TAK ↔ Reticulum Sideband Plugin

This Sideband plugin bridges multicast TAK messages with Reticulum networks.

It listens for CoT (Cursor-on-Target) messages on the TAK multicast group (239.2.3.1:6969) and broadcasts them over Reticulum using a PLAIN broadcast destination. Messages received on Reticulum are then forwarded back to the TAK multicast group.

Features

🛰 Uplink (TAK ➝ Reticulum)
- Receives multicast UDP packets from TAK (e.g., ATAK, WinTAK)
- Logs the data as UTF-8 (expected to be XML CoT)
- Sends the packet over Reticulum using a broadcast destination
📡 Downlink (Reticulum ➝ TAK)
- Listens to Reticulum PLAIN broadcast destination: atak_bridge.broadcast
- Logs received packet data
- Rebroadcasts it over multicast UDP to TAK clients

Usage

Requirements

Reticulum installed and running
Sideband installed and configured
TAK plugin placed in the Reticulum plugins directory

Plugin Location

Place the plugin Python file (e.g. ATAK-plugin.py) in your plugins folder.

Multicast Routing Disclaimer

Note: This plugin uses Reticulum's PLAIN broadcast destinations to forward TAK messages.

Reticulum currently does not support routed multicast or group messaging across multiple hops.

As a result:

Messages forwarded over Reticulum using broadcast destinations are limited to a single hop.
Only directly connected peers will receive multicast packets via this plugin.

Future Support

Reticulum plans to support routed multicast/group messaging in upcoming releases.

When that feature becomes available, this plugin will be able to:

Forward TAK messages across multiple hops in a Reticulum mesh
Deliver multicast messages to all group members across the entire network

Until then, only 1-hop delivery is guaranteed.