Re: [Ring] GNU Ring to replace SMS/Whatsapp

[Stefan Monnier]

> I think the big issue with text messaging and offline recipients in ring
> is really that offline delivery tends to go with servers.  With xmpp, or
> email, we expect the server to be online (up and on the Internet) all
> the time, and the user then connects to get messages.

[ Tho IIUC XMPP was designed in such a way that reliable offline delivery
  requires extra work (as in implementing various extensions of the
  base protocol) on the part of the clients and servers, so it's not
  supported everywhere.  ]

> Ring could do this for messaging, where one has a proxy ring address
> that's likely reachable, and then the mobile client could connect and
> get things.  But, that's probably going far afield of the original
> online voice call intent.  It might not be hard, sort of MX records for
> chat destinations, signed by the original key, and fetched/delivered
> once and cached.

Another option might be to design a system where the message is sent to
a random (set of) other node(s) in the mean time: the game is to then
try and make sure that the message is moved/replicated in such a way
that there's "always" at least one machine up-and-connected that has
a copy of the message.  So there should need to be some way to keep
track of how many replicas of each message are still online (and since
you can't assume machines will announce their departure before going
offline, you have to explicitly poll in order to get this information,
which could end up very costly).

Of course, some of those "other nodes" could be dedicated servers like
what you describe, in which case the need for replication to defend
oneself against the server going offline would be reduced.


        Stefan