In general, Babel is easy to setup. Once you have your RipEX2 units configured by themselves (Radio, ETH IP addresses, Radio protocols, SCADA setup, …), you just need to:
Enable Babel and set its unique Router ID
Choose RipEX2 interfaces on which Babel should operate
Select Babel timing (speed of routes propagation, …)
Local LANs to be propagated
If you only have two or three RipEX2 units, you can easily accommodate most of the examples as well. You can configure just part of the example, the RipEX2 configuration is mainly the same.
The first example depicts a network only with RF channel usage and shows “only” dynamically obtained direct (one radio hop) LAN routing. | |
The second example shows and explains Radio filters to optimize Babel dynamic routing based on current RF channel conditions and Relay filters to optimize how and where are the routes propagated. | |
The third example changes the RF channel setup to simulate using two repeaters for end-to-end communication. The network is not a mesh compared to the first example. | |
The fourth example utilizes Ethernet connection as a quick backbone and radio channel only as a backup option. Feel free to utilize just two RipEX2 units – primary connection is via Ethernet; backup is via the radio channel. | |
The fifth example changes the above Ethernet by LTE and GRE connection. | |
The sixth example shows a network combining Babel and OSPF. OSPF is configured in RipEX_A and RipEX_D units, whereas Babel is configured in RipEX_A, B and C. These two protocols are neighboring in one Autonomous System Border Router “ASBR” (RipEX_A) which divides the whole network into two parts. Bandwidth optimized Babel on the Radio segment and standardized, widely-used and fast OSPF on the Ethernet segment. | |
The seventh example extends the sixth one to show even more from OSPF and Babel combination. There are two ASBR routers between Babel and OSPF network segments. By default, the primary path should go over RipEX_A and a backup path is over RipEX_C. Dynamic protocols exchange routing rules and preferences between each other. |