XORP
Encyclopedia
XORP is an open source
Internet Protocol
routing
software suite originally designed at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California. The name is derived from extensible open router platform.
The product is designed from principles of software modularity and extensibility and aims at exhibiting stability and providing feature requirements for production use while also supporting networking research. The development project was founded by Mark Handley
in 2000. Receiving funding from Intel, Microsoft
, and the National Science Foundation
, it released its first production software in July 2004. The project was then run by Atanu Ghosh of the International Computer Science Institute
, in Berkeley, California
.
In July 2008, the International Computer Science Institute
transferred the XORP technology to a new entity, XORP Inc., a commercial startup founded by the leaders of the opensource project team and backed by Onset Ventures and Highland Capital Partners
. In February 2010, XORP Inc. was wound up, a victim of the recession. However the open source project continued, with the servers based at University College London
. In March 2011, Ben Greear became the project maintainer and the www.xorp.org server is now hosted by Candela Technologies.
The XORP codebase consists of around 670,000 lines of C++
and is developed primarily on FreeBSD
, but fully supported on Linux
, OpenBSD
, DragonFlyBSD, NetBSD
. Support for XORP on Microsoft Windows
was recently re-added to the development tree. XORP is available for download as a Live CD or as source code via the project's homepage.
The software suite was selected commercially as the routing platform for the Vyatta
line of products in its early releases, but later has been replaced with quagga
.
's JunOS
platform.
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
Internet Protocol
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
routing
Routing
Routing is the process of selecting paths in a network along which to send network traffic. Routing is performed for many kinds of networks, including the telephone network , electronic data networks , and transportation networks...
software suite originally designed at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California. The name is derived from extensible open router platform.
The product is designed from principles of software modularity and extensibility and aims at exhibiting stability and providing feature requirements for production use while also supporting networking research. The development project was founded by Mark Handley
Mark Handley (computer scientist)
Mark Handley is Professor of Networked Systems in the Department of Computer Science of University College London since 2003, where he leads the Networks Research Group...
in 2000. Receiving funding from Intel, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, and the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
, it released its first production software in July 2004. The project was then run by Atanu Ghosh of the International Computer Science Institute
International Computer Science Institute
The International Computer Science Institute is an independent, non-profit research organization located in Berkeley, California, USA. Since its founding in 1988, ICSI has maintained an affiliation with the University of California, Berkeley, where several of its members hold faculty appointments...
, in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
.
In July 2008, the International Computer Science Institute
International Computer Science Institute
The International Computer Science Institute is an independent, non-profit research organization located in Berkeley, California, USA. Since its founding in 1988, ICSI has maintained an affiliation with the University of California, Berkeley, where several of its members hold faculty appointments...
transferred the XORP technology to a new entity, XORP Inc., a commercial startup founded by the leaders of the opensource project team and backed by Onset Ventures and Highland Capital Partners
Highland Capital Partners
Highland Capital Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on investments in seed, early, and growth stage companies in the communications, consumer, digital media, healthcare, and information technology sectors. The firm's partners include: Peter Bell, Sean Dalton, Bob Davis, Richard de...
. In February 2010, XORP Inc. was wound up, a victim of the recession. However the open source project continued, with the servers based at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
. In March 2011, Ben Greear became the project maintainer and the www.xorp.org server is now hosted by Candela Technologies.
The XORP codebase consists of around 670,000 lines of C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
and is developed primarily on FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
, but fully supported on Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, OpenBSD
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
, DragonFlyBSD, NetBSD
NetBSD
NetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...
. Support for XORP on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
was recently re-added to the development tree. XORP is available for download as a Live CD or as source code via the project's homepage.
The software suite was selected commercially as the routing platform for the Vyatta
Vyatta
Vyatta manufactures an open source router/firewall/VPN product for Internet Protocol networks . A free download of Vyatta has been available since March 2006. The system is a specialized Debian-based Linux distribution with networking applications such as Quagga, OpenVPN, and many others...
line of products in its early releases, but later has been replaced with quagga
Quagga (Software)
Quagga is a network routing software suite providing implementations of Open Shortest Path First , Routing Information Protocol , Border Gateway Protocol and IS-IS for Unix-like platforms, particularly Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD and NetBSD....
.
Routing features
As of 2009, the project supports the following routing protocols:- Static routing
- Routing Information ProtocolRouting Information ProtocolThe Routing Information Protocol is a distance-vector routing protocol, which employs the hop count as a routing metric. RIP prevents routing loops by implementing a limit on the number of hops allowed in a path from the source to a destination. The maximum number of hops allowed for RIP is 15....
(RIP and RIPng):- RFC 2453 (RIP version 2)
- RFC 2082 (RIP-2 MD5 Authentication)
- RFC 2080 (RIPng for IPv6)
- Border Gateway ProtocolBorder Gateway ProtocolThe Border Gateway Protocol is the protocol backing the core routing decisions on the Internet. It maintains a table of IP networks or 'prefixes' which designate network reachability among autonomous systems . It is described as a path vector protocol...
:- RFC 4271 (A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4))
- RFC 3392 (Capabilities Advertisement with BGP-4)
- RFC 4760 (Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP-4)
- RFC 2545 (Use of BGP-4 Multiprotocol Extensions for IPv6 Inter-Domain Routing)
- RFC 1997 (BGP Communities Attribute)
- RFC 2796 (BGP Route Reflection - An Alternative to Full Mesh IBGP)
- RFC 3065 (Autonomous System Confederations for BGP)
- RFC 2439 (BGP Route Flap Damping)
- RFC 4893 (BGP Support for Four-octet AS Number Space)
- RFC 1657 (Definitions of Managed Objects for the Fourth Version of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP-4) using SMIv2)
- Open Shortest Path FirstOpen Shortest Path FirstOpen Shortest Path First is an adaptive routing protocol for Internet Protocol networks. It uses a link state routing algorithm and falls into the group of interior routing protocols, operating within a single autonomous system . It is defined as OSPF Version 2 in RFC 2328 for IPv4...
version 2 (OSPFv2) and version 3 (OSPFv3):- RFC 2328 (OSPF Version 2)
- RFC 3101 (The OSPF Not-So-Stubby Area (NSSA) Option)
- RFC 5340 (OSPF for IPv6)
- PIM Sparse Mode (PIM-SM):
- RFC 4601
- RFC 5059
- IGMP v1, v2, and v3:
- RFC 2236 (Internet Group Management Protocol, Version 2)
- RFC 3376 (Internet Group Management Protocol, Version 3)
- Multicast Listener DiscoveryMulticast Listener DiscoveryMulticast Listener Discovery is a component of the Internet Protocol Version 6 suite. MLD is used by IPv6 routers for discovering multicast listeners on a directly attached link, much like IGMP is used in IPv4. The protocol is embedded in ICMPv6 instead of using a separate protocol. MLDv1 is...
(MLD v1 and v2):- RFC 2710 (Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) for IPv6)
- RFC 3810 (Multicast Listener Discovery Version 2 (MLDv2) for IPv6)
- Virtual Router Redundancy ProtocolVirtual Router Redundancy ProtocolThe Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol is a computer networking protocol that provides for automatic assignment of available Internet Protocol routers to participating hosts...
(VRRP v2):- RFC 3768
User interface
XORP provides a command line interface for interactive configuration and operation monitoring. The interface is implemented as a distinct application called xorpsh, that may be invoked by multiple users simultaneously. It interacts via Interprocess communication with the router core modules. The command line language is modelled after that of Juniper NetworksJuniper Networks
Juniper Networks is an information technology and computer networking products multinational company, founded in 1996. It is head quartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA. The company designs and sells high-performance Internet Protocol network products and services...
's JunOS
Junos
Juniper Junos is the software or the network operating system used in Juniper Networks hardware systems. It is an operating system that is used in Juniper's routing, switching and security devices. Juniper offers a Software Development Kit to partners and customers to allow additional customization...
platform.