DIRE DAWA UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Network Design Group Assignment

1. MULUGETA HAILU 1200979

2. SOFONIYAS SHAMBEL 1201316
3. KALKIDAN TECHANE 1200687
4. HAREGITU BITEW 1302989
5. TSEHAYNESH ZELEKE 1304033
6. DERARTU GERBA 1302539

Submitted To: Biniyam A.

Submission Date: dec,18,2023

Contents
1 Routing protocol....................................................................................................................................... 1
Dynamic Routing ........................................................................................................................................ 1
Characteristics of Dynamic Routing ..................................................................................................... 2
Type of dynamic routing ........................................................................................................................ 3
Distance Vector Routing......................................................................................................................... 3
1 Routing Information Protocol (RIP) .............................................................................................. 4
2 Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP) .................................................................................. 4
Link State Routing .................................................................................................................................. 5
1 Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) ................................................................................................... 5
2 Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) ................................................................... 6
Hybrid Routing ....................................................................................................................................... 7
1. EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) ............................................................ 7
2 Switching protocol ................................................................................................................................... 8
1 Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) ............................................................................................................ 8
STP port states ........................................................................................................................................ 9
reference..................................................................................................................................................... 10
1 Routing protocol
Routing is a procedure of making decisions in which the router (which is a hardware device used
in networking to receive and send data in the form of packets on a network) selects the best path
to make data transfer from source to destination. A router exists in the network layer in the OSI as
well as TCP/IP model. Some functions of a router are:

• Building an optimal path on a network to reach its destination (in which static and dynamic
routing take place).

• Taking routing decisions.

• Balancing load.

Types of Routing:

• Static routing

• Default routing

• Dynamic routing

Dynamic Routing
Dynamic routing may be defined as a form of IP routing process where the routing tables are
updated and modified automatically without the manual intervention of the network administrator.

Dynamic Routing uses various routing protocols to process the routing between the nodes. Routing
protocols are a set of complex algorithms and is used to calculate the best and the shortest path
from source to destination to forward the packets.

Dynamic routing is known as a technique of finding the best path for the data to travel over a
network in this process a router can transmit data through various different routes and reach its
destination on the basis of conditions at that time of communication circuits.

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Characteristics of Dynamic Routing
Some of the characteristics of dynamic routing are:

• Routing tables are updated automatically.

• Each router shares its routing information to the neighbor router periodically.
• The network administrator’s task is reduced.
• It can handle a very large network.
• Routing update changes periodically, as the topology changes.
• The router does not bother about the destination network.
• It is also called adaptive routing because the routing information changes automatically
as there is any change or introduction of a new network.
• Dynamic routing is said to be less secure as compared to static routing.
• It consumes more resources of the router such as memory, processor, bandwidth, etc.

Advantages

• Beneficial in Performance as well as scalable networking with a high frequency of data on

nodes.

• Makes fewer mistakes as it reroutes itself compared to other routing protocols.

• No need to be manually configured by the admin.

• Shares information about the network with each other makes them more reliable to work
efficiently.

Disadvantages

• Requires more heavy and reliable powerful hardware.

• Higher maintenance compared to static protocol

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Type of dynamic routing

Dynamic routing is of three categories:

• Distance Vector Routing

• Link State Routing

• Hybrid Routing (Advance Distance Vector)

Distance Vector Routing

Distance vector routing uses the parameters: distance and direction to calculate the best possible
path to forward the packet from source to destination. Distance is calculated by counting the
numbers of routers in between the source and destination. Every router counts its adjacent router
as a next-hop. The minimum number of hop count between the source router and the destination
router makes the best possible path for routing.

Distance vector routing uses the Bellman-Ford Algorithm or Ford-Fulkerson algorithms to

choose the best path. In distance vector routing, routing advertisements are received from the
directly connected or the neighbor router and update its routing information periodically. The
update process continues router to router till the destination is reached. It shares entire routing table

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information to its immediate neighbor router.

1 Routing Information Protocol (RIP)

Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is a dynamic routing protocol that uses hop count as a routing
metric to find the best path between the source and the destination network. It is a distance-vector
routing protocol that has an AD value of 120 and works on the Network layer (layer 3) of the OSI
model. RIP uses port number 520.

RIP uses a distance vector algorithm to decide which path to put a packet on to get to its
destination. Each RIP router maintains a routing table, which is a list of all the destinations the
router knows how to reach. Each router broadcasts its entire routing table to its closest neighbors
every 30 seconds. In this context, neighbors are the other routers to which a router is connected
directly -- that is, the other routers on the same network segments as the selected router. The
neighbors, in turn, pass the information on to their nearest neighbors, and so on, until all RIP hosts
within the network have the same knowledge of routing paths. This shared knowledge is known
as convergence.

2 Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP)

it is a distance vector interior gateway protocol (IGP) developed by Cisco. It is used by routers to
exchange routing data within an autonomous system.

It operates at the Network Layer (Layer 3) of the OSI model.

IGRP is a proprietary protocol. IGRP was created in part to overcome the limitations of RIP
(maximum hop count of only 15, and a single routing metric) when used within large networks.
IGRP supports multiple metrics for each route, including bandwidth, delay, load, and reliability;
to compare two routes these metrics are combined into a single metric, using a formula which can
be adjusted through the use of pre-set constants. By default, the IGRP composite metric is a sum
of the segment delays and the lowest segment bandwidth. The maximum configurable hop count
of IGRP-routed packets is 255 (default 100), and routing updates are broadcast every 90 seconds
(by default).[1] IGRP uses protocol number 9 for communication.[2]

IGRP is considered a classful routing protocol. Because the protocol has no field for a subnet mask,
the router assumes that all subnetwork addresses within the same Class A, Class B, or Class C

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network have the same subnet mask as the subnet mask configured for the interfaces in question.
This contrasts with classless routing protocols that can use variable length subnet masks. Classful
protocols have become less popular as they are wasteful of IP address space.

Unlike some other routing protocols, IGRP doesn't perform incremental updates. Instead, it sends
the whole routing table to its neighbors during updates. However, IGRP only sends updates when
there is a change in the network topology or metrics, which reduces unnecessary network traffic.

Link State Routing

Unlike distance-vector, link-state routing does not rely on the neighbor router for routing
information. Instead, it maps the overall state of the entire network that includes the topology,
bandwidth, traffic congestion in a particular link, etc.

In link-state routing, each router retrieves information about itself, its directly connected link, and
the state of that link. This information is passed from router to router, without changing the entire
routing information of the adjacent router.

Each router makes only a copy of the information received from its neighbor. Thus, every router
has identical information and can independently calculate its best path for forwarding packets from
source to destination.

Although link-state is more complex than distance-vector, however, it is more reliable and
minimizes the shortcomings of distance vector routing.

Examples of link-state routing are OSPF, IS-IS, etc.

1 Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)

it is a routing protocol for Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It uses a link state routing (LSR)
algorithm and falls into the group of interior gateway protocols (IGPs), operating within a single
autonomous system (AS). and it operates on the Network Layer.

OSPF gathers link state information from available routers and constructs a topology map of the
network. The topology is presented as a routing table to the internet layer for routing packets by
their destination IP address. OSPF supports Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet
Protocol version 6 (IPv6) networks and is widely used in large enterprise networks. IS-IS, another

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LSR-based protocol, is more common in large service provider networks.

Originally designed in the 1980s, OSPF version 2 is defined in RFC 2328 (1998).[3] The updates
for IPv6 are specified as OSPF version 3 in RFC 5340 (2008).[4] OSPF supports the Classless
Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) addressing model.

OSPF detects changes in the topology, such as link failures, and converges on a new loop-free
routing structure within seconds. [5] The OSPF routing policies for constructing a route table are
governed by link metrics associated with each routing interface. Cost factors may be the distance
of a router (round-trip time), data throughput of a link, or link availability and reliability, expressed
as simple unitless numbers. This provides a dynamic process of traffic load balancing between
routes of equal cost.

2 Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS)

ISIS (Intermediate System to Intermediate System) is a routing protocol commonly used in larger
computer networks and internet service provider networks. It is designed to enable efficient and
reliable routing of network traffic. ISIS operates at the OSI Layer 2 (Data Link Layer) and is
based on the link-state algorithm similar to OSPF (Open Shortest Path First).

ISIS uses a hierarchical structure to organize routing information within a network. The network
is divided into areas, and each area has its own ISIS routers. Routers within the same area exchange
routing information using Link-State Protocol Data Units (LSPs) to build a complete picture of the
network topology. ISIS routers then calculate the shortest path to reach each network by
constructing a shortest path tree.

ISIS has several features that contribute to its scalability and stability. One such feature is the
support for multiple levels of hierarchy, which allows the partitioning of a large network into
smaller areas, reducing the complexity of flooding and computation. Additionally, ISIS supports
both IP and non-IP protocols, making it versatile for various network environments.

Overall, ISIS is a robust and widely deployed routing protocol used in large-scale networks to
ensure efficient packet forwarding and optimal routing decisions.

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Hybrid Routing
It is a combination of both distance vector and link-state routing. Basically, hybrid routing is
considered to be the advanced distance-vector, however, it also contains some of the features of
the link-state routing protocol.

An example of a hybrid routing protocol is EIGRP. Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
has the features of both the distance vector and the link-state routing. It does not send Link state
advertisement, but it sends traditional distance vector routing information to the neighbor router.

It synchronizes with the routing updates of the neighbor router. After that, it sends a specific link-
state update to its neighbor.

1. EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol)

it is a Hybrid Routing Protocol that show both Distance Vector and Link-State Routing Protocol
properties. It was developed by Cisco as an enhancement to IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing
Protocol) and as a Cisco proprietary protocol and it is only available on Cisco devices.

EIGRP uses DUAL (Diffusing Update Algorithm) for routing calculations. Periodic Updates are
not used but if a change occurs in the network like up/down links, update messages are sent.

With DUAL Algorithm, Topology table is built. In Topology Table both the Best Routes and the
Backup Routes to a destination are stored. This provides, a Fast Convergence characteristic, a Fast
Convergence Mechanisms.

The most important characteristic of this routing protocol is that, it is a Fast Converged Routing
Protocol. Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol keeps the “Backup Routes” beside the
“Best Route” to a destination in the Topology table. So, during a failure, it does not need to
calculate a new route. Instead, it uses the Backup Route towards the destination.

EIGRP uses different types of messages to build neighborship, to keep the connection and for the
updates. These main messages are:

Hello,Update,Query,Reply

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 2 Switching protocol
In computer networking, Switching is the process of transferring data packets from one device
to another in a network, or from one network to another, using specific devices called switches.
A computer user experiences switching all the time for example, accessing the Internet from
your computer device, whenever a user requests a webpage to open, the request is processed
through switching of data packets only.
Switching takes place at the Data Link layer of the OSI Model. This means that after the
generation of data packets in the Physical Layer, switching is the immediate next process in data
communication. In this article, we shall discuss different processes involved in switching, what
kind of hardware is used in switching, etc.

1 Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a Layer 2 network protocol used to prevent looping within a
network topology. STP was created to avoid the problems that arise when computers exchange
data on a local area network (LAN) that contains redundant paths. If the flow of traffic is not
carefully monitored and controlled, the data can be caught in a loop that circles around network
segments, affecting performance and bringing traffic to a near halt.

Networks are often configured with redundant paths when connecting network segments.
Although redundancy can help protect against disaster, it can also lead to bridge or switch
looping. Looping occurs when data travels from a source to a destination along redundant paths
and the data begins to circle around the same paths, becoming amplified and resulting in a
broadcast storm.

STP can help prevent bridge looping on LANs that include redundant links. Without STP, it would
be difficult to implement that redundancy and still avoid network looping. STP monitors all
network links, identifies redundant connections and disables the ports that can lead to looping.

STP is the spanning tree algorithm that runs on each STP-enabled bridge. The algorithm was
specifically designed to avoid bridge loops when redundant paths exist. It uses the BPDUs to

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identify redundant links and select the best data path for forwarding messages. The algorithm also
controls packet forwarding by setting the port state.

STP port states

When STP is enabled on a network bridge, each port is set to one of five states to control frame
forwarding:

1. Disabled. The port does not participate in frame forwarding or STP operations.

2. Blocking. The port does not participate in frame forwarding and discards frames received
from the attached network segment. However, the port continues to listen for and process
BPDUs.

3. Listening. From the blocking state, the port transitions to the listening state. The port
discards frames from the attached network segment or forwarded from another port.
However, it receives BPDUs and redirects them to the switch module for processing.

4. Learning. The port moves from the listening state to the learning state. It listens for and
processes BPDUs but discards frames from the attached network segment or forwarded
from another port. It also starts updating the address table with the information it's learned.
In addition, it processes user frames but does not forward those frames.

5. Forwarding. The port moves from the learning state to the forwarding state and starts
forwarding frames across the network segments. This includes frames from the attached
network segment and those forwarded from another port. The port also continues to
receive and process BPDUs, and the address table continues to be updated.

STP moves from the blocking state through the forwarding state in relatively short order, usually
between 15 to 20 seconds for each state. Every port starts in the blocking state. If it's been disabled,
the port enters directly into the blocking state upon being enabled. STP balances the states across
ports to avoid bridge looping, while still making redundancy possible.

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 reference
[1] Cisco Systems Configuring IGRP

[2]"Assigned Internet Protocol Numbers". Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Retrieved 18
June 2013.

[3] J. Moy (April 1998). OSPF Version 2. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2328. STD 54. RFC
2328. Internet Standard 54. Obsoletes RFC 2178. Updated by RFC 5709, 6549, 6845, 6860, 7474 and 8042.

[4]R. Coltun; D. Ferguson; J. Moy (July 2008). A. Lindem (ed.). OSPF for IPv6. Network Working Group.
doi:10.17487/RFC5340. RFC 5340. Proposed Standard. Obsoletes RFC 2740. Updated by RFC 6845, 6860,
8362, 7503 and 9454

[5] OSPF Convergence, August 6, 2009, retrieved June 13, 2016

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