Linyphi: an IPv6-compatible implementation of SSR

Scalable source routing (SSR) is a self-organizing routing protocol designed for supporting peer-to-peer applications. It is especially suited for networks that do not have a well crafted structure, e. g. ad-hoc and mesh-networks. SSR is based on the combination of source routes and a virtual ring structure. This ring is used in a Chord-like manner to obtain source routes to destinations that are not yet in the respective router cache. This approach makes SSR more message efficient than flooding based ad-hoc routing protocols. Moreover, it directly provides the semantics of a structured routing overlay. In this paper we present Linyphi, an implementation of SSR for wireless accesses routers. Linyphi combines IPv6 and SSR so that unmodified IPv6 hosts have transparent connectivity to both the Linyphi mesh network and the IPv4/v6 Internet. We give a basic outline of the implementation and demonstrate its suitability in real-world mesh network scenarios. Linyphi is available for download (www.linyphi.net).