ICND2 Chapter 4 Summary

IP Routing-HOST Logic
1. When sending a packet, compare the destination IP address of the packet to the sending host’s perception
of the range of addresses in the connected subnet, based on the host’s IP address and subnet mask.
a. If the destination is in the same subnet as the host, send the packet directly to the destination host.
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is needed to find the destination host’s MAC address.
b. If the destination is not in the same subnet as the host, send the packet directly to the host’s default
gateway (default router). ARP is needed to find the default gateway’s MAC address.

IP routing ROUTER Logic

1. For each received frame, use the data-link trailer frame check sequence (FCS) field to ensure that the
frame had no errors; if errors occurred, discard the frame (and do not continue to the next step).
2. Check the frame’s destination data link layer address, and process only if addressed to this router or to a
broadcast/multicast address.
3. Discard the incoming frame’s old data-link header and trailer, leaving the IP packet.
4. Compare the packet’s destination IP address to the routing table, and find the route that matches the
destination address. This route identifies the outgoing interface of the router, and possibly the next-hop
router.
5. Determine the destination data-link address used for forwarding packets to the next router or destination
host (as directed in the routing table).
6. Encapsulate the IP packet inside a new data-link header and trailer, appropriate for the outgoing interface,
and forward the frame out that interface.

Major IP Address Concepts

■ Unicast IP addresses are IP addresses that can be assigned to an individual interface for sending and
receiving packets.
■ Each unicast IP address resides in a particular Class A, B, or C network, called a classful IP network.
■ If subnetting is used, which is almost always true in real life, each unicast IP address also resides in a
specific subset of the classful network called a subnet.
■ The subnet mask, written in either dotted decimal form (for example, 255.255.255.0) or prefix notation
form (for example, /24), identifies the structure of unicast IP addresses and allows devices and people to
derive the subnet number, range of addresses, and broadcast address for a subnet.
■ Devices in the same subnet should all use the same subnet mask; otherwise, they have different opinions
about the range of addresses in the subnet, which can break the IP routing process.
■ Devices in a single VLAN should be in the same single IP subnet.
■ Devices in different VLANs should be in different IP subnets.
■ To forward packets between subnets, a device that performs routing must be used. In this book, only
routers are shown, but multilayer switches—switches that also perform routing functions—can also be
used.
■ Point-to-point serial links use a different subnet than the LAN subnets, but these subnets only require two
IP addresses, one for each router interface on either end of the link.
■ Hosts separated by a router must be in separate subnets.

Router Overlapping Route Logic

When a particular destination IP address matches more than one route in a router’s routing table, the router
uses the most specific route—in other words, the route with the longest prefix length.

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 ICND2 Chapter 4 Summary
DHCP IP Parameters
■ The host’s IP address
■ The associated subnet mask
■ The IP address of the default gateway (router)
■ The IP address(s) of the DNS server(s)

Host Protocol Usage Steps

1. If not known yet, the host uses DHCP to learn its IP address, subnet mask, DNS IP addresses, and default
gateway IP address. If already known, the host skips this step.
2. If the user references a host name not currently held in the host’s name cache, the host makes a DNS
request to resolve the name into its corresponding IP address. Otherwise, the host skips this step.
3. If the user issued the ping command, the IP packet contains an ICMP Echo Request; if the user instead
used a typical TCP/IP application, it uses protocols appropriate to that application.
4. To build the Ethernet frame, the host uses the ARP cache’s entry for the next-hop device—either the
default gateway (when sending to a host on another subnet) or the true destination host (when sending to a
host on the same subnet). If the ARP cache does not hold that entry, the host uses ARP to learn the
information.

Directly Connected Subnets

 The interface is in a working state—in other words, the interface status in the show interfaces
command lists a line status of up and a protocol status of up.
 The interface has an IP address assigned, either through the ip address interface subcommand or
by using DHCP client services.

PING Command
■ The Cisco ping command uses, by default, the output interface’s IP address as the packet’s source
address, unless otherwise specified in an extended ping. The first ping in Example 4-7 uses a source of
10.1.128.251, because the route used to send the packet to 10.1.2.252 sends packets out Albuquerque’s
Serial0 interface, whose IP address is 10.1.128.251.
■ Ping response packets (ICMP Echo Replies) reverse the IP addresses used in the received ping request to
which they are responding. So, in this example, Yosemite’s Echo Reply, in response to the first ping in
Example 4-7, uses 10.1.128.251 as the destination address and 10.1.2.252 as the source IP address.

Default Route Summary

■ Default static routes can be statically configured using the ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 nexthop- address or the
ip default-network net-number command.
■ When a router only matches a packet with the default route, that router uses the forwarding details listed
in the gateway of last resort line.

Table 4-2 Comparing the Use of the Terms Classless and Classful
As Applied To Classful Classless
Addresse Addresses have three parts: network, Addresses have two parts: subnet or prefix,
subnet, and host. and host.
Routing protocols Routing protocol does not advertise masks Routing protocol does advertise masks and
nor support VLSM; RIP-1 and IGRP. support VLSM; RIP-2, EIGRP, OSPF.
Routing (forwarding) IP forwarding process is restricted in how it IP forwarding process has no restrictions on
uses the default route. using the default route.

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 ICND2 Chapter 4 Summary

Classful and Classless Routing

■ Classless routing: When a packet’s destination only matches a router’s default route, and does not match
any other routes, forward the packet using that default route.
■ Classful routing: When a packet’s destination only matches a router’s default route, and does not match
any other routes, only use the default route if this router does not know any routes in the classful network in
which the destination IP address resides.

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 ICND2 Chapter 4 Summary
Command Reference
Command
encapsulation dot1q vlan-id
[native]
encapsulation isl vlan-identifier
[no] ip classless
[no] ip subnet-zero
ip address ip-address mask
[secondary]
ip route prefix mask {ip-address |
interface-type interface-number}
[distance] [permanent]
ip default-network network-
number
show ip route
show ip route ip-address
ping {host-name | ip-address}
traceroute {host-name | ip-
address}
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Description
A subinterface subcommand that tells the router to use 802.1Q trunking, for a
particular VLAN, and with the native keyword, to not encapsulate in a trunking
header
A subinterface subcommand that tells the router to use ISL trunking, for a
particular VLAN
Global command that enables (ip classless) or disables (no ip classless)
classless routing
Global command that allows (ip subnet-zero) or disallows (no ip subnet-zero)
the configuration of an interface IP address in a zero subnet
Interface subcommand that assigns the interface’s IP address, and optionally
makes the address a secondary address
Global configuration command that creates a static route
Global command that creates a default route based on the router’s route to reach
the classful network listed in the command
Lists the router’s entire routing table
Lists detailed information about the route that a router matches for the listed IP
address
Tests IP routes by sending an ICMP packet to the destination host
Tests IP routes by discovering the IP addresses of the routes between a router
and the listed destination