[Spread-users] Does Spread support dynamic re-configuration?

[Ned Konz]

We're building an ad hoc wireless mesh network for vehicles.

In this network, IP routing will change dynamically depending on 
physical limitations.

Routes can disappear altogether (perhaps causing a partitioning of the 
network), or they can be changed depending on current communications 
paths.

So A may have a direct route to B, but when it moves away from B and 
closer to C, its route to B may be via C (using tunneling, perhaps). 
The cost of getting from A to B has been increased by one hop.

And, of course, communications speed can vary as well depending on 
radio conditions. The minimum speed is maybe 2400 bps, the maximum 
around 10 Mbps.

There can even be situations where communication works in only one 
direction between two vehicles. Though it's probably OK to consider 
these to be broken connections.

One of the schemes we're looking at sets up the whole mesh network as 
a class C net and just changes routing.

In this scheme, a broadcast could be more costly than a couple of 
point-to-point communications because of the tunneling. But if all 
the vehicles are close together, a broadcast is fast and cheap.

Given all of this, can Spread be coaxed to work in this network?

Would it be best to dynamically re-configure the Spread daemons?

Is this even possible? I didn't see an API for it, but I did see 
something about "partitions" in the spmonitor program.

Thanks,
-- 
Ned Konz
http://bike-nomad.com
GPG key ID: BEEA7EFE