[manet] Re: BABEL question

Hi Juliusz,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Juliusz Chroboczek <[email protected]>
> Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2025 3:46 PM
> To: Templin (US), Fred L <[email protected]>
> Cc: [email protected] List <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: BABEL question
> 
> > Thanks for this and good to know about AHCP, but my question was specific
> > to BABEL [RFC8966]. Christopher's post about the IP router nature of MANET
> > routers would seem to apply also to BABEL routers if that protocol were to be
> > adopted by MANET, correct?
> 
> Ah, sorry.
> 
> No, Babel does not change the IP forwarding rules, and a Babel router will
> not forward packets with a link-local destination.  Babel is a traditional
> routing protocol which happens to have good support for host routes, and
> therefore is useful in a MANET environment.

OK, thanks for the clarification.

> > Asked another way, do you expect periods of operation for BABEL networks
> > in which the only prefix available is Link-Local?
> 
> Babel routers can in principle function with link-local only (à la
> RFC 7404).  However, end hosts need a routable address in order to have
> something useful to put in the source and destination addresses of the
> data packets.

OK.

> > I think that is the only alternative for disconnected BABEL clouds that
> > have not recently been in contact with an Internet gateway that
> > advertises a non-LL prefix - or is there some other IPv6 prefix that can
> > be used in the disconnected case?
> 
> fc00::/7

ULAs in their standard form are topology-oriented addresses; nodes in isolated
MANETs that may partition and/or overlap with other MANETs require some
form of topology-independent address:

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-templin-6man-mla/

This address type which I call MLAs is good for any type of MANET routing
protocol, and would also be suitable for use with Babel.

Thank you - Fred 

> -- Juliusz

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