A router (including a wireless router) is a specialized networking device connected to two or more networks running software that allows

the router to move data from one network to another. Router functions in an Internet protocol based network operate at the network layer (OSI Model's layer 3). The primary function of a router is to connect networks together and keep certain kinds of broadcast traffic under control. There are several companies that make routers: Cisco, Linksys, Juniper, Netgear, Nortel (Bay Networks), Redback, Lucent, 3Com, HP, Dlink and Belkin just to name a few. Several networking exams (CCNA, CCNP, JNCIA, JNCIE) will test your ability to identify different types of network equipment. This network certification tutorial on routers focuses on identifying network routers, and explaining the functions of routers provide. This tutorial is not specific to any vendor's technology.

HOW DO ROUTERS WORK?

Let's use a home wireless router connected to a cable provider's internet network in a very simplified example. 1. The router powers on and loads it's OS from flash 2. The router loads the configuration file last saved to NVRAM and sets up the network interfaces and routing protocols it will run. 3. The router adds the network address and subnet for each interface to it's routing table along with the name of the interface itself. 4. The router has a simple static default route to send all non-local data out the network port connected to the cable company. 5. When the router receives a web page request from your computer, it checks the destination IP address against its routing table. 6. The bits forming the destination IP address in the IP packet are used as a hash key to point to the correct route, which in turn points to the correct network interface that the packet should be forwarded out of. 7. The router transmits the packet out the correct interface, to the next router, which repeats the process until the packet reaches the destination. The process is mostly the same for any router.

CAVEAT:

A small complication here. For home cable and wifi routers, the

router is also acting as a "proxy" so the router does one thing that is NOT normal for a router out on the Internet somwehere: it changes the source IP address in the IP packet to it's own address.
One way to categorize the different types of computer network designs is by their scope or scale. For historical reasons, the networking industry refers to nearly every type of design as some kind of area network. Common examples of area network types are:

LAN - Local Area Network WLAN - Wireless Local Area Network WAN - Wide Area Network MAN - Metropolitan Area Network SAN - Storage Area Network, System Area Network, Server Area Network, or sometimes Small Area Network CAN - Campus Area Network, Controller Area Network, or sometimes Cluster Area Network PAN - Personal Area Network

DAN - Desk Area Network LAN and WAN were the original categories of area networks, while the others have gradually emerged over many years of technology evolution. Note that these network types are a separate concept from network topologies such as bus, ring and star. See also - Introduction to Network Topologies LAN - Local Area Network A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. A networked office building, school, or home usually contains a single LAN, though sometimes one building will contain a few small LANs (perhaps one per room), and occasionally a LAN will span a group of nearby buildings. In TCP/IP networking, a LAN is often but not always implemented as a single IP subnet. In addition to operating in a limited space, LANs are also typically owned, controlled, and managed by a single person or organization. They also tend to use certain connectivity technologies, primarily Ethernet and Token Ring.

WAN - Wide Area Network As the term implies, a WAN spans a large physical distance. The Internet is the largest WAN, spanning the Earth. A WAN is a geographically-dispersed collection of LANs. A network device called a routerconnects LANs to a WAN. In IP networking, the router maintains both a LAN address and a WAN address. A WAN differs from a LAN in several important ways. Most WANs (like the Internet) are not owned by any one organization but rather exist under collective or distributed ownership and management. WANs tend to use technology like ATM, Frame Relay and X.25 for connectivity over the longer distances. LAN, WAN and Home Networking Residences typically employ one LAN and connect to the Internet WAN via an Internet Service Provider (ISP) using a broadband modem. The ISP provides a WAN IP address to the modem, and all of the computers on the home network use LAN (so-calledprivate) IP addresses. All computers on the home LAN can communicate directly with each other but must go through a central gateway, typically abroadband router, to reach the ISP. Other Types of Area Networks While LAN and WAN are by far the most popular network types mentioned, you may also commonly see references to these others:

Wireless Local Area Network - a LAN based on WiFi wireless network technology Metropolitan Area Network - a network spanning a physical area larger than a LAN but smaller than a WAN, such as a city. A MAN is typically owned an operated by a single entity such as a government body or large corporation.

Campus Area Network - a network spanning multiple LANs but smaller than a MAN, such as on a university or local business campus. Storage Area Network - connects servers to data storage devices through a technology like Fibre Channel. System Area Network - links high-performance computers with high-speed connections in a cluster configuration. Also known as Cluster Area Network.

The OSI model defines the application layer as being the user interface. The OSI application layer is responsible for displaying data and images to the user in a humanrecognizable format and to interface with the presentation layer below it. Examples of applications that utilize the network are: Telnet FTP Instant Message software (AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo) Microsoft Windows File Shares Web Browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari) Network games of Doom, Quake, Unreal (first-person 3D shooter video games) IRC (mIRC) The presentation layer handles the conversion of data between a Standards-based or platform independant formats to a format understood by the local machine. This allows for data to be transported between devices and still be understood.

The presentation layer performs the folowing functions: 1. Communication with the application layer above. 2. Translation of data conforming to cross-platform standards into formats understood by the local machine. 3. Communication with the session layer below.
Examples of Presentation Layer Functions

Conversion of a Sun .RAS raster graphic to JPG. Conversion of ASCII to IBM EBCDIC Conversion of .PICT on a MAC to .jpg Conversion of .wav to .mp3

he session layer tracks connections, also called sessions. The session layer should keep track of multiple file downloads requested by a particiular FTP application, or multiple telnet connections from a single terminal client, or web page retrievals from a web server. With TCP/IP this functionality is handled by application software addressing a connection to a remote machine and using a different local port number for each connection. The session layer performs the following functions: 1. Communication with the Presentation layer above. 2. Organize and manage one or more connections per application, between hosts.

3. Communication with the Transport layer below.

EXAMPLE

Sessions are used to keep track of individual connections to remote servers. Your web browser is an excellent example of the use of sessions. Your web browser (an application layer object) opens a web page. That page contains text, graphics, Macromedia Flash objects and perhaps a Java applet. The graphics, the Flash object and the Java applet are all stored as separate files on the web server. To access them, a separate download must be started. Your web browser opens a separate session to the web server to download each of the individual files. The session layer keeps track of which packets and data belong to which file and keeps track of where they go (in this case, to your web browser). In most modern Internet applications, the session, presentation and application layers are usually rolled together inside the application itself, thus, your web browser performs all functions of the session, presentation and application layers. If networking software performs reliable data transfer functions, then the detection of errors, and retransmission of data to recover those errors or lost data will occur in software managing this layer. The transport layer may use a variety of techniques such as a Cyclic Redundancy Check, windowing and acknowledgements. If data is lost or damaged it is the transport layer's responsibility to recover from that error. Communicate with the Session layer above. Reassemble transport Protocol Data Units into data streams Reliable protocols operating at this layer will Detect errors and lost data Recover lost data Manage retransmission of data. Segmentation of data streams into transport Protocol Data Units. Communicate with the Network layer below. Examples of transport layer protocols include: Transmission Control Protocol (Reliable) User Datagram Protocol (Unreliable) It is the network layer's job to figure out the network topology, handle routing and to prepare data for transmission. The network layer is concerned with the following primary functions: Communication with the Transport layer above. Encapsulation of Transport data into Network layer Protocol Data Units. Management of connectivity and routing between hosts or networks. Communication with the data link layer below. Examples of network layer protocols include:

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Internet Protocol Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP or "ping") Internet Gateway Management Protocol (IGMP) IPX/SPX The data link Layer is the second layer of the OSI model. The data link layer performs various functions depending upon the hardware protocol used, but has four primary functions: COMMUNICATION WITH NETWORK LAYER SEGMENTATION & REASSEMBLY BIT ORDERING COMMUNICATION WITH PHYSICAL LAYER COMMUNICATION with the Network layer above. SEGMENTATION of upper layer datagrams (also called packets) into frames in sizes that can be handled by the communications hardware. BIT ORDERING. The data link layer organizes the pattern of data bits into frames before transmission. The frame formatting issues such as stop and start bits, bit order, parity and other functions are handled here. Management of bigendian / little-endian issues are also managed at this layer. COMMUNICATION with the Physical layer below This layer provides reliable transit of data across a physical link. The data link layer is concerned with physical addressing, network topology, physical link management, error notification, ordered delivery of frames, and flow control. It should be noted that in most modern network interface adaptors, the Physical and Datalink functions are performed by the network interface adaptor.
EXAMPLE

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Ethernet Network Adaptors uses a Media Access Control (MAC) address, which is a physical address that (somewhat) uniquely identifies a network card to the physical network. The Ethernet Adaptor's primary job at the data link layer is to transmit Ethernet frames onto the wire. It places its own MAC address in the frame, followed by the destination MAC address to which it wishes to communicate, sets various other values in the Ethernet frame (protocol type etc.) and then transmits on the wire. The CSMA/CD protocol thatEthernet uses to control access to the common network bus could be said to occur at the data link layer of the OSI model or could also be called a data link function.

The OSI Model's layer 1, the Physical Layer, outlines the characteristics of the physical medium between networked devices--cabling, wiring, fiber strands and the air. Transmission and receipt of data from the physical medium (copper wire, fiber, radio frequencies, barbed wire, string etc.) is managed at this layer. The Physical Layer receives data from the data link Layer, and transmits it to the wire. The physical layer controls the electrical and mechanical functions related to the transmission and receipt of a communications signal. It also manages the encoding and decoding of data contained within the modulated signal. Note that for two devices to communicate, they must beconnected to the same type of physical medium (wiring). 802.3 Ethernet to 802.3 Ethernet, FDDI to FDDI, serial to serial etc. Two end stations using different protocols can only communicate through a multi-protocol bridge or a router. The physical layer is responsible for: Communication with the data link layer above it. Fragmentation of data into frames Reassembly of frames into data link Protocol Data Units. Transmission to the physical media Receiving from the physical media It should be noted that in most modern network interface adaptors, the physical and data link functions are performed by the adaptor.
Example Physical Protocols

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CSMA/CD - Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detect CSMA/CA - Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Avoid FDMA - Frequency Division Multiple Access MSK - Minimum Shift Keying GFMSK - Gaussian-Fitered Minimum Shift Keying TDMA - Time Division Multiple Access CDMA - Code Division Multiple Access B8ZS - Binary 8 Zero Substitution 2B1Q - 2 Binary 1 Quaternary PCM - Pulse Code Modulation QAM - Quadrature Amplitude Modulation PSK - Phase Shift Keying SONET - Synchronous Optical NETworking