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- ROSE Circuits -- The Header
-
- When you connect using a ROSE network, you issue the connect to the
- destination via your neighbor ROSE's call and the destination ROSE
- switch's address. e.g. C DEST V MYROSE-5 405999, where 405999 is the
- address of a ROSE that is near DEST. (These examples will use the TAPR
- commands. With NET you leave out the V and add the interface name in
- front of the destination call sign. Also, these examples will not
- include the optional (one each) digipeater calls between you and your
- neighbor ROSE, or between the destination ROSE and the destination.)
-
- The neighbor rose switch is watching packet frames fly by and in those
- that have two to four digipeaters in them it looks for its call in the
- first digipeater call with a clear "has been repeated" bit, followed by
- a ROSE address of the right format. If it finds one, it intercepts your
- SABM, sending a UA and an I frame back to you as though they had come
- from DEST. If all goes well, the ROSE switch on the far end correspond-
- ing to 405999 address sends an SABM to DEST while assuming your call in
- its header source field. (All call signs in the header's digipeater
- fields have their "has been repeated" bits set.) As observed by DEST,
- the headers for this and all following frames to DEST show your call in
- the source call sign field and his neighbor ROSE switch's call in the
- last (or optionally, next to last if there is an "exit digipeater")
- digipeater address field. (The ROSE address number that preceeds the
- ROSE call sign in the header is the address number of the ROSE switch on
- the other end of a circuit, but that is not significant to us except in
- setting our arp entry.)
-
- Here is an enquiry to "USERS" on a ROSE switch which is sustaining one
- of our IP circuits. Irrelevant lines have been deleted.
-
- K5JB-11 AX25L2 User Linked to USERS @ 3100405732
- K5JB-10 *** Unknown Protocol ID CC ***
- K5JB-11 *** Unknown Protocol ID CC ***
- N0ELS-5 X.25 Trunk (R1) with the following connections:
- K5JB-10 @ 3100405771 ( 1 P4 D1) --> K5JB-11 @ 3100405732
-
- In this example, K5JB-10 is an IP station with N0ELS-5 as a neighbor
- ROSE (address 405771). K5JB-11 is an IP station with K5JB-5 as a neigh-
- bor ROSE (address 504732). This USERS report was received from K5JB-5
- (405732) by initiating an AX.25 connect from K5JB-11.
-
- There is some difficulty in switching routes around while using IP over
- ROSE because it gets easily confused with our antics. If you are going
- to try another ROSE switch after making configuration changes it may be
- best to make an AX.25 connection to the destination IP station though
- the ROSE circuit, disconnect it, and make sure you don't have any lin-
- gering AX.25 connections to the ROSE switch before trying a new scheme.
- This method may not work until the ROSE switch breaks down its internal
- network state. The only way to force this _may_ be to create a second
- circuit using a different routing. ROSE seems to delete the old circuit
- when you do that. Some of the early problems I had were caused by my
- impulsiveness. I haven't had enough experience to tell yet but I sus-
- pect that once you establish a virtual circuit over ROSE it stays intact
- unless you take some action to disconnect it.
-
- (Not sure when to stop rambling about T3, AX.25 version 1/2, etc. Some
- of these things should be in the general knowledge of AX.25 users but I
- am sure they are not.)
-
- ROSE "Reliable" mode
-
- If you use the ROSE switch's digipeater call instead of its primary call
- in making a ROSE connection you will encounter the "reliable" mode. It
- does cut down the spurious frames from the ROSE switch, but it becomes a
- rather fragile circuit that won't allow a reset. If it works for your
- circuit, use it, but if you have trouble setting up a circuit after
- restarting NET, use the regular ROSE call instead.
-
- On the other hand, maybe the circuit breakdown with a reset is just what
- we need to be able to try various circuits without waiting for the ROSE
- switches to retire their table entries.
-
- Other Kinds of Circuits
-
- As an afterthought, this scheme might be needed to make IP work over
- TEXNET. I don't have a neighbor TEXNET to play with, but I could have
- even used my old "Gator" switch with this method. Also, if the IP PID
- in transmitted headers causes a problem with the terminus of someone's
- circuit scheme I can replace it with no layer 3 PID and nobody would
- know the difference.
-
- If you want to play with the source code for the rose trap you can
- certainly have it. I will add it to the TAPR release kit after it has
- been thoroughly wrung out.
-
- Joe, K5JB
-