7. Addition of a New Node

The steps needed to request the creation of a new node will be determined locally by each group in another document and each group will have to be contacted for the relevant details.

The creation of a new node will start a process of creating the recommended names in the DNS. If possible this will be done in real-time, and if this is not possible then the process should be done at least daily.

To add a new node to the network it will be useful if the following data is available:

• name: Node name (alphanumeric, name which can be used in the DNS)

• description: Free text description of the node

• admin: Name of the node's administrator

• password: encrypted password for updating data

• email: node administrator's email address

• tel: Note administrator's telephone number (*)

• location: Node's location: free format, but suggesting "Zone, town, postcode, country"

• frequency: Frequency/channel used

• type: Type of node (AP/Ad-hoc)

• comments: comments (*)

• ip-range: IP range

• dns-delegated: delegated dns : yes/no, (initially no)

• dns-main: main name server: IP address (*)

• dns-secondary: secondary name server: IP address (*)

• links: list of direct links to other nodes (*)

• internet: link to Internet? (yes/no) (*)

• created: date/time of creation of node

• deleted: date/time that node was deleted [normally blank]

• change-last: date/time of last change to node's data

• change-by: person/email of person who made the last change

• change-num: serial number of last change made

The fields marked with (*) will be optional.

All this information could be stored within the DNS, therefore eliminating the need for an external database, adding each field with the indicated name and assigning to it a TXT record. Nevertheless for privacy reasons, making all the information public, may not be desirable and therefore the use of a database may be both necessary and desirable.

For example if we know that there is a node node23 for a group ${GROUP} the command dig txt admin.node23.${GROUP} will give us:

    admin.node23.${GROUP} IN TXT "Simon Mudd"

If any of the node's information is modified the last 3 fields would be updated as appropriate.

With the data given above the following DNS information could be generated automatically:

(1) Domain Information

The following IP address records as indicated before.

    network.${NODE}.${GROUP}        IN A 10.x.y.0
    router.${NODE}.${GROUP}         IN A 10.x.y.1
    client1.${NODE}.${GROUP}        IN A 10.x.y.2
    ...
    client29.${NODE}.${GROUP}       IN A 10.x.y.62
    broadcast.${NODE}.${GROUP}      IN A 10.x.y.63
    netmask.${NODE}.${GROUP}        IN A 255.255.255.224

(2) Inverse Information

X PTR type registers permitting the inverse resolution of the hostname from the IP address:

    z.y.x.10.in-addra.arpa.    IN PTR  xxx.${NODE}.${GROUP}.