Chapter 8

Routing

Introduction
Look at:
Routing Basics (8.1)
Address Resolution (8.2)
Routing Protocols (8.3)
Administrative Classification (8.4)
Hierarchical Routing (8.5)

Introduction
When networking was first introduced,
only a small number of devices were
interconnected
As networks grew, broadcasts and
collisions caused significant issues
In order to reduce broadcasts, Layer 3
devices, protocols, and addresses are
used to segment the network

Routing Basics
Reasons to segment a network at Layer
3 include:
Creation of small troubleshooting areas
Creation of small administrator
management areas
Interconnection of remote offices using
WAN technologies
Grouping clients together with similar
network resources

Routing Basics
A router is required to properly forward
data between clients on different
segments.
A router is a device that forwards data
based on a logical Layer 3 address
Many routers support the use of
different protocols

Routing Basics
The routing process usually occurs between
physical network interfaces but can also be
accomplished between logical network
interfaces
When a single physical network interface has
more than one address assigned, it is said to
have a logical interface
A router can be any network device with the
proper software to make routing decisions

Routing Basics
Two key pieces of information are
required for any device to route packets:
A route to one or more networks
A destination Layer 3 address

The routes to a given network are stored

in the memory of the router and are
referred to as a routing table

Routing Basics
On a Router there is an entry for each
network and its corresponding network
interface kept in memory
The table allows the router to properly
forward frames out the correct interface
This occurs once the frame is received
and the destination address has been
processed

Routing Basics
In standard routing, the route table is
consulted every time a frame is
received and so it plays a fundamental
role in the proper delivery of data
A routing table only maintains the best
possible route to a destination, not all
possible routes

Routing Basics
Routing table entries have the following
functions:
Network destination
Netmask
Gateway
Interface
Metric

Routing Basics
The task of populating the routing table is
accomplished by using either dynamic routing
or static routing
Dynamic routing uses routing protocols to
build route tables automatically
Static routing requires manual route table
entries and updates to different networks

Routing Basics
Layer 3 addressing is critical for end-to-end
reachability and does not change throughout
the routing process
The Layer 2 address moves the packet from
one hand-off point or hop to the next
The routers Layer 2 address is the frames
destination
The Layer 3 address remains constant
through each hop

Address Resolution
Address resolution is the mapping of
one address to another
It is generally a mapping between a
Layer 3 network address (logical) and a
Layer 2 hardware address (physical)
The reverse process is also address
resolution

Address Resolution
Address resolution is accomplished in
one of the following ways:
Table lookup is a rarely used method of
address resolution
Closed-form computation is only used in
very specific networks and is time
consuming to configure
Dynamic message exchange is the most
common and involves an exchange of
information between two hosts

Address Resolution
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is used
when an IP host has a known destination IP
address (Layer 3) and it needs to retrieve the
corresponding Layer 2 MAC address from the
destination host
The ARP cache is used to further reduce the
need for broadcasts by storing the IP-to- MAC
mapping in memory for a specified duration

Address Resolution
The ARP Process:
Client A sends out an ARP broadcast
All clients receive and process the
broadcast frame but only Machine B
responds
Client A receives the response and places
Machine Bs MAC address in its ARP
cache

Address Resolution
ARP locates the Layer 2 address when the
Layer 3 address is known
Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)
finds the Layer 3 address when the Layer 2
address is known
A good example of RARP is found in TCP/IP
address reservations and the Boot Protocol
(BootP)
Using BootP, IP hosts are automatically
assigned their configuration information
through a BootP server

Routing Protocols
Dynamic routing using routing protocols
Purpose of routing protocols is to build
a routing table with the best routes
Routing protocols are categorized into
two types:
Distance Vector
Link State

Routing Protocols
Distance vector routing protocols are simple
Generally they are easy to configure
They use simple logic to determine the best
path to a given destination
The term metric refers to the method or
measurement used by the routing protocol
logic to determine the best path to a given
network

Routing Protocols
A distance vector routing protocol usually
uses hop count as its metric
A distance vector routing protocol is
characterized by how it communicates with
other routing devices
Distance vector routing protocols use
broadcasts to advertise their entire routing
table to directly connected peer routers

Routing Protocols
Convergence is the time it takes for a given
set of routers to learn routes to all networks
Convergence describes the time it takes a set
of routers to learn of a change in the network
Distance vector routing protocols generally
take longer to converge than link state
protocols because they use a periodic route
advertisement schedule

Routing Protocols
A routing loop occurs when routers get
confused during update operations, causing
frames to bounce back and forth between a
set of interfaces
Two easy methods to identify routing loops:
Tracert or traceroute TCP/IP utilities
View the routing table and the metric
associated with the network

Routing Protocols
Prevent routing loops by using the
following software based methods:
Split horizon
Hold-down timers
Triggered updates
Hop count limits
Poisoning

Routing Protocols
Link state routing protocols are more
intelligent than distance vector protocols
The metric used by most link state protocols is
bandwidth allowing more complex routing
configurations
Routing protocols capable of making complex
decisions use a mathematical formula or
algorithm for deriving the best path or route to
a given network

Routing Protocols
Some link state protocols are
capable of determining the best
route to a destination network
based on the following:
Delay
Load
Reliability
MTU

Routing Protocols
When more than one metric is used it is
referred to as a composite metric
Link state protocols only send updates when
changes occur, and they only send the
changes, not the entire route table
Link state protocols use multicast and unicast
traffic instead of broadcast traffic
Link state routers also develop an overall
picture of the networks available by
establishing neighbor relationships

Administrative Classification
Routing protocols are also separated by
an administrative classification based
on where they are used in the
networking environment:
Interior routing protocols or interior
gateway protocols
Exterior routing protocols or exterior
gateway protocols

Administrative Classification
Interior gateway protocols (IGPs)
are used within a companys
network infrastructure to maintain
routing tables and policies set by
the network administrators
The two industry standard IGPs are:
Routing Information Protocol
Open Shortest Path First

Administrative Classification
RIP is a distance vector protocol that
uses hop count for its metric when
determining the best route to a given
network
In most implementations, RIP uses split
horizon, hop count limit, and poisoning
for routing loop prevention
RIP is a classful routing protocol

Administrative Classification
The shortest path as measured by
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is
actually the fastest path based on
bandwidth
Shortest refers to the shortest time
OSPF is used in large networks and
ones requiring more intelligence than
distance vector routing protocols

Administrative Classification
OSPF communicates using unicast and
multicast packets
It only transmits changes or updates to the
routing table when they occur
It uses hello packets to determine the current
state of a link between itself and its neighbors
It utilizes a link state database to maintain a
local view of the entire routing environment

Administrative Classification
The configuration possibilities using
OSPF
Areas
Autonomous system (AS)
Backbone router
Area border router (ABR)
Autonomous system boundary router
(ASBR)

Administrative Classification
The decision making process of EGPs is far
more complex than that of internal protocols
The power and routing flexibility associated
with EGPs requires knowledge and
understanding of the complex nature of your
network and its traffic
EGPs can let you influence and manage
traffic only as it enters or leaves your AS

Administrative Classification
One member of EGPs is the Exterior
Gateway Protocol (EGP)
EGP was the first protocol developed
that allowed isolation of autonomous
systems
EPG is not used today and is replaced
by the Border Gateway Protocol

Administrative Classification
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) version 4 is
the most widely used exterior protocol in the
world
BGP is a well established standard and
commonly used by ISPs and in very large
companies
there are actually two different classifications
of BGP
internal
external

Administrative Classification
iBGP is used for internal routing
eBGP is used for external routing
iBGP functions under different rules
than eBGP
If two routers running BGP are in the
same AS, they are running an iBGP
connection

Administrative Classification
BGP communication starts by establishing
peers
Once the peers have been established, BGP
routing information is exchanged and updated
as necessary
BGP is an advanced distance vector protocol
that uses triggered updates for communicating
changes in the routing environment
Routing loops in BGP are avoided by using the
AS-path attribute

Administrative Classification
BGP uses active TCP sessions that are
setup and continuously maintained.
Convergence in the routing
environment is very fast
BGP has features that you can use to
help speed the convergence of the
network routes under your control

Hierarchical Routing
Hierarchical routing depends on hierarchical
addressing
It is a routing technique originally designed to
help reduce the size of the routing tables on
the Internet as well as speed up the overall
routing process
The concept uses an address block or blocks
to represent different sections of a network

Hierarchical Routing
Summarizing routes is often referred to as
supernetting networks
The process of summarization is built around
the binary bit patterns just as in subnetting
The difference is that rather than extending
the subnet mask by adding bits, we remove
bits

Hierarchical Routing
By using summarization, you reduce the
routing tables on each router
To accomplish the summarization, you need
to determine how many bits to unmask or unsubnet in order to make the networks appear
as one big address block
The routing protocol must transmit the
network prefix along with the network address
during route advertisements