Ripple: A wireless token-passing protocol for multi-hop wireless mesh networks
researchgate.net
researchgate.net
Ripple refers to "spatial-reuse": a phenomenon where a train of packets spread from an originator uninterrupted.
With Ripple, nodes can only transmit DATA when they have received the "talking stick" (token) from the upstream originator. A downstream node can request a token with the new MAC frame: ready-to-receive. With their simulation, a node is always in either a TX, RX, or Listen state with equal proportions, so you have 1/3rd spatial-reuse.
This solves a problem in 802.11 where physical layer collision avoidance is sub-optimal for link utilization. Other protocols I am familiar with solve this with beacons to synchronize guaranteed time slots (a mode of IEEE 802.15.4), or they adopt a similar RTS/CTS scheme which can suffer from the hidden node problem.
What I cannot picture in my own head is how a packet can swim upstream: this protocol has a strong notion of upstream/downstream.
My favourite quote which can still be found in the slashdot comments “ There was nothing new about the concept - polled systems and token rings are common knowledge in communications and networking. It wasnt difficult - it only took me a weekend, and that included the time spent learning perl (it was my first go). It was even operating at the wrong layer - using UDP control messages to schedule IP traffic. Regardless of all it's limitations, it worked, so I got the other WAFreenet members involved with testing and development.”
And I'm pretty sure they paid Ryan Fugger for the name Ripple, which originally applied to his burgeoning, hippy-dippy decentralized payment system that did not require a blockchain.
I can't think of a better example of Silicon Valley's famous "disruption" than that:
1. Dude starts building some software to make it more convenient for close-knit communities of people to share goods and services with each other. In other words-- a good faith effort from a dev to add some digital convenience to happy little sharing economies.
2. Some people riding the blockchain bullshit train see value in the name "Ripple" and image associated with that name
3. Said people buy that name from Ryan
4. Original spirit of Ripple is lost to history, and a long, boring drama over preseeded coins, what "decentralization" actually means, whether it really applies to XRP, positioning as the international payment system against every other blockchain idiot trying to do the same, etc.
In other words-- we go from this:
"Hm, I wonder if graph theory can be used to reinforce local economies"
To this:
"There's gold in them there transnational borders, boys! Yeeeha!"
However with the advent of 5G and now satellite internet, it seems like high-speed wireless internet will be ubiquitous in relatively short order without the need for mesh networks. So that dream is probably dead.
Edit: Putting 2006 in the title would probably help.