THE ROUTING PROCESS

● Routing is a process that determines the best path for traffic to take from one network to
Another

● Default gateways are used on nodes to offer a destination for unknown packets
○ Without default gateways each node would need to know the destination for
everything

● Nodes can be configured with an IP either statically or dynamically

● Routers work by reading the destination IP address of a packet and referencing the routing
table, sending the packet to the destination interface.

● Steps
1. PC puts source and destination IP into packet header
2. PC looks in ARP cache for MAC of L2 destination
3. PC does an ARP request if not there
4. PC puts source and destination MAC into frame header
5. PC sends to router
6. Router reads destination MAC, matches it to the interface
7. Router reads destination IP address
8. Router looks in route table for a match
9. Router checks ARP cache for MAC of next hop destination
10. Router performs an ARP request if not in ARP cache
11. Router rebuilds frame header
12. Router sends to next hop

● Router makes decisions based on best path

○ Directly connected networks first
○ Remote networks second
○ Default gateway last
○ Dynamic routing protocols are also prioritized based on trust.
■ EIGRP
■ OSPF
■ RIP

● Two paths to same network can be load balanced if cost is the same

● Multiple dynamic routing protocols can be configured and in use, different protocols have
different Administrative Distances (AD), lower is better
○ Directly connected is 0
 ○ Static route is 1
○ EIGRP is 90
○ OSPF is 110
○ RIP is 120

● Directly connected interfaces must be ​no shutdown​ to show

Routing Table Basics

● Route table sections

➔ Route source - Uses letters to designate where it was learned from
➔ Destination network
➔ Administrative distance
➔ Metric
➔ Next hop
➔ Route timestamp
➔ Outgoing interface

● Kinds of routes
❏ Ultimate route - Contains a next-hop IP or exit interface
❏ Level 1 route - Equal or less than the classful mask of the network
❏ Level 1 parent route - Subnetted level 1 route, heading entry for smaller subnets
❏ Level 2 child routes - Subnet of a classful network address

● When searching for a route, matches from top down and stops at the first match
❏ If it matches a level 1 ultimate route, traffic is forwarded
❏ If it matches a level 1 parent route, it searches the level 2 child routes and traffic
❏ is forwarded on a subsequent match
❏ If it matches a level 1 parent route but not a level 2 child route, traffic is dropped
❏ If it matches nothing in the route table, traffic is dropped

Static Routing Basics

● Routers know of routes via static or dynamic routes
● Pros
○ Static routes are not advertised to other routes unless specifically configured to do so
○ Static routes are more secure due to administrator intervention needed to input them
● Cons
○ Static routes are difficult to manage due to the mentioned administrator intervention
○ Failover abilities are limited
○ Does not scale well with large networks
○ Human error causes many issues
● Types of static routes
 ○ Standard
■ Normal static route used for subnets
○ Default
■ Matches all packets (0.0.0.0/0)
■ Also known as Gateway of Last Resort
○ Summary
■ Can be used to match multiple subnets if networks are contiguous and use the same
next hop
○ Floating
■ A route with a higher administrative distance than the normal route
■ Takes over for the “more trusted” route with a lower AD if the link fails
■ Manual method of failover routes

Static Routing Configuration

●​ ip route <subnet> <subnet mask> <next hop IP> <exit interface>
● ip route 192.168.10.0 255.255.255.0 172.16.0.1 f0/1
● Exit interface may be used exclusively on point to point connections
● On multiple access networks such as Ethernet, next hop IP is required and exit interface
is not required
○ Providing the exit interface is recommended for performance
○ A router must do an additional lookup to determine the exit interface if not provided
● Default route is same as a standard route but with 0.0.0.0 as the destination
●​ ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 172.16.0.1 f0/1
● Floating statics can be configured by appending a high AD value to the end of a static route
● Summary routes
○ Allows one route to match for multiple subnets that are contiguous
○ Often called supernetting
○ Summarizing steps
■ Write out the subnets in question in binary
■ Find the number of bits starting from the left side of each subnet that are the same for
all subnets
■ This will be the new prefix or subnet mask
■ Perform the ANDing process of one network against the new prefix to determine the
new network ID
■ Enter a static route for this new summary network
● Show commands
​ ○ ping
○ traceroute
○ show ip route
○ show ip interface brief
○ show cdp neighbors detail
○ show run
○ Make sure interfaces are no shutdown