User`s guide

Configuring IPX Routing
How the Pipeline performs IPX routing
Pipeline User’s Guide Preliminary January 30, 1998 4-3
IPX Routing Information Protocol (RIP) tables
IPX RIP is similar to the routing information protocol in the TCP/IP protocol
suite, but it is a different protocol. In this chapter, RIP always refers to IPX RIP.
The Pipeline follows standard IPX RIP behavior for routers when connecting to
other-vendor units. However, when it connects to another Pipeline configured for
IPX routing, both ends of the connection immediately exchange their entire RIP
tables. In addition, the Pipeline maintains those RIP entries as static until the unit
is reset or power-cycled.
The destination of an IPX route is the internal network of a server. For example,
NetWare file servers are assigned an internal IPX network number by the
network administrator and typically use the default node address of
000000000001. This is the destination network address for file read/write
requests. (If you are not familiar with internal network numbers, see your
NetWare documentation for more information.)
IPX routers broadcast RIP updates periodically and whenever a WAN connection
is established. The Pipeline receives RIP broadcasts from a remote device, adds 1
to the hop count of each advertised route, updates its own RIP table, and
broadcasts updated RIP packets on connected networks in a split-horizon fashion.
The Pipeline recognizes network number –2 (FFFFFFFE hex) as the IPX RIP
default route, and forwards any packet with an unrecognized address to the IPX
router advertising that default route.For example, if the Pipeline receives an IPX
packet destined for network 77777777 and it does not have a RIP table entry for
that destination, the Pipeline forwards the packet towards network number
FFFFFFFE, if available, instead of simply dropping the packet. If more than one
IPX router is advertising the default route, the Pipeline bases its routing decision
on Hop and Tick count.
Extensions to standard IPX
NetWare uses dynamic routing and service location to let clients locate a server
dynamically, regardless of where it is physically located. This scheme is designed
for LAN environments. For WAN functionality, the Pipeline provides the
following extensions to standard IPX:
• Virtual IPX network defined for dial-in clients