The new internet: A peer-to-peer mesh internet built by you with walkie-talkies, laser-pens, and this SPEC..
You can become a telecom simply by installing an app on your device. While most telecoms make use of a wide array of expensive and complicated equipment, each with their own required skillset to manage, proprietary technology, and complex routing configurations, your telecom will be simple, automatic and almost free. Simply install the EKO-NET app on your PC, MAC, iPhone, Android, or IoT device and setup an interface. An interface can be radio ( Ham, GMRS / Walkie-talkies, CB ) through your audio jack or ( for WAY higher speeds ) usb, audio ( using your microphone and speakers ), optical ( using your cameras --- light sensitive or hit them with a laser from a distance ) or any other slice of the spectrum that can be sensed or emitted. Your device will listen for and establish communication with any other device in range that speaks the EKO protocol.
Your device is now a ( FREE! ) secure webserver, fileserver, and GPS beacon. You set visibility and access permissions for every service that you offer. All communications are encrypted. Your device ( or "Node" ) may act as a "Link" ( network bridge ) between interfaces / spectrums. Your device may also participate in more than one "Zone" ( network or logical group of peers sharing airtime ). Zones may be statically set by you or dynamically spawn, add members, split into additional daughter zones, or be reduced to just your device should you go out of range of others. You may define groups of peers ( whether currently part of your zone or not ) and set group permissions regarding your assets / resources.
If your device participates in multiple zones it will automatically forward "Heartbeat" packets between all available zones. Heatbeats contain ( among other things ) zone participants, a queue of requests for information or resources and response progress, airtime allocations, and descriptions of zone resources and their hashes ( fileshares, websites, gps beacons, uplinks to the traditional internet, etc ). This culminates in a sort of global DNS service. No one need pay for hosting on this internet. Uniqueness of a website or other resource is verified by the hosting node who may digitally sign all requests for the resource ( something an impersonator could not do... theoretically ).
Whether your node communicates over audio, optical, or radio: detection of peers, formation of zones, airtime allocation, and relay of information to adjacent zones is both automatic and can be manually set by node operators.
The network has peer-to-peer characteristics. For example. A website ( hosted FOR FREE! by a peer ) computes a hash after creation or modification. When you visit the site ( ie download the site into your cache for viewing ) and a third party in your zone requests the site afterwards, if you have an up-to-date version verified by the hash, then both you and the site owner cooperate to deliver the site to the third party faster. This is possible because the resource itself ( website, file etc. ) as well as the payload of each packet is hashed so as to guarantee the integrity of the transmitted resource.
You may choose to make your device's GPS coordinates available to group members, zone members, or the entire EKO-NET user base. If your node is stationary, your home perhaps, and transmits over a Ham radio frequency then you may participate with other hams to create a ground based GPS constellation in your area ( very helpful should the existing GPS service be suddenly obliterated in a nuclear war or something ). Another use case would be that your node is a mobile-app variant plugged into a walkie-talkie participating as a mobile GPS beacon. In this case your node will receive frequent GPS updates and retransmit to EKO-NET. Someone in your area that does not have a device capable of GPS may pick up your signal and that of several others. The app will consider the reported Tx strength as well as the actual Rx strength of each GPS provider node in range to triangulate it's position.
EKO-NET is not intended to replace the traditional internet. Rather, it is like a parallel universe for cheapskates, privacy advocates, DIY'ers, people who can't stop buying radio equipment, and people who ABSOLUTELY HATE BEING MARKETED TO!. It's like another try at what nerds, techies, and altruistic dreamers were attempting when the US military paid them to create the first one.
While the cross-platform app used to easily view and manage your Node is closed source, the EKO-NET protocol is published here as OpenSource under the Apache License. The protocol is described in the same language of the app front-end. The app front end is written in Typescript for Node.js but can be implemented in way cooler technologies by way smarter people here on github.
If you find this interesting please feel free to leave suggestions or recommendations for the protocol!