mesh.cat/meshname
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity
Meshname, a universal naming system for all IPv6-based mesh networks, including CJDNS and Yggdrasil
1 Commit 3 Branches 4 Tags 1.1 MiB
Go 75.2%
Shell 20.2%
Makefile 2.3%
Dockerfile 2.3%
737e1d3edd
Go to file
George 737e1d3edd Add files
2020-01-19 08:01:31 -05:00
Makefile Add files 2020-01-19 08:01:31 -05:00
meshname.go Add files 2020-01-19 08:01:31 -05:00
meshnamed.go Add files 2020-01-19 08:01:31 -05:00
meshnamed.service Add files 2020-01-19 08:01:31 -05:00
README.md Add files 2020-01-19 08:01:31 -05:00

README.md

meshname

Special-use naming system for self-organized IPv6 mesh networks.

Motivation

Having a naming system is a common requirement for deploying preexisting decentralized applications. Protocols like e-mail, XMPP and ActivityPub require domain names for server to server communications.

Self-organized and trustless networks like CJDNS and Yggdrasil Network are using public-key cryptography for IP address allocation. Every network node owns a globally unique IPv6 address, and 16 bytes of that address can be translated to a globally unique domain name.

Since there is no need for a global authority or consensus, such a naming system will reliably work in any network split scenarios.

".mesh.arpa" is ment to be used by machines, not by humans. A human-readable naming system would require a lot more engineering effort.

How to resolve .mesh.arpa domains

Every third level domain in ".mesh.arpa" space represents a single IPv6 address.

Domain "aicrxoqgun7siwm42akzfsox7m.mesh.arpa" is resolved as follows:

  1. Append base32 padding "======" to the upper cased third level domain token;

    AICRXOQGUN7SIWM42AKZFSOX7M======

  2. Decode base32 string to a binary IPv6 representation;

    b'\x02\x05\x1b\xba\x06\xa3\x7f$Y\x9c\xd0\x15\x92\xc9\xd7\xfb'

  3. Convert the resulting 16 bytes to a IPv6 address structure.

    IPv6Address('205:1bba:6a3:7f24:599c:d015:92c9:d7fb')

If the server cannot translate a given domain name to IP address it should return empty response.

Every additional subdomain, e.g. "mail.xxx.mesh.arpa, xmpp.xxx.mesh.arpa" resolves to the same IPv6 address as "xxx.mesh.arpa".

Why not .ip6.arpa

There is a special domain for reverse DNS lookups, but it takes 72 characters to store a single value. The same value in .mesh.arpa takes 36 characters.

"7.c.4.9.0.d.8.f.8.d.2.a.6.4.6.7.8.e.2.d.4.b.1.a.d.4.7.8.0.0.2.0.ip6.arpa" versus "aicrxoqgun7siwm42akzfsox7m.mesh.arpa"

This saves twice amount of bandwidth and storage space. It is also arguably more aesthetically appealing, even though that's not a goal.

Why .arpa

".arpa" is a special domain reserved for Internet infrastructure. There is a similar special-use domain for home networks ".home.arpa" specified in RFC 8375. If ".mesh.arpa" will become widely used it could also be standardized, otherwise it won't break much.