RuggedCom RX1100, RX1000 manual

Chapter 4 – Configuring Networking

The backup is “end to end” because connectivity is determined by the availability of an interface on the target system, and not a local link. In the above figure, interface w1ppp acts as the primary interface and eth1 acts as the secondary interface. The router tests the primary path by probing 192.168.16.2 on router 2. A failure of the either w1ppp, network A or the remote link on router2 will render the primary path as “failed”.

If the primary path fails, the routing table will be modified to direct packets out the secondary (eth1 in the above figure).

Presumably, the secondary is a higher cost (and perhaps lower throughput) path. In the initial deployment of this feature, the secondary path was implemented with Ethernet-CDMA modem. The modem featured a low latency connection time (initiated by the reception of packets) but had a low bandwidth capability and high monetary cost.

Note that the feature must be implemented at both routers. If the feature is only implemented at router 1, the second router's gateway will still point towards Network A after a failure of the primary path. Packets from router 1 would reach router 2 through the secondary, but the responses would disappear in the black hole of the failed path.

RuggedCom 55