[Xorp-users] Redistributing the system kernel route table into OSPF

[Bruce M Simpson]

On Sat, Apr 15, 2006 at 01:30:40AM +0100, Bruce M Simpson wrote:
> > Currently, the FEA doesn't support this for Windows. I am not even
> > sure whether the Windows API supports asynchronous notifications to
> > userland if the forwarding table is modified; Bruce M. Simpson would
> > be the right person to answer that question.
> XORP currently does neither because Microsoft's internal APIs are still in
> a state of change.

The problem with the original approach (run olsr outside of XORP) is
that it relies on the routing protocol(s) being able to co-exist within
the kernel forwarding table -- it isn't quite the same as trying to
use the kernel FIB as a RIB.

The best way to make headway with your original application would be
to get the OLSR implementation for XORP cleaned up and integrated into
the tree.

This would mean that OLSR itself wouldn't need to know how to talk to
the kernel forwarding table, and the XORP RIB can be used for supplying
the kernel with the correct paths, making things platform independent.

It also means being able to use the XORP configuration interface for
OLSR, and not having to worry about system specific means of implementing
timers, etc, as well as the rest of XORP being aware of OLSR.

Then as the base support for various OSes improves, functionality such
as on-demand path lookup can be added; the FreeBSD FIB supports this
with no kernel modifications; the Linux in-kernel AODV implementation
modifies the kernel in order to obtain such notifications.

Regards,
BMS