HIP21: PoC Link Layer Upgrades

[jamiew]

Author(s): @refugeesus
Initial PR: #76
Start Date: 2020-11-09
Category: Technical

Rendered view:
https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/master/0021-poc-link-layer.md

Summary:

The goals of these changes are to:

1. Break up the PoC message to improve the reliability of PoC transmissions.
2. Improve the quality of information gained from PoC transmissions in the RF layer.

The link layer is the method by which information is send from one source to another. It sits directly above the PHY layer and below the MAC layer. For a specific definition, please see the OSI model.

[refugeesus]

Per CC, here are the ideal/robust soliton distribution implementations used in the underlying fountain coding:
https://github.com/refugeesus/statrs/tree/rfk/soliton

Here is the implementation of the fountain coding itself:
https://github.com/refugeesus/fountain/tree/rfk/ldpc

Aside from people wanting to run tests for the experience of doing it, someone could check my math on the statrs library to make sure I'm not missing some small piece. I have PR'd to that library if nobody is up for it, so maybe they will look through it a few times before we get to. The tests show the implementation working so I am inclined to believe it is correct.

[abhay]

Propose closing this as stale @jamiew?

[jamiew]

Sorry for close/open/close, bad automation