[aprssig] X-APRS: a new protocol in APRSdroid

[Pete Loveall AE5PL Lists]

So the desire is to turn APRS-IS into a cell phone tracking network with no interaction to RF (I have seen the thousands of packets per hour a single instance of APRSDroid software can generate)?  I guess I am stupid for missing the connection to amateur radio...

73,

Pete Loveall AE5PL
pete at ae5pl dot net



-----Original Message-----
Sent: Saturday, April 1, 2017 2:33 AM
Subject: [aprssig] X-APRS: a new protocol in APRSdroid

Hi all,

in the past I've often realized that APRS-IS does not work well with mobile TCP/IP - latency on 2G or 3G causes delays that skew the position reports; interruptions in the data connection are almost impossible to detect at application level, and thus cause packet drops, etc.

On the other hand, with my other project (yaxim, a mobile client for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol / XMPP), all of these problems have been solved years ago. Now I have come to the conclusion that APRS and XMPP have many things in common:

- They are both network protocols to send real-time GPS and message
  packets.
- They are mainly parsed by computers and displayed in a processed form.
- Both have a vast network of distributed servers to distribute data.
- For both, there are sophisticated web interfaces available.
- etc.

Therefore, I decided to bring together the best of both worlds and created X-APRS: a revival of APRS based on the XMPP protocol.

You can find the protocol specification with color-coded examples here:

https://aprsdroid.org/xaprs/

Starting with the upcoming version 1.4, APRSdroid will only support X-APRS over TCP/IP and HamNet, and legacy ARPS will be slowly phased out.

However, this should not be a problem, as the new protocol will also be supported by aprs2net and aprs.fi (expect separate announcements soon).
Client and server developers are encouraged to jump in and implement the protocol, using one of the many available XMPP libraries.

You can have a peek at the data stream by issuing one of the following
commands:

	telnet xaprs.aprsdroid.org 20482
	telnet 44.139.11.254 20482

73 from Germany,

Georg DO1GL

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