Re: Can a prefix be never routed on Internet but used only for source address in IP packets?

["Dale W. Carder via NANOG" <nanog () lists nanog org>]

Thus spake Sriram, Kotikalapudi (Fed) via NANOG (nanog () lists nanog org) on Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 04:34:18PM +0000:
> Question:  Can a prefix be never routed on the Internet but used only one-way for source address in IP packets? 
>
> That is. a user owns an IP prefix. They never advertise a route to it in BGP on the Internet. But they use the prefix 
> solely for source address in IP traffic from a source to a destination (sink).  In this set up, the destination 
> server obviously cannot/doesn't return any acknowledgements etc. to the source.  Anyone aware if there is any such 
> known application in use on the Internet - even if it is rare? Thanks.

We see this for example in a generalized pattern like 
instrument -> DAQ system -> UDP firehose -> FPGAs -> compute, 
which is a completely unidirectional application workflow.

Dale

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