Routing Protocols
Okapi > Packet Routing Protocols

 

Introduction

 

The job of a routing protocol is to discover new roues for the router. Typically, each router has a prior knowledge only of networks attached to it directly. The routing protocols employ various strategies to gain knowledge of the topology of the network. Okapi provides the industry’s most robust, scalable, and feature-rich routing protocol support.

 

 

 

Unicast Routing Protocols

 

Okapi has extensive support for commonly used unicast routing protocols like 

  • RIPv1, RIPv2
    • Routing Information Protocol
    • Interior Gateway Protocol
    • Simplest Dynamic Routing Protocol
    • Uses Distance Vector Routing
  • RIPng(IPv6)
    • RIP for IPv6
  • OSPFv2
    • Open Shortest Path First
    • Uses Link State Routing Algorithm
    • Interior Routing Protocol operating within a single Autonomous System
  • OSPFv3(IPv6)
    • OSPF for IPv6
  • BGPv4+
    • Border Gateway Protocol
    • Support for IPv4 as well as IPv6
    • Used for core routing
    • It maintains a table of IP networks or 'prefixes' which designate network reachability among Autonomous Systems(AS).
  • ISIS
    • Intermediate System To Intermediate System
    • The de facto standard for large service provider network backbones
    • Interior Gateway Protocol
    • Uses Link State Routing Algorithm
  • OLSR
    • Optimized Link State Routing Protocol
    • Uses proactive Link State Routing Algorithm
    • Optimized for Mobile Ad-Hoc networks

 

Policy Routing

 

 Policy routing is the capability of a router to use different routes for different classes of traffic, even when destination is the same. Okapi packages Linux's capability to support multiple routing tables in a user friendly CLI to provide extensive policy routing capabilities. Following are some of the salient features.


  • Use of access lists to classify traffic.
  • Use of route-maps to direct traffic in individual access lists to different routing tables.
  • Support for installation of static routes in different routing tables.
  • Support for installation of dynamic routes(discovered by routing protocols) into different routing tables.
 
 

Multicast Routing Protocols

 

Okapi supports most efficient data delivery to multiple receivers by using PIM to build distribution trees in the network.
  • Protocol Independent Multicast, Sparse Mode(PIM-SM)
  • Protocol Independent Multicast, Sparse Mode(PIM-SM)
  • Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol(DVMRP)