[aprssig] Packet routing, path specification.

[Robert Bruninga]

>>> Rick Green <rtg at aapsc.com> 06/23/05 1:53 PM >>>
>From ... your presentation at a Dayton, the original 
>intent of APRS was that of 'geographical  situational 
>awareness', a subset of human-to-human comms that 
>was facilitated by a broadcast protocol and a 
>'universal' digi alias ...optimized for one-to-many 
>communications. 

Yep, but I would add that is a general description.  THe
reason for "situational awareness" is so that you CAN
then see who you might need to communicate with and
it is more efficient to use a directed path to a single
recepient if your comms is one-on-one with him.

> When the user's needs are for one-to-one comms,
>there are lots of other less-crowded frequencies,
> AX.25 connected mode (locally) or potentially a 
>future long-distance backbone that uses ax.25 for 
>individual links and maybe TCP for end-to-end control?

Absolutely.  ANything that needs  more than a line or
two of text or data here or there should use a 
connection protocol

> My point is that the grafting on of a one-to-one 
>messaging protocol onto an inherently one-to-
>many broadcast protocol is the prime mistake 
>that has to be corrected.

Again, use the right tool for the job.  The messaging
in APRS was intended for an occasional line of text
to an occasional statino or bulletins or announcements
to all.  As an occasional use, it is far more efficient
to do a line here or there on the APRS channel than
it is to 1) make contact, 2), agree on a QSY on 
APRS to another freq. then 3) establish a connection 
(5 packets) then send 2 lines of text and two ACKS, 
then 4) disconnect (2 more packets), then 5) QSY
back to 144.39.

>I would like to see further development of a separate 
>network optimized for one-to-one communication.  

I agree compeltely!  We need to revitalize 145.01 as
the universal network channel and make it so thta
the NETWORK there will handle all our needs and
deliver packets where needed...

I'm looking forward to FD and seeing what we can
do on 145.01.

Bob, Wb4APR