Routers and Routing

MITM 205 Advance Computer Networks

Ralph Vincent H. Badon

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ROUTERS

a computer networking device that

forwards data packets across an
internetwork toward their destinations,
through a process known as routing.
A router is connected to at least two
networks, commonly two LANs or WANs or
a LAN and its ISPs network.
Routers are located at gateways, the
places where two or more networks
connect.

ROUTERS

are specialized computers that send your

messages and those of every other Internet
user speeding to their destinations along
thousands of pathways.

A Linksys NAT router,

popular for home and
small office networks

Fujitsu GeoStream R980 industrial

strength router
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ROUTING

the act of moving information across an

internetwork from a source to a
destination.
a means of discovering paths in computer
networks along which information can be
sent.
the process of selecting paths in a
network along which to send data or
physical traffic. (wikipedia.org)

ROUTING

directs forwarding, the passing of logically

addressed packets from their source
toward their ultimate destination through
intermediary nodes (wikipedia.org)
typically these nodes are hardware
devices such as routers, bridges,
gateways, firewalls, or switches

Routing vs. Bridging

bridging occurs at Layer 2 (the link layer)

of the OSI reference model, whereas
routing occurs at Layer 3 (the network
layer)
routing and bridging uses different
information to process moving information
from source to destination, so the two
functions accomplish their tasks in
different ways

Routing Components

Routing involves two basic activities:

determining optimal routing paths and
transporting information groups
(typically called packets) through an
internetwork.

Path Determination

Routing protocols use metrics to evaluate what

path will be the best for a packet to travel.
A metric is a standard of measurement, such
as path bandwidth, that is used by routing
algorithms to determine the optimal path to a
destination.
To aid the process of path determination,
routing algorithms initialize and maintain
routing tables, which contain route information.
Route information varies depending on the
routing algorithm used.

Routing Table

an electronic table (file) or database type

object that is stored in a router or a
networked computer
stores the routes (and in some cases,
metrics associated with those routes) to
particular network destinations.
This information contains the topology of
the network immediately around it.
The construction of routing tables is the
primary goal of routing protocols
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Routing Table

contains destination/next hop associations

tell a router that a particular destination
can be reached optimally by sending the
packet to a particular router representing
the next hop on the way to the final
destination.
When a router receives an incoming packet,
it checks the destination address and
attempts to associate this address with a
next hop.
contain other information, such as data
about the desirability of a path.
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Contents of Routing Tables

The routing table consists of at least three

information fields:
the network id: i.e. the destination
network id
cost: i.e. the cost of the path through
which the packet is to be sent
next hop: next hop is the address of the
next station to which the packet is to be
sent on the way to destination

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Example

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Switching

the source host sends a packet addressed

specifically to a router's physical address, this
time with the protocol address of the
destination host
the router determines that it either knows or
does not know how to forward the packet to
the next hop.
If the router does not know how to forward the
packet, it typically drops the packet.
If the router knows how to forward the packet,
however, it changes the destination physical
address to that of the next hop and transmits
the packet.
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Switching at play

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Routing Algorithms

Routers use routing algorithms to find

the best route to a destination.
When we say "best route," we consider
parameters like the number of hops (the
trip a packet takes from one router or
intermediate point to another in the
network), time delay and communication
cost of packet transmission.

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Static vs Dynamic Routing

Static Routing

Dynamic Routing

table mappings
established by the
network administrator
before the beginning of
routing
These mappings do not
change unless the
network administrator
alters them.

adjust to changing
network circumstances
by analyzing incoming
routing update
messages
These messages
permeate the network,
stimulating routers to
rerun their algorithms
and change their
routing tables
accordingly.
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Major Routing Algorithms

global routing algorithms

every router has complete information about
all other routers in the network and the
traffic status of the network.
These algorithms are also known as LS (link
state) algorithms.
decentralized routing algorithms
each router has information about the
routers it is directly connected to -- it doesn't
know about every router in the network.
These algorithms are also known as DV
(distance vector) algorithms
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LS Algorithms

1. Identify the routers that are physically

connected to them and get their IP
addresses
2. Measure the delay time (or any other
important parameters of the network, such
as average traffic) for neighbor routers
routers send echo packets over the
network
Every router that receives these packets
replies with an echo reply packet.
By dividing round trip time by 2, routers
can count the delay time.
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LS Algorithms

3. Broadcast its information over the

network for other routers and receive the
other routers' information
4. Using an appropriate algorithm, identify
the best route between two nodes of the
network
routers choose the best route to
every node.
Dijkstra shortest path algorithm

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Dijkstra shortest path algorithm

a router, based on information that has

been collected from other routers, builds a
graph of the network.
Every link is labeled with a number called
the weight or cost.
This number is a function of delay time,
average traffic, and sometimes simply the
number of hops between nodes.

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Dijkstra shortest path algorithm

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Routing Metrics

Routing tables contain information used by

switching software to select the best route.
Routing algorithms have used many different
metrics to determine the best route. All the
following metrics have been used:
Path length
Reliability
Delay
Bandwidth
Load
Communication cost
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Path Length

the most common routing metric

the sum of the costs associated with each
link traversed
a metric that specifies the number of
passes through internetworking products,
such as routers, that a packet must take
en route from a source to a destination.
routing protocols allow network
administrators to assign arbitrary costs to
each network link
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Reliability

refers to the dependability (usually

described in terms of the bit-error rate) of
each network link
arbitrary numeric values usually assigned
to network links by network
administrators
After a network fails, certain network links
might be repaired more easily or more
quickly than other links.

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Routing Delay

refers to the length of time required to

move a packet from source to destination
through the internetwork
Delay depends on many factors:
the bandwidth of intermediate network
links,
the port queues at each router along
the way,
network congestion on all intermediate
network links,
the physical distance to be traveled.
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Bandwidth

refers to the available traffic capacity of a

link
a 10-Mbps Ethernet link would be preferable
to a 64-kbps leased line
Although bandwidth is a rating of the
maximum attainable throughput on a link,
routes through links with greater bandwidth
do not necessarily provide better routes than
routes through slower links
For example, if a faster link is busier, the
actual time required to send a packet to the
destination could be greater.
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Load

refers to the degree to which a network

resource, such as a router, is busy
Load can be calculated in a variety of
ways, including CPU utilization and
packets processed per second
Monitoring these parameters on a
continual basis can be resource-intensive
itself

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Communication Cost

another important metric, especially

because some companies may not care
about performance as much as they care
about operating expenditures
Although line delay may be longer, they
will send packets over their own lines
rather than through the public lines that
cost money for usage time

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Network vs Routing Protocols

Network Protocols
protocols that are
routed over an
internetwork
Examples of such
protocols are the
Internet Protocol
(IP), DECnet,
AppleTalk, Novell
NetWare etc.

Routing Protocols
used by intermediate
systems to build
tables used in
determining path
selection of routed
protocols
Interior Gateway
Routing Protocol
(IGRP), Routing
Information Protocol
(RIP) etc.
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Routing Information Protocol (RIP)

a widely-used protocol for managing

router information within a self-contained
network such as a corporate local area
network (LAN) or an interconnected group
of such LANs
helps routers dynamically adapt to
changes of network connections by
communicating information about which
networks each router can reach and how
far away those networks are
(wikipedia.org)
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Routing Updates

sends routing-update messages at regular

intervals and when the network topology
changes
When a router receives a routing update that
includes changes to an entry, it updates its
routing table to reflect the new route.
RIP routers maintain only the best route (the
route with the lowest metric value) to a
destination.
the router immediately begins transmitting
routing updates to inform other network
routers of the change.
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RIP Routing Metric

a single routing metric (hop count) to measure

the distance between the source and a
destination network
Each hop in a path from source to destination
is assigned a hop count value, which is
typically1
When a router receives a routing update that
contains a new or changed destination network
entry, the router adds 1 to the metric value
indicated in the update and enters the network
in the routing table.
The IP address of the sender is used as the
next hop.
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RIP Routing Table

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OSPF - Open Shortest Path First

OSPF is a relatively recent intra-domain,

link state, hierarchical routing protocol
developed for IP networks by the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF)
OSPF was derived from an early version of
OSI's IS-IS routing protocol

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EGP - Exterior Gateway Protocol

EGP is a dynamic routing protocol, it uses

a very simple design. It does not use
metrics and therefore cannot make true
intelligent routing decisions.
EGP is the primary inter-domain routing
protocol used on the Internet. It is used
for communication between the "core"
Internet routers.

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BGP - Border Gateway Protocol

BGP represents an attempt to address the

most serious of EGP's problems. Like EGP,
BGP is an inter-domain routing protocol
created for use in the Internet core
routers.
BGP was designed to detect routing loops
and to use a metric so that intelligent
routing decisions may be made (BGP is
the next-generation EGP, BGP is replacing
EGP in the Internet )

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IGRP - Interior Gateway Routing Protocol

IGRP is an intra-domain distance vector

routing protocol developed in the mid1980s by Cisco Systems, Inc. It is
designed for use in large, complex IP
networks.
IGRP uses a combination (vector) of
metrics. Internetwork delay, bandwidth,
reliability, MTU, and load are all factored
into the routing decision.

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TRACING A MESSAGE

If you're using a Microsoft Windows-based

system, you can see just how many
routers are involved in your Internet traffic
by using a program you have on your
computer.
The program is called Traceroute, and
that describes what it does -- it traces the
route that a packet of information takes to
get from your computer to another
computer connected to the Internet.

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TRACING A MESSAGE

To run this program, click on the "MSDOS Prompt" icon on the "Start" menu.
Then, at the "C:\WINDOWS>" prompt,
type tracert www.yahoo.com .

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TRACING A MESSAGE

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Any questions?

End of Lecture.
MITM 205 Advance Computer Networks
41