Show HN: Ranet3 – High performance policy routed IPsec mesh SD-WAN

What happened

A developer shared Ranet3 on Hacker News. Ranet3 is a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) tool. It links many machines over encrypted tunnels. It uses standard internet security and routing rules, so other routers can work with it. The author says it is fast and can steer traffic by rules.

Key numbers and facts

• On a 10 Gbit/s network, one data stream reached 8.39 Gbit/s one way. That is about 95% of the line limit.
• Kernel WireGuard reached 5.35 Gbit/s one way. Kernel IPsec reached 4.67 Gbit/s one way in the same test.
• Ranet3 had 1.6 to 2.1 times the throughput of kernel WireGuard, according to the author's tests.
• Under heavy load, its 99th percentile delay (p99 RTT) was 1.91 to 4.96 ms.
• The tests were run on 2026-10-15 and compare Ranet3 with other tools.

Background

A mesh VPN links computers directly to each other, not only through one central server. Latency means how long data takes to travel. Ranet3 uses a routing protocol called Babel. It measures how long each link takes, and it sends data through a relay if the direct link is slower. For example, one path through a relay took 80 ms, while the direct link took 265 ms, so the relay path was used.

Why it matters

Faster and smarter routing can help companies and home users keep private networks quick and reliable. Because Ranet3 uses standard protocols, it may work with many other routers and switches. Its speed claims are the author's own benchmarks, so independent tests would be useful to confirm them.

What to watch

• Whether independent testers get the same speed results.
• How well Ranet3 works with other routers that use the same standard protocols.
• How the project's license (FSL-1.1-ALv2 / Apache-2.0) affects how companies can use it.
• Whether more people test it and share feedback on the GitHub project.