MeshMonitor

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Traffic Management ​

Traffic Management is a Meshtastic firmware module that polices mesh traffic directly on the node — inspecting each packet and shaping what the node relays so it consumes less airtime and channel utilization. MeshMonitor works with it from both sides: it configures the module (under Configuration → Module Settings) and charts the telemetry the module emits, so you can tune the settings and then watch their effect.

Because this is a device-side module, the actual packet policing happens on the node's firmware. MeshMonitor sends the module configuration to the device as an admin set-config message and renders the TrafficManagementStats telemetry the module broadcasts back.

Settings reference ​

The settings live under Configuration → Module Settings → Traffic Management, grouped exactly as they appear in the UI. Enabling the module reveals the grouped sub-settings below it. In MeshMonitor's editor every toggle starts unchecked and every numeric field starts at 0 until the device reports its own values; the numbers below describe what each field controls.

Enable Traffic Management ​

  • Enable Traffic Management — turns the module on. Its description: packet inspection and traffic shaping to reduce channel utilization. When off, none of the groups below have any effect. Default: off.

Position Deduplication ​

Drops redundant position broadcasts so the same location isn't rebroadcast repeatedly.

  • Enable — drop redundant position broadcasts. Default: off.
  • Precision Bits (0–32) — number of bits of precision (geohash) for position dedup. More bits = finer granularity. A slider from 0 to 32; a higher value treats smaller movements as distinct positions (fewer drops), a lower value dedups more aggressively.
  • Minimum Interval (seconds) — minimum seconds between position updates from the same node. Positions arriving sooner than this from a given node are dropped.

NodeInfo Direct Response ​

Lets the node answer NodeInfo requests from its own cache instead of forwarding them across the mesh.

  • Enable — respond directly to NodeInfo requests from local cache. Default: off.
  • Max Hops (0–7) — minimum hop distance from requestor before responding from cache. Controls how far away a requestor must be before the node answers from cache rather than relaying.

Rate Limiting ​

Throttles nodes that transmit too frequently.

  • Enable — throttle chatty nodes. Default: off.
  • Window (seconds) — time window for rate limiting calculations.
  • Max Packets Per Window — maximum packets allowed per node within the window. Packets beyond this count within the window are dropped.

Drop Unknown Packets ​

Discards packets the node cannot decode/decrypt once a node exceeds a threshold.

  • Enable — drop unknown/undecryptable packets after threshold. Default: off.
  • Unknown Packet Threshold — number of unknown packets from a node before dropping.

Hop Limit Exhaustion ​

Controls how the node handles hop limits on traffic it relays. Own packets are never affected by the exhaust toggles.

  • Exhaust Hop Limit on Relayed Telemetry — set hop_limit=0 on relayed telemetry broadcasts (own packets unaffected). Stops relayed telemetry from being rebroadcast further. Default: off.
  • Exhaust Hop Limit on Relayed Positions — set hop_limit=0 on relayed position broadcasts (own packets unaffected). Default: off.
  • Router Preserve Hops — preserve hop_limit for router-to-router traffic. Keeps the hop limit intact between routers even when the exhaust options above are active. Default: off.

Telemetry display ​

When the module is running, the node broadcasts a TrafficManagementStats telemetry packet with seven counters. MeshMonitor surfaces them as labelled, integer-valued graphs in the node's telemetry view under a shared "Traffic Mgmt:" group:

  • Packets inspected — total packets the module examined
  • Position-dedup drops — position broadcasts dropped as redundant
  • NodeInfo cache hits — NodeInfo requests answered from local cache
  • Rate-limit drops — packets dropped for exceeding the rate limit
  • Unknown-packet drops — undecodable packets dropped past the threshold
  • Hop-exhausted packets — relayed packets whose hop limit was set to 0
  • Router hops preserved — router-to-router packets whose hop limit was kept

These plot alongside the node's other telemetry. See Telemetry Widgets for how the graphs are grouped and displayed.

Firmware requirements ​

Traffic Management requires Meshtastic firmware 2.7.26 or newer. MeshMonitor gates support on the firmware version and disables the Traffic Management section as "Unsupported by this device" below 2.7.26.

The 2.7.22–2.7.25 silent-drop gotcha

On firmware 2.7.22 through 2.7.25 the module's admin set-config message decodes but is silently dropped by the device — it never persists. A save would appear to succeed but the settings would not stick. The module's AdminModule handler only shipped in v2.7.26, so MeshMonitor gates support at that version. (An older MeshMonitor blog post advertised "2.7.22+"; that claim is stale — 2.7.26 is the correct floor.)

Start conservative and tighten only once you understand how your mesh behaves:

  1. Enable the module and turn on Position Deduplication with a moderate precision and a moderate minimum interval — this trims the most common source of redundant airtime (repeated position broadcasts) with little risk.
  2. Leave Rate Limiting and Drop Unknown Packets off until you have observed your mesh's normal traffic. Both drop packets, so enabling them before you know what "normal" looks like can silently discard legitimate traffic.
  3. Be cautious with Hop Limit Exhaustion and router settings on a router node. These affect traffic the node relays for everyone, so aggressive settings on a router affect its neighbors' reachability, not just the local node. Change them one at a time and watch the telemetry counters for the effect.

Use the "Traffic Mgmt:" telemetry graphs to confirm each change is doing what you expect before making the next one.