MTRP is designed to let a node speak over one or more transports while presenting one routing model to higher layers.

• nodes discover direct neighbors
• nodes advertise reachable destinations
• neighbors learn route candidates
• send-time resolution chooses a direct or forwarded path
• metrics are additive across hops

• bounded memory use
• explicit tables and predictable behavior
• transport independence
• support for constrained and full-capability devices

MTRP separates knowledge from choice.

• the forwarding table is what the node knows
• the preferred route table is what the node chose to use during forwarding

• end-to-end reliability
• multicast reliability
• automatic topology optimization
• fragmentation-aware reliable delivery