RTAK

Android TAK ↔ Reticulum Network Stack Bridge

RTAK is an Android application that serves as a thin TAK server, bridging Cursor on Target (CoT) messages between ATAK clients and the Reticulum Network Stack v1.1.3. This enables TAK-based situational awareness over Reticulum's encrypted, infrastructure-independent mesh networks — including LoRa, packet radio, serial links, WiFi, and TCP/IP.

Architecture ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Android Device │ │ │ │ ┌──────────┐ TCP :8087 ┌──────────────────────┐ │ │ │ ATAK │◄───────────────► │ CotTcpServer │ │ │ │ Client │ CoT XML │ (Java) │ │ │ └──────────┘ └──────┬───────────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────▼───────────────┐ │ │ │ WinTAK │◄──── TCP ──────►│ TakBridgeService │ │ │ │ (remote) │ │ (Foreground Service) │ │ │ └──────────┘ └──────┬───────────────┘ │ │ │ Chaquopy JNI │ │ ┌──────▼───────────────┐ │ │ │ rtak_bridge.py │ │ │ │ (Python / RNS) │ │ │ └──────┬───────────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ ┌──────▼───────────────┐ │ │ │ Reticulum 1.1.3 │ │ │ │ Network Stack │ │ │ └──────┬───────────────┘ │ └───────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────┘ │ ┌───────────────────┼──────────────────┐ │ │ │ ┌─────▼─────┐ ┌──────▼──────┐ ┌───────▼───────┐ │ RNode │ │ WiFi/LAN │ │ TCP Link │ │ (LoRa) │ │ AutoIface │ │ to Remote │ └───────────┘ └─────────────┘ └───────────────┘

How It Works TAK TCP Server (CotTcpServer.java): Listens on port 8087 for TCP connections from ATAK. Speaks TAK Protocol Version 0 (plain CoT XML delimited by </event> tags).

Bridge Service (TakBridgeService.java): A foreground service that orchestrates the TCP server and the Reticulum bridge. It routes CoT events bidirectionally:

TAK → Reticulum: CoT XML from any connected TAK client is forwarded to all Reticulum peers. Reticulum → TAK: CoT XML received from any Reticulum peer is pushed to all connected TAK clients. Reticulum Bridge (ReticulumBridge.java + rtak_bridge.py): The Java wrapper calls into Python via Chaquopy. The Python module initialises the Reticulum Network Stack, creates encrypted destinations, manages links, and handles announce discovery.

CoT Helpers (cot_helper.py): Python utilities for building and parsing CoT XML messages.