Routing Table Entry

Routing table entries are the basic building blocks of a Rendezvous routing system. In most situations, each routing daemon process embodies a single routing table entry, which denotes that daemon throughout the WAN, and describes its operation.

In rare situations one routing daemon process can embody several routing table entries. Each entry defines a separate and independent software router, but without the cost associated with process switching. For more information, see Independent Routing Table Entries in One Process.

Combining all the routing table entries of all the routing daemons produces the global routing table. Each routing daemon uses its copy of the global routing table to forward messages efficiently to other routing daemons and their networks.

Router Name

Each routing table entry has a name. Routing daemons use these names to identify one another—so names must be unique throughout the entire WAN.

One convenient way to ensure unique names is to use the fully-qualified DNS names of the rvrd host computers; for example, frobitz.yellowNet.baz.com. (When one process embodies several routing table entries, you can use a prefix to create unique names; for example, 1.frobitz.yellowNet.baz.com).

Other naming conventions are acceptable, as long as the names are unique.

The name is a string of alphanumeric, dot, and dash characters. The maximum total length of the string is 64 characters (including the dot separators).

Local Networks

Each routing daemon can serve zero or more local networks. For details, see Local Network.

Notice that a routing daemon need not serve any local networks. In this configuration, it operates as a way station, forwarding message traffic between other routing daemons—for example, to cross a firewall. For an illustration of this role, see Security and Firewalls.

Neighbors

Each routing daemon can connect to zero or more neighbors (routing daemons on other networks). For details, see Neighbors.