Router Configuration

Example network and sample configuration

Assume that three routers in the same network, but at three different sites (memphis.edu, arizona.edu, and colostate.edu), are connected to each other to construct the following topology:

                    +-------------------------------------+
                    | /ndn/edu/memphis/%C1.Router/router1 |
                    +-------------------------------------+
                        / 11                      12\
                       /                             \
      route-cost = 25 /                               \ route-cost = 30
                     /                                 \
                 17 /                                   \ 13
+-----------------------------------+ 7              10 +-------------------------------------+
|/ndn/edu/arizona/%C1.Router/router3|-------------------|/ndn/edu/colostate/%C1.Router/router2|
+-----------------------------------+   route-cost = 28 +-------------------------------------+

                      Figure: Network Topology

The number represents the connecting face id. For example, /ndn/edu/memphis/%C1.Router/router1 is connected to /ndn/edu/arizona/%C1.Router/router3 via face 11 and the route cost is 25. To reach /ndn/edu/colostate/%C1.Router/router2 via face 12, the route cost is 30.

We will walk through setting up the faces and creating the configuration file for /ndn/edu/memphis/%C1.Router/router1.

It is recommended to configure security as described at Security Configuration, before starting router configuration.

Step 1. Ensuring nfd is running

Type the following in the terminal:

nfd-status

If you see error while connecting to the forwarder (No such file or directory), nfd is not running. Follow the instructions in Getting started with NFD to run nfd.

Since v0.4.0, NLSR no longer creates Faces for the neighbors that are specified in nlsr.conf. Instead, it relies on the pre-existence of the Faces in NFD. NLSR will obtain this information from NFD, and configure its neighbors using this information.

To create faces it is now necessary to use the nfdc command. See man nfdc for its documentation (online version).

Step 2. Determining FaceUri

Assume that /ndn/edu/arizona/%C1.Router/router3 has hostname router3.arizona.edu and /ndn/edu/colostate/%C1.Router/router2 has IP address 79.123.10.145. /ndn/edu/memphis/%C1.Router/router1 will consider FaceUri udp4://router3.arizona.edu for router /ndn/edu/arizona/%C1.Router/router3 and FaceUri udp4://79.123.10.145 for router /ndn/edu/colostate/%C1.Router/router2.

Step 3: Creating configuration file

Now, assume that /ndn/memphis.edu/router1 wants to advertise three name prefixes (/ndn/memphis/sports/basketball/grizzlies, /ndn/memphis/entertainment/blues, /ndn/news/memphis/politics/lutherking). The configuration file with the necessary configuration commands follows:

; nlsr.conf starts here
; the general section contains all the general settings for router

general
{
    ; mandatory configuration command section network, site and router
    network /ndn/         ; name of the network the router belongs to in ndn URI format
    site /edu/memphis/    ; name of the site the router belongs to in ndn URI format
    router /%C1.Router/router1    ; name of the network the router belongs to in ndn URI format

    ; lsa-refresh-time is the time in seconds, after which router will refresh its LSAs
    lsa-refresh-time 1800      ; default value 1800. Valid values 240-7200

    ; InterestLifetime (in seconds) for LSA fetching
    lsa-interest-lifetime 4    ; default value 4. Valid values 1-60

    state-dir /var/lib/nlsr/ ; state directory to store all dynamic changes to NLSR
}

; the neighbors section contains the configuration for router's neighbors and hello's behavior

neighbors
{
   ; in case hello interest timed out, router will try 'hello-retries' times at 'hello-time-out'
   ; seconds interval before giving up for any neighbors (deciding link is down)

   hello-retries 3                     ; interest retries number in integer. Default value 3
                                       ; valid values 1-10

   hello-timeout 1                    ; interest time out value in integer. Default value 1
                                      ; Valid values 1-15

   hello-interval  60                  ; interest sending interval in seconds. Default value 60
                                       ; valid values 30-90

   ; adj-lsa-build-interval is the time to wait in seconds after an Adjacency LSA
   ; build is scheduled before actually building the Adjacency LSA

   adj-lsa-build-interval 5   ; default value 5. Valid values 0-5. It is recommended that
                              ; adj-lsa-build-interval have a lower value than
                              ; routing-calc-interval

   ; first-hello-interval is the time to wait in seconds before sending the first Hello Interest

   first-hello-interval  10   ; Default value 10. Valid values 0-10

   ; neighbor command is used to configure router's neighbor. Each neighbor will need
   ; one block of neighbor command

  neighbor
  {
      name /ndn/edu/arizona/%C1.Router/router3   ; name prefix of the neighbor router consists
                                                 ; of network, site-name and router-name

      face-uri  udp4://router3.arizona.edu  ; face uri of the face connected to the neighbor
      link-cost 25                         ; cost of the connecting link to neighbor
  }

  neighbor
  {
      name /ndn/edu/colostate/%C1.Router/router2  ; name prefix of the neighbor router consists
                                               ; of network, site-name and router-name

      face-uri  udp4://79.123.10.145     ; face uri of the face connected to the neighbor
      link-cost 30                        ; cost of the connecting link to neighbor
  }
}

; the hyperbolic section contains the configuration settings of enabling
a router to calculate ; routing table using `hyperbolic routing table
calculation`_ method

hyperbolic
{
    ; commands in this section follows a strict order
    ; the switch is used to set hyperbolic routing calculation in NLSR

    state off          ; default value 'off', set value 'on' to enable hyperbolic routing table
                       ; calculation which turns link state routing 'off'. set value to 'dry-run'
                       ; to test hyperbolic routing and compare with link state routing.


    radius   123.456       ; radius of the router in hyperbolic coordinate system
    angle    1.45          ; angle of the router in hyperbolic coordinate system
}


; the fib section is used to configure fib entry's type to ndn FIB updated by NLSR

fib
{
    ; the max-faces-per-prefix is used to limit the number of faces for each name prefixes
    ; by NLSR in ndn FIB

    max-faces-per-prefix 3  ; default value 0. Valid value 0-60. By default (value 0) NLSR adds
                            ; all available faces for each reachable name prefixes in NDN FIB

}

; the advertising section contains the configuration settings of the
name prefixes ; hosted by this router

advertising
{
    ; the ndnname is used to advertised name from the router. To advertise each name prefix
    ; configure one block of ndnname configuration command for every name prefix.

    prefix /ndn/memphis/sports/basketball/grizzlies
    prefix /ndn/memphis/entertainment/blues
    prefix /ndn/news/memphis/politics/lutherking
}

By default NLSR’s sequence file directory is set to /var/lib/nlsr/. User must create this directory before starting NLSR. Since this is a system directory, NLSR must either be executed as root, or NLSR can be run as user “nlsr” after configuring the filesystem to grant “nlsr” read and write permissions. If user lacks permissions, the following error will occur:

User does not have read and write permission on the directory
Error in configuration file processing! Exiting from NLSR

To avoid this, the directory can be set in a user-owned directory. For example:

general
{
  ...

  state-dir /home/username/nlsr/log  ; path for sequence directory and other dynamic changes (Absolute path)

}
...

The user will encounter errors such as the following if security is not configured:

Cannot read certificate from file: /home/username/NLSR/root.cert

To get rid of this and similar errors relating to security one has to configure security as described in Security Configuration. Security can be disabled for testing purposes as follows:

...
trust-anchor
{
  type any
  ;file-name "root.cert"
}
...
trust-anchor
{
  type any
  ;file-name "site.cert"
}
; cert-to-publish "root.cert"
; cert-to-publish "router.cert"
; cert-to-publish "site.cert"
; cert-to-publish "router.cert"

Or by simply replacing the whole security section with:

security
{
  validator
  {
    trust-anchor
    {
      type any
    }
  }
  prefix-update-validator
  {
    trust-anchor
    {
      type any
    }
  }
}

Step 4: Running NLSR on /ndn/memphis.edu/router1

Assuming the configuration file is saved as nlsr.conf, type the following to run nlsr:

$ nlsr -f nlsr.conf

NLSR will look for nlsr.conf in the current directory. If nlsr.conf is not in the current directory, please provide the absolute path with the file name as the value. If nlsr.conf resides in /home/ndnuser/configuration directory, type nlsr -f /home/ndnuser/configuration/nlsr.conf to run nlsr.

The same process needs to be followed for /ndn/arizona.edu/router3 and /ndn/colostate.edu/router2 to run NLSR on these routers.

Expected Output

Assuming that all three routers are configured correctly and routing has converged, nfd-status in /ndn/edu/colostate/%C1.Router/router2 will have the following (or similar) entries for the name advertised by /ndn/edu/memphis/%C1.Router/router1:

RIB:

/ndn/memphis/entertainment/blues route={faceid=17 (origin=128 cost=25 ChildInherit), faceid=7 (origin=128 cost=58 ChildInherit)}
/ndn/memphis/sports/basketball/grizzlies route={faceid=17 (origin=128 cost=25 ChildInherit), faceid=7 (origin=128 cost=58 ChildInherit)}
/ndn/news/memphis/politics/lutherking route={faceid=17 (origin=128 cost=25 ChildInherit, faceid=7 (origin=128 cost=58 ChildInherit)}

This output can be seen by typing nfdc route list in the terminal. Please refer to the network figure for face IDs.