[aprssig] IRLP objects, AVRS, etc

[Nick VA3NNW]

So whilst researching for a different APRS project, I stumbled across...
www.aprs.org/info/echo-irlp-win.txt which proposes APRS objects for
EchoLink, IRLP, Winlink nodes
It's pretty much www.aprs.org/info/freqspec.html for repeaters, and a
particular class of www.aprs.org/localinfo.html

It says:

> It is hoped that a central server will be written for these 
> objects as well so that they can be consistently generated into the 
> APRS-IS and then only gated back to RF locally. [...] For more info, 
> contact Mark Herson n2mh at n2mh.net

I've mailed Mark, but not yet heard back. In the meantime, I see about
150 unique IRLP objects in the last few days, which is about 10% of
them. These packets are in a WHOLE BUNCH of different formats, few
follow the specs above, many of them are not even valid objects, some of
them were MOVING, which is not completely impossible, MIGHT even make
sense for EchoLink but seems REALLY unlikely for IRLP... and in any
case, none of these are "consistently generated" by "a central server".

I also emailed Dave Cameron VE7LTD (IRLP guy) and he's not averse to the
idea of me doing this for "all IRLP nodes", essentially polling
status.irlp.net and doing the translation / gating to APRS-IS via "a
central server [...] consistently generated" etc etc. He also drew my
attention to the somewhat bigger concept of www.aprs.org/avrs.html +
www.aprs.org/avrs/AVRSspec.txt which also seems to not exist right now,
but seems to be somewhat of a superset of the above, not just "putting
all the repeaters on the map" but also using APRS messaging and position
info to "tell me my nearest repeater(s)" and even "I want to speak to
SOMECALL, please find THEIR nearest repeaters that can connect to MY
nearest repeaters and send them instructions on how to do so". This
doesn't HAVE to be the same "central server" but might benefit from
being so - they certainly both need to collect a lot of the same
repeater info.

As far as I can tell, NONE of this requires any particularly special
functionality on any of the repeaters, if this "central server" can
collect all the "repeater status", process them, spit them back out to
APRS-IS? ARVS requires CALLER and realistically CALLEE to both support
APRS Messaging, and expects enough igates to "do the right thing" with
both "local" APRS-IS objects they haven't seen on RF, and APRS Messages
to stations they have. Fair?

So... I'm interested in writing AT LEAST the first part of this - a
"central server" to put "all IRLP nodes" on the APRS map. I may later
extend to include EchoLink, DSTAR, Winlink, any other types of repeaters
that seem to offer an appropriate data feed, merging / de-duping where
possible, and as a "stretch goal" maybe to do the whole "tracking
everyone else's location and trying to route QSOs" of AVRS. I have a
very reliable very well-connected "central server" I can use, it already
takes a fairly full APRS-IS feed, and in my day job I design secure
scalable global internet/cloud infrastructures. I've also coded IRLP and
APRS apps before.

I'm posting here looking for advice... Specifically:

1) Good idea? Bad idea? What happened to Mark's "central server" or to
the AVRS server that seems to have been demonstrated at least once? Why
did they go away?

2) Beacon time - all the examples on the above pages seem to imply a
10min beacon time would be appropriate, but if I sent "only" active IRLP
nodes and "only" every 30min, it would add about 1% load to APRS-IS.
Presumably more like 3% if I did every 10min, with up-to-date "status",
MUCH more if I included EchoLink/others. I'd probably start with a
subset (selfishly, probably VA3/VE3 IRLP first) and see what it looks
like in practice. Thoughts?

3) Any other history / URLs / specs / past discussion I should be aware of?

4) Other advice? Tips? Caveats? Suggestions? Should I run away now
before it's too late?   :-)

Thanks, and 73!
Nick VA3NNW

-- 
"Nosey" Nick Waterman, VA3NNW/G7RZQ, K2 #5209.
use Std::Disclaimer;    sig at noseynick.net
Trying to establish voice contact ... please *yell* into keyboard.

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