Route learning
DVeMesh tracks direct connected peers and learned overlay destinations in a DVeIP-to-next-hop table. Authenticated peers advertise reachable DVeIPs in encrypted application payloads. Advertisements include hop and path information; an advertisement containing the local NodeID is rejected.
Forwarding
The packet pipeline prefers a live direct peer. If there is no direct session, it looks up a learned route and forwards a bounded transit envelope through a live next hop. It does not flood packets or choose an arbitrary peer. Inbound transit packets are ACL-checked again at each node.
Hop and expiry behavior
The transit envelope starts with a hop limit of 8; forwarding decrements it. The route table documentation specifies periodic advertisements and expiry after missed refreshes. When a direct peer is lost, routes learned through that peer are removed.
Return traffic and failure
Bidirectional communication requires a valid route and ACL decision in both directions. A missing reverse route, blocked ACL, dead next hop, or absent session prevents delivery. Reconnection is retried with backoff by MeshDaemon, but recovery over separate hosts has not been verified as a complete A → B → C scenario.
Validation status
Automated dataplane tests exercise route and forwarding behavior. Those tests do not establish a production WAN route or multi-host throughput. See Roadmap for the remaining validation work.