📋 System Requirements

Enterprise-grade infrastructure specifications for sovereign communication

Reforms Messenger is designed for flexible deployment across various environments, from small team setups to large enterprise installations. This guide outlines the technical requirements for optimal performance and security.

🚀 Quick Requirements Summary

Minimum Viable Deployment:

• CPU: 2 cores, 2.4GHz
• RAM: 4GB
• Storage: 20GB SSD
• Network: 100Mbps bandwidth
• OS: Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+), Docker support

Recommended Production:

• CPU: 8+ cores, 3.0GHz
• RAM: 16GB+
• Storage: 100GB+ NVMe SSD
• Network: 1Gbps+ bandwidth
• OS: Linux (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS)

💻 Hardware Requirements

Small Teams (5-50 users)

Server Specifications:

CPU: 4 cores @ 2.4GHz (Intel i5/i7 or AMD Ryzen 5/7)
RAM: 8GB DDR4
Storage: 50GB SSD + 200GB HDD (optional)
Network: 500Mbps symmetric bandwidth
Backup: Daily automated backups

Expected Performance:

• Concurrent connections: 50-100
• File transfer throughput: 100MB/s
• Voice/video quality: HD (720p)
• Response latency: less than 50ms

Medium Organizations (50-500 users)

Server Specifications:

CPU: 8 cores @ 3.2GHz (Intel Xeon Silver or AMD EPYC)
RAM: 32GB DDR4
Storage: 200GB NVMe SSD + 1TB HDD
Network: 1Gbps symmetric bandwidth
Redundancy: Hot standby recommended

Load Balancer Requirements:

CPU: 2 cores @ 2.4GHz
RAM: 4GB
Network: 1Gbps
Software: HAProxy, NGINX, or cloud LB

Expected Performance:

• Concurrent connections: 500-1000
• File transfer throughput: 500MB/s
• Voice/video quality: Full HD (1080p)
• Response latency: less than 30ms

Large Enterprises (500+ users)

Primary Server Cluster:

Nodes: 3+ servers
CPU per node: 16+ cores @ 3.5GHz
RAM per node: 64GB+ DDR4
Storage per node: 500GB+ NVMe SSD
Network: 10Gbps backbone
Redundancy: Multi-region deployment

Database Requirements:

Engine: PostgreSQL 15+ or MongoDB 6+
CPU: 8 cores @ 3.0GHz
RAM: 32GB (with 16GB buffer cache)
Storage: 1TB+ NVMe SSD with RAID 10
Backup: Automated daily snapshots

Expected Performance:

• Concurrent connections: 5000+
• File transfer throughput: 2GB/s+
• Voice/video quality: 4K capable
• Response latency: less than 20ms
• Uptime: 99.9%+ SLA

📦 Software Dependencies

Operating System Support

Recommended (Tier 1):

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
• RHEL 9 / CentOS Stream 9
• Debian 12 (Bookworm)

Supported (Tier 2):

• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
• RHEL 8 / CentOS 8
• SUSE Linux Enterprise 15
• Amazon Linux 2

Container Platforms:

• Docker 24.0+
• Kubernetes 1.28+
• OpenShift 4.12+
• Rancher 2.7+

Required Software Stack

Core Dependencies:

# Node.js runtime
Node.js 18.x LTS or 20.x LTS

# Database (choose one)
PostgreSQL 15+ (recommended)
MongoDB 6.0+
Redis 7.0+ (for caching/sessions)

# Web server/proxy
NGINX 1.22+ or Apache 2.4+
SSL/TLS certificates (Let's Encrypt supported)

# Container runtime (if using containers)
Docker 24.0+ with Docker Compose 2.0+

Optional Components:

# Monitoring and observability
Prometheus 2.40+
Grafana 9.0+
Elasticsearch 8.0+ (for log aggregation)

# Load balancing
HAProxy 2.6+
NGINX Plus
Cloud provider load balancers (AWS ALB, Azure LB, GCP LB)

# Security scanning
ClamAV (antivirus)
OSSEC (intrusion detection)

Development Environment

For Custom Development:

# Required
Node.js 18+ with npm/yarn
TypeScript 4.9+
React 18+
WebRTC APIs support

# Build tools
Webpack 5+ or Vite 4+
ESLint 8+
Prettier 2.8+

# Testing
Jest 29+
Playwright 1.30+

🌐 Network Requirements

Bandwidth Specifications

Per-User Bandwidth Estimates:

Activity	Bandwidth Required	Concurrent Users
Text messaging	1-5 kbps	1000+ per 100Mbps
Voice calls	64-128 kbps	100-200 per 100Mbps
Video calls (720p)	1-2 Mbps	50-100 per 100Mbps
Video calls (1080p)	2-4 Mbps	25-50 per 100Mbps
Screen sharing	1-3 Mbps	30-100 per 100Mbps
File transfer	Burst to full available	Limited by storage I/O

Network Architecture:

Internet ←→ Firewall ←→ Load Balancer ←→ Reforms Servers
                    ↓
              TURN/STUN Servers (for NAT traversal)
                    ↓
              Internal Network (optional)

Required Ports

Inbound Ports (from internet):

443/tcp:  HTTPS web interface and API
8443/tcp: WebRTC signaling (configurable)
3478/udp: STUN server
3478/tcp: STUN server (TCP fallback)
5349/tcp: TURNS (STUN over TLS)
49152-65535/udp: TURN relay ports (dynamic range)

Internal Ports (server-to-server):

5432/tcp: PostgreSQL (if using)
27017/tcp: MongoDB (if using)
6379/tcp: Redis (if using)
9090/tcp: Prometheus metrics (optional)
3000/tcp: Internal application port

Firewall Configuration

Recommended Security Rules:

# Allow HTTPS and signaling
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8443 -j ACCEPT

# Allow STUN/TURN
iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 3478 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 3478 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 5349 -j ACCEPT

# Allow TURN relay range
iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 49152:65535 -j ACCEPT

# Block all other inbound
iptables -A INPUT -j DROP

Network Security Considerations

DMZ Configuration:

External Zone: Public internet access
DMZ Zone: Reforms signaling servers, load balancers
Internal Zone: Database servers, file storage
Management Zone: Admin interfaces, monitoring

VPN Requirements (for remote administration):

• OpenVPN 2.5+ or WireGuard
• Multi-factor authentication required
• Split-tunnel configuration
• Audit logging enabled

🔒 Security Requirements

Cryptographic Standards

Required Algorithms:

• Symmetric Encryption: ChaCha20-Poly1305, AES-256-GCM
• Asymmetric Encryption: Ed25519, X25519 (Curve25519)
• Hashing: SHA-256, SHA-512, BLAKE2b
• Key Derivation: PBKDF2, Argon2id

Hardware Security Module (HSM) Support:

• PKCS#11 interface compatibility
• FIPS 140-2 Level 3+ certification (for government/finance)
• Network-attached HSM support
• Key backup and recovery procedures

Compliance Requirements

Healthcare (HIPAA):

Encryption: AES-256 minimum, preferably ChaCha20-Poly1305
Access Controls: Role-based with MFA
Audit Logging: Comprehensive, immutable logs
Data Retention: Configurable, with secure deletion
Physical Security: Locked server rooms, access logs

Financial Services (SOX/PCI DSS):

Network Segmentation: Isolated payment processing zones
Change Management: Documented, approved changes only
Vulnerability Scanning: Regular automated scans
Penetration Testing: Annual third-party assessments
Incident Response: 24/7 monitoring and response team

Government (FedRAMP/FISMA):

Security Controls: NIST 800-53 implementation
Continuous Monitoring: Real-time security monitoring
Supply Chain Security: Verified component integrity
Personnel Security: Background checks required
Physical Security: Government-approved facilities

🏗️ Infrastructure Architecture

High Availability Setup

Multi-Region Deployment:

Primary Region:
  - 3 signaling servers (active-active-standby)
  - 2 database servers (primary-replica)
  - 1 load balancer cluster

Secondary Region:
  - 2 signaling servers (standby)
  - 1 database server (replica)
  - 1 load balancer

Disaster Recovery:
  - Automated failover (RTO: 5 minutes)
  - Data replication (RPO: 1 minute)
  - Regular DR testing (monthly)

Monitoring and Alerting:

Infrastructure Monitoring:
  - CPU, memory, disk, network utilization
  - Application performance metrics
  - Security event monitoring
  - Log aggregation and analysis

Alerting Thresholds:
  - CPU usage greater than 80% for 5 minutes
  - Memory usage greater than 90% for 2 minutes
  - Disk space greater than 85% used
  - Network latency greater than 100ms
  - Failed authentication attempts greater than 10/minute

Backup and Recovery

Backup Strategy:

Database Backups:
  - Full backup: Daily at 2 AM
  - Incremental backup: Every 4 hours
  - Transaction log backup: Every 15 minutes
  - Retention: 30 days local, 90 days offsite

Configuration Backups:
  - Server configurations: Daily
  - Application configurations: After each change
  - SSL certificates: Before expiration
  - Encryption keys: Secure offline storage

Recovery Testing:
  - Monthly restore tests
  - Quarterly disaster recovery drills
  - Annual full-scale failover tests

📊 Performance Benchmarks

Load Testing Results

Connection Performance:

Concurrent Connections:
  - 1,000 users: Average response 45ms
  - 5,000 users: Average response 78ms
  - 10,000 users: Average response 120ms

File Transfer Performance:
  - 100MB file: 15-20 seconds (P2P)
  - 1GB file: 2-3 minutes (P2P)
  - 10GB file: 20-25 minutes (P2P)

Video Call Quality:
  - 720p: Stable up to 100 participants
  - 1080p: Stable up to 50 participants
  - 4K: Stable up to 10 participants

Resource Utilization

Typical Usage Patterns:

CPU Utilization:
  - Idle: 5-10%
  - Normal load (100 users): 25-35%
  - Peak load (500 users): 60-75%
  - Maximum capacity: 85% sustained

Memory Usage:
  - Base system: 2GB
  - Per 100 active users: +1GB
  - Peak usage: 70% of available RAM
  - Cache optimization: 20% reserved for caching

Storage I/O:
  - Database operations: 100-500 IOPS
  - File transfers: Burst to disk limits
  - Log writing: 50-100 IOPS steady state

🔧 Optimization Recommendations

Performance Tuning

Database Optimization:

-- PostgreSQL recommended settings
shared_buffers = '25% of RAM'
effective_cache_size = '75% of RAM'
work_mem = '256MB'
maintenance_work_mem = '1GB'
max_connections = 200

System Optimization:

# Linux kernel parameters
echo 'net.core.rmem_max = 134217728' >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.core.wmem_max = 134217728' >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 134217728' >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 65536 134217728' >> /etc/sysctl.conf

# File descriptor limits
echo '* soft nofile 65536' >> /etc/security/limits.conf
echo '* hard nofile 65536' >> /etc/security/limits.conf

Cost Optimization

Resource Right-Sizing:

• Start with minimum viable configuration
• Monitor usage patterns for 30 days
• Scale up based on actual demand
• Use auto-scaling where possible

Cloud Provider Considerations:

• Reserved instances for predictable workloads
• Spot instances for development/testing
• Multi-zone deployment for availability
• CDN for static content delivery

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Infrastructure requirements that scale with your ambitions.

From startup to enterprise, your communication sovereignty grows with you.