R1 R3

S D

R2 R4

(a) A 6-node communication network where every node

is reachable from every other node

S routing table R1 routing table R2 routing table

RN NH RC RN NH RC RN NH RC
R1 R1 1 S S 1 S S 1
R2 R2 1 R2 R2 1 R1 R1 1
R3 R1 2 R3 R3 1 R3 R4 2
R4 R2 2 R4 R2 2 R4 R4 1
D R2 3 D R3 2 D R4 2

R3 routing table R4 routing table D routing table

RN NH RC RN NH RC RN NH RC
S R1 2 S R2 2 S R3 3
R1 R1 1 R1 R2 2 R1 R3 2
R2 R4 2 R2 R2 1 R2 R4 2
R4 R4 1 R3 R3 1 R3 R3 1
D D 1 D D 1 R4 R4 1
(b) Illustration of routing tables for the 6-node network where RN, NH and RC are
abbreviations of reachable node, next hop and routing cost, respectively. The routing
cost is the hop count here.

Figure 1.7: Illustration of routing in a communication network

completed communication.

In this course, we will discuss both random access and conflict-free MAC protocols suitable for
wired and wireless multiple access channels.

1.2.4 Routing

As the size or geographical spread of a communication network increases, many pairs of nodes
will not have a direct communication link and will depend on other nodes to relay information be-
tween them. A sequence of relay nodes which transfer information between a source-destination
node pair is called a route. A route implicitly also consists of the communication links which
connect the source and destination to the relay nodes and the links which connects the relay
nodes to each other. A node is said to be reachable from a source node if a route exists from the
source node to it. Figure 1.7a illustrates a communication network where every node is reachable
from every other node. One route between S and D can be S − R1 − R3 − D which consists of
the relay nodes R1 and R3 . Other possible routes are S − R2 − R4 − D and S − R1 − R2 − R4 − D.