PNW Network Segment of the AREDN network

The AREDN network, since its inception in 2015, has grown to over 2500 nodes worldwide. This has necessitated that it be divided into segments to keep the internal routing at a manageable level. In Western Canada and the US Pacific Northwest, the segment has approximately 100 nodes. At present, all nodes are identical in function and run the same software.

The network as it stands today is implemented as a traditional mesh network, with each node being able to see all others on the network. The existing segmentation strategy was introduced in 2020 which fulfills the manageability criterion, but in expense of individual nodes having access to the entire network.  The figure below illustrates the reach on the current network, the nodes marked with an ‘A’ are deployed and active, those with a ‘P’ are proposed.

 

The current segmenting scheme serves to limit the routing tables in each node to a manageable size, but at the expense of being able to connect with other nodes on the mainstream network, unless aided by a router. At present, setting up a proxy address on your web browser will expose other parts of the network, but this funnels through  a single point of contact, which could also be a point of failure. The spirit of the mesh network is to have redundant connections, so a better scheme has been devised.

Coming soon is a new node type called a ‘supernode’. This node has the ability and memory to see the larger network and is connected to other supernodes on the network and present only one entry to the local network routing tables. These act as edge routers for each segment, also accomplishing the goal of reducing the load on the local network, but now also enabling ubiquitous access to the remainder of the network. The rollout of these is still in the planning stages, but it is expected to be fully deployed by the end of 2024.

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