"n3soz" wrote in message
ups.com...
I agree that this is vital to any large-scale regional network - don't
shut out the current packet infrastructure. I know there are TCP/IP
nodes that also support AX.25 connections so this should be possible.

As to why this hasn't been done on a large scale - it would require
quite a bit of cooperation. A star topology would require several
sites with line-of-sight. Imagine a situation where four ham clubs
happen to have repeater sites that had line-of-sight, and your task was
to "sell" the backbone network concept to every club, and arrange the
logisitics of getting it all built. Besides raising funds there would
be issues of ownership and administration.


The Star network topology has been tried with Packet. It was called TexNet.

The TexNet network did something that no other large-scale ax25 packet
network ever did - It disappeared completely, leaving hardly any trace
behind to show that it once existed.. From 100+ linked nodes to none in just
a few years.

I suppose that would qualify TexNet as the worst disaster in the history of
digital amateur radio. It's untimely demise was directly related to the use
of the obsolete Star network topology. All the other large-scale packet
networks used the same Partially-Meshed network topology that the Internet
utilizes, and I notice that all of those are still around to this day.

Charles Brabham, N5PVL

Director: USPacket http://www.uspacket.org
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