Routing

• Routing happens when a computer on one network finds the best path to send a packet to a computer on
another network.
• To forward the packet a device called a router is used.
• Routing makes use of IP addresses (logical addresses) and not MAC addresses (physical addresses)
because physical addresses don’t indicate to which network a device belongs.

The Routing Process

• The network layer divides data into units called packets of equal size and bears a sequence number for
rearranging on the receiving end.
• Routers perform the "traffic directing" functions on the internet; data packets are forwarded through the
networks of the internet from router to router until they reach their destination computer.
• Each router has a prior knowledge only of networks attached to it directly. A routing protocol shares
this information first among immediate neighbours, and then throughout the network. This way, routers
gain knowledge of the topology of the network.
• Each packet is independent of the other and may travel using different routes to reach the receiver
hence may arrive at different times at the receiver.
• The best possible path may depend on several factors such as congestion, number of hops, etc.

Routing Protocols.
 A routing protocol is a set of processes, algorithms, and messages that are used to exchange routing
information and create the routing table that enables them to select the best routes between any two
nodes on a computer network.
 Routing protocols determine the best path to each network, which is then added to the routing table.

Basic Functions of Routing Protocols

 Maintaining up-to-date routing information
 Choosing the best path to destination networks (Path determination).
 Ability to find a new best path if the current path is no longer available (Route management).
 Identify other routers on the network (Discovery).

Dynamic Routing Protocol

 Dynamic routing protocol enables software in routing devices to automatically calculates routes and
update the routing table when a particular path is found to be shorter or longer than before. Once the
routing table is updated by a router, it is once again shared with the rest of the routers until each of
them have the most up-to-date roadmaps for sending data.
 An important characteristic of a routing protocol is how quickly it converges when there is a change in
the topology.
 Convergence is when all routers have complete and accurate information about the network.
 Convergence time is the time it takes routers to share information, calculate best paths, and update their
routing tables.

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Advantages of Dynamic Routing
 Administrator has less work in maintaining the configuration when adding or deleting networks.
 Routers automatically exchange routing information when there is a topology changes.
 Configuration is less error-prone.
 More scalable; growing the network usually does not present a problem.

Disadvantages of Dynamic Routing:

 Router resources are used (CPU cycles, memory, and link bandwidth).
 More administrator knowledge is required for configuration, verification, and troubleshooting.
 It is an expense to dedicate part of a router’s resources for protocol operation.

Static Routing Protocol

 Routers are established by the network administrator and do not change until the network administrator
manually changes them.
 The network address and subnet mask of remote network, and IP Address of next hop router or exit
interface are specified.
 Static routing is suitable when
i) Network only consists of few routers
ii) Network is connected to Internet only through one ISP

Advantages of Static Routing

 Minimal CPU processing
 Easier for administrator to understand
 Easy to configure

Disadvantages of Static Routing

 Configuration and maintenance are time-consuming.
 Configuration is error-prone, especially in large networks.
 Administrator intervention is required to maintain changing route information.
 Does not scale well with growing networks; maintenance becomes cumbersome.
 Requires complete knowledge of the entire network for proper implementation.

Classes of Routing Protocols

 Distance Vector – It finds the best path to a remote network by using the relative distance. Each
time when a packet passes through a router is referred as a hop. The best route is the route which has
the lowest number of hops to the network. Examples are RIP and EIGRP.
 Link State– It finds the shortest path first by analyzing different sources like the speed, cost and path
congestion. Each router creates three separate tables. The first table keeps track of directly attached
neighbors, the second one determines the topology of the entire internetwork, and the third one is
used for the routing table. Example is OSPF.
 Hybrid– Uses characteristic of distance vector and link state. Example is EIGRP.

Routing Information Protocol (RIP)

 It is a dynamic protocol used to find the best route or path from source to destination over a network
by using a routing metric/hop count algorithm. (A hop is the path a data packet travels through to
reach each router).
 RIP is a distance vector protocol which is capable of routing messages across networks up to a
maximum of 15 hops.
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  It uses the Bellman-ford algorithm to determine the shortest path from the source to destination,
which allows the data to be delivered at high speed in the shortest time.
 Routers using RIP discover the network by first sending a message requesting router tables from
neighboring devices.
 Neighbour routers running RIP respond by sending the full routing tables back to the requestor. The
requestor follows an algorithm to merge all of these updates into its own table. At scheduled intervals
(every 30 seconds), RIP routers then periodically send out their router tables to their neighbors so that
any changes can be propagated across the network to inform other network devices of the change.
 RIP devices maintain only the best route (the route with the lowest metric value) to a destination.
 RIP is used for small networks.
 There are two versions of RIP namely RIPV1 and RIPV2.

FEATURES RIPV1 RIPV2

Class support Classful Classless
Supports variable-length subnet mask (VLSM) No Yes
Sends the subnet mask along with routing update No Yes
Communicates with other RIP router through the Broadcast address Multicast address
address type
Supports authentication No Yes

Advantages of RIP
 It is a dynamic protocol which means routes are updated automatically whenever changes occur
 Easy to understand and configure.
 Supported by almost all routers

Disadvantages of RIP
 15 hop count restriction so any router beyond that distance is considered as infinity, and hence
unreachable.
 RIP doesn’t support multiple paths on the same route, which may generate more routing loops.
 Inability to organise networks into a routing hierarchy, important for manageability and
performance on large internal networks.
 Re-sending of full router tables at scheduled intervals cause network traffic problems.

Open Shortest Path First

 It is a link state and hierarchical routing protocol that was created to overcome some of the
limitations of RIP.
 Instead of advertising the distance to connected networks, OSPF advertises the status of directly
connected links using Link-State Advertisements (LSAs).
 OSPF only exchanges routing information (updates LSAs) when there is a change to one of its
links, and will only send the change in the update.
 It effectively calculates the shortest path with minimum network traffic when the change occurs.
 OSPF routers rely on cost (based on link bandwidth) to compute the best path through the network.
 Information about all of the routes in a network are learned by all of the OSPF routers within that
network—called an area.
 Each OSPF router passes information about the routes and costs they’ve heard about to all of their
adjacent OSPF routers, called neighbours.
 The OSPF process builds and maintains three separate tables:
A neighbour table – contains a list of all neighboring routers.
A topology table – contains a list of all possible routes to all known networks within an area.
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 A routing table – contains the best route for each known network.
 The shortest path computation is done using Djikstra’s mathematical algorithm.
 OSPF area enhances growth and ease of management.
 OSPF involves the type of service routing which means multiple routes can be installed according
to the priority or type of service.
 OSPF offers load balancing in which it distributes overall traffic routes equally.
 OSPF is a classless protocol.
 OSPF is used in very large complex networks.

Advantages
 It has no limitations in hope count.
 It is a classless routing protocol.
 It is fast to fault discovery and re-routing.
 It converges faster than RIP
 Changes in the OSPF topology are send quickly
 Can work well on large and medium networks
 It has better load balancing than RIP

Disadvantages
 It consumes high bandwidth at the initial link state packet flooding.
 It requires extra CPU processing to run the SPF algorithm.
 Increasing the number of routers increases the size and frequency of the topology updates and the
time it takes to calculate end-to-end routes.
 It is a complex protocol to configure.
 Difficulty to trouble shoot.

Differences between RIP and OSPF

BASIS FOR COMPARISON RIP OSPF

Stands for Routing Information Protocol. Open Shortest Path First
Class Distance vector routing protocol Link state routing
Protocol
Default metric Hop count Bandwidth (cost)
Administrative distance 120 110
Convergence Slow Fast
Summarization Auto Manual
Update timer 30 seconds Only when changes occur
Hop count limit 15 None
Protocol used Classless or Classful Classless
Algorithm used Bellman-ford Dijkstra
Network size Small to medium Very Large and small
Complexity Simple Complex
Design Flat network Hierarchical network
Need of network resources Consumes more bandwidth: The Less than RIP; Small
whole routing table is sent updates are send
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Review Questions
1. Explain the format of an Internet Protocol address. [2]

2. a) What are the main differences between OSI and TCP/ IP reference models? [4]
b) State any two benefits of having layers in the OSI model. [2]

3. a) Explain the role of the following:

(ii) domain name system [2]
(iii) Network Address Translation (NAT) [2]
b) How is optimization achieved in DNS? [3]

4) Distinguish between a private IP address and a public IP address. [4]

5) What are the three basic types of web documents? Explain the advantages and
disadvantages of each type. [8]

6) Differentiate between http and ftp. [4]

7) Draw a diagram of the OSI reference model. [7]

8) Briefly explain the following network protocols:

(i) Client Server Model (CSP)
(ii) Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
(iii) Post Office Protocol (POP)
(iv) User Datagram protocol (UDP)
(v) Simple Mail Transfer Protocols (SMTP) [10]

9) Differentiate between Transport and Session layers of OSI model. [4]

10) a) Explain the use of the following networking devices

(iv) Router
(v) Switch
(vi) Modem
(vii) Server
(viii) Gateway
(ix) Proxy
(x) Bridge
(xi) Network Interface Card [8]
b) State the layer of the OSI is each device found. [8]

11) Distinguish between RIP and OSPF [6]