Technical Information of TTN

I would like to document some of the technical perspectives of TTN so that those interested will understand the technical contraints the platform is running under.

At the core of the TTN platform is privacy and independence from conglomorates.

The following safety principles were followed when the original platform solution was sourced and for the continual running of TTN.

1. Every feature that can be self hosted has to be.


2. Limited external suppliers have to be involved in providing 3rd-party services.


3. The code has to be open source so that it can be examined for safety and amended as needed.

Following these principles meant that the following aren't available on/for TTN as to minimize the footprint that external parties have for TTN users:

1. Social logins aren't available


2. Google maps isn't available


3. Google/Facebook/external advertisements aren't available


4. Servers aren't hosted in one of the conglomorates' data centres.

The only services that are currently contracted to an external party and which is directly relatable to a user is video and voice calling as it is provided through Agora.io.

Email and DNS are provided through 3rd-parties, but user interaction is not tracked to a level where it should be a security concern. The outage of 2/3 July 2021 has proven that these two services have to be hosted externally for stability purposes until such time as additional funding is available to host it on self maintained individual servers.

What does this mean for the TTN platform:

1. The code for the web site and mobile apps is procured and open source so that it can be inspected and maintained.


2. The platform runs on two virtual private servers in a data centre run by Interserver in the USA.


3. These servers are only accessible by myself and to server administrators on my request.

These restraints do have some negative impacts on running the platform and it comes down to the following:

1. Options are more limited as to the code used, hosting and running of the solution.


2. Failover for servers that are built into most cloud solutions aren't available and individual servers have to be built to enable this functionality, which comes are a high cost due to the technical knowledge required.


3. Integration into 3rd-party features to make user adoption easier isn't available, e.g. maps, social login, etc.


4. Funding cannot be generated through 3rd-party advertising solutions, so all funding has to be generated through internal sources.

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