Subject: [rbridge] Rbridges for MANETs?

From: Fred.L.Templin at boeing.com (Templin, Fred L)
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 16:12:42 -0700

I am wondering if anyone has considered Mobile Ad-hoc Networks
(MANETs) as an instance of a "campus" that Rbridges might find
themselves in? Due to node mobility, Rbridges would have to deal
with frequent link state changes in such an environment which
would give a constantly changing topology along with potentially
multiplicative increase in routing protocol overhead. Do we see
Rbridges as potentially extending to cover the MANET space?

I ask this partly because there will be a BOF on Ad-Hoc Network
Autonconfiguration (AUTOCONF) at the upcoming IETF and I wonder
about the overlap between what is being considered there and
TRILL. A quick overview makes it seem that the AUTOCONF approach
has more of a layer 3 flavor while TRILL is more focused on the
layer 2 proxy approach. Has anyone considered whether the two
approaches are essentially addressing the same problem space?

Fred
fred.l.templin at boeing.com

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From: touch at ISI.EDU (Joe Touch)
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 10:27:37 -0700

Templin, Fred L wrote:
> themselves in?

For this WG, my understanding is no.

In particular, we assume that existing routing is used inside the campus
(perhaps modified to transit rbridge info, but otherwise as-is), and
that rbridge dynamics are similar to existing bridge dynamics.

> Due to node mobility, Rbridges would have to deal

That sounds like a job for a new routing protocol that an rbridge might
use, but not specific to rbridges.

> approaches are essentially addressing the same problem space?

Bridges live in a world of known (or at least assumed) unique,
predeployed global endpoint identifiers, and provide broadcast as well
as multicast. These are some of the more significant challenges that
AUTOCONF needs to address (sans broadcast), so I don't see them as related.

Joe
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