick Green]

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004, Jason Winningham wrote:

> Also, that's an APRS-IS solution.  While the IS is very nice to have
> around, it is, IMO, a secondary function of APRS, and not nearly as
> important as what happens on RF.  If APRS-IS goes away today it may
> take me a while to notice, and it would not be the end of APRS.  If a
> bunch of boneheads start using seven or eight RELAYs as a path it may
> kill APRS on RF, and that would kill APRS.
>
  That's why I think the place to enforce this is in the smart-digi
software.  If digi-ned and/or uidigi were to implement a feature that the
control operator could define a 'service area', and simply refuse to digi
any packet which originates outside that area, it would stop the traffic
right where it needs to, at the edge of the aloha circle.
  This service area could be most simply defined as a circle, but would be
better if allowed for a polygon boundary definition.
  The 'dumb tnc' digis aren't really the problem, since it's WIDEn-n with
N>4 that's being reported, not the equally ridiculous
RELAY,RELAY,RELAY,WIDE,WIDE,WIDE,WIDE,RELAY,RELAY , although the smart
digis could truncate those as well, limiting their adverse impact on the
network.

-- 
Rick Green, N8BJX

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
 temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
                                  -Benjamin Franklin