Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology

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COM635 – Network Management

The design of a novel and optimised Routing Protocol

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Contents
1. Introduction........................................................................................................................1
2. Routing Protocols...............................................................................................................2
2.1 Introduction to Routing Protocols....................................................................................2
2.2 Where they are used.........................................................................................................2
2.3 Why they are important....................................................................................................2
2.4 Different types of Routing Protocols...............................................................................2
2.4.1 Description of different types of Routing Protocol...................................................3
3. Design of a new Routing Protocol.....................................................................................5
3.1 Introduction to your design..............................................................................................5
3.2 Calculating Cost...............................................................................................................5
3.2 1 how your routing protocol calculates cost?...............................................................5
3.3 Packet Headers.................................................................................................................6
3.4 Operation..........................................................................................................................8
3.5 Overhead..........................................................................................................................8
3.5.1 How much data is transmitted from each packet?....................................................9
3.6 Security............................................................................................................................9
3.6.1 How Security operates?.............................................................................................9
3.7 Advantages and Disadvantages......................................................................................10
4. Conclusion........................................................................................................................11
5. References........................................................................................................................12
1. Introduction
In the world of computer networks, there are two important components that are known as the
source and destination. The information that is passed is said to be communicated from these
two components time to time. They are different kinds of paths that can be considered.
Therefore the process of selecting the best path over other paths is known as routing which is
done by programmed devices known as protocols. There are standard protocols that help us
to ensure the safety of data transfer. The use of a routing protocol basically connects and
reaches various end points that allows to collaborate failures that take place in links and
nodes as well as additions and withdrawals of other addresses. The use of routing protocols is
that they are most typically distributed as it runs on every specific router that is connected in
a network. The purpose of a routing protocol is that it acknowledges the way how routers
have their means of communicating to each other as well as enhancing them to collaborate
with certain nodes that can be found in a computer network. Therefore the use of a routing
protocol enables them to share this kind of information not only to immediate neighbours but
to the whole network as well. Through this way, they are able to implement knowledge on
what the topology is and what are its consequences. It somehow drastically combines to
certain changes that paralyzes every single data line that enables Internet to achieve its
survivability and reliability. There are various types of characteristics concerning routing
protocols that consists of a method that avoids the usage of routing loops that helps them to
require the routing convergence , based on their scalability and other factors such as relay
multiplexing that is related to cloud access framework parameters. But as a result, certain
various characteristics such as multilayer interfacing may also be recognized as ways of
distributing uncompromised networking gateways to authorized ports. Source (Educba et al 2020)

[Author has kept this space blank unintentionally]

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2. Routing Protocols

2.1 Introduction to Routing Protocols

The definition of routing protocols is based on a formula or rather a protocol that is been
implemented by a router by showing the exact path through which the data is been
transferred. It shows how routers work in a network and most importantly how to share
information based on these changes, the purpose of a routing protocol is that it enables the
network to makes drastic changes based on its conditions so the decisions that they make
won’t be considered static. Source (Webopedia, 2020)

2.2 Where they are used.

They are mainly used in the distribution of routing information that takes place between
routing devices. As this happens the information will start to change based on the conditions
of the network. Therefore it is critical to make sure that these packets reach their destination.
Fortunately, routing protocols are mainly used on the backbone considered to different
protocols used on some sites. They are commonly used for routing within networks that is
needed to use across firewalls. Source (Docstore, 2020)

2.3 Why they are important.

They are considered important because nowadays network traffic and network complexities
are rapidly increasing. So basically routing protocols are configured on routers for the
purpose of exchanging routing information. It is important because when configuring a
network the use of routing protocols is efficient, because it is necessary to understand the
functions of these protocols and the difference between each type. In other they are of great
assistance to routers that helps them to identify the paths that sends information between
various networks. Source (Router freak, 2020)
2.4 Different types of Routing Protocols.

In this assignment, there are various types of routing protocols. They are as follows:
 Routing Information Protocol
 Interior Gateway Protocol
 Open Shortest Path First
 Exterior Gateway Protocol
 Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
 Border Gateway Protocol

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  Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System

2.4.1 Description of different types of Routing Protocol

Routing Information Protocol – this is often known to be the primary protocol to be

created, because it is been utilized in two main networks, but it also runs on the appliance
layer of the OSI Model. The most limitation of RIP is that it's a maximum hop count of 15
which makes it unsuitable for larger networks.

Interior Gateway Protocol – this is often considered as a distance vector protocol and was
built on the foundations laid down. This certain protocol uses metrics like bandwidth, delay
and reliability. But it's the choice to match the viability of routes within the network. IGRP is
right for larger networks because it broadcasts updates every 90 seconds and features a
maximum hop count of 255. This enables it to sustain larger networks than a protocol like
RIP. IGRP is additionally widely used because it's immune to routing loops because it
updates itself automatically when changes occur within the network.

Open Shortest Path First – may be a link state IGP that's considered tailor-made for IP
networks using this certain algorithm. It’s wont to calculate the shortest path to make sure
efficient transmission of packets. It also maintains databases that contain information about
the encompassing topology of the network. This certain protocol uses the Dijkstra algorithm
to recalculate network paths when the topology changes. It’s also relatively secure because
it's scalable to large environments

Exterior Gateway Protocol – this protocol is employed to exchange data between gateway
hosts that connects one another with the utilization of autonomous systems. As a result it
provides a forum for routers to share information across different domains. The foremost
well-known example of EGP is that the Internet itself. Thus the routing table of this protocol
includes routers and other devices. It works by keeping a database of nearby networks and
paths that's able for them to succeed in. the knowledge is shipped to connected routers, once
the knowledge is been reached, they need the prospect to update their routing tables and
undertake more informed path selection throughout the network

Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol – this is often a distance vector routing
protocol that's used for IP networks, this is often the proprietary of Cisco because it was
designed to follow on the first protocol. The aim of this protocol is that routers take
information from other routing tables and records them. This protocol is provided with

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variety of features that's needed to maximize efficiency. Therefore packet transmissions are
made simpler because routes are recalculated to hurry up the convergence process

Border Gateway Protocol – is understood because the routing protocol of the web that's
classified as a distance path vector protocol. This type of algorithm is chosen because the best
routes for packet transfer. The simplest path selection algorithm are often customized by
changing the BGP cost community attribute. BGP can make routing decisions based Factors
like weight, local preference, locally generated. It has the capability of sending data when
something drastically changes. As a result, there's no auto-discovery of topology changes
which suggests that the user has got to configure BGP manually. In terms of security, BGP
protocol are often authenticated in order that only approved routers can exchange data with
one another.

Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System – is understood as a link state, or IP routing

protocol that's used on the web to send IP routing information. This certain protocol uses a
modified version of the Dijkstra algorithm and most significantly compromises of varied
ranges of components that has end systems and domains. Source (Comparitech, 2020)

[Author has kept this space blank unintentionally]

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3. Design of a new Routing Protocol

3.1 Introduction to your design.

Designing and architecting new routing protocols is an upscale task, because they're complex
systems managing distributed network state, so as to make and maintain the routing
databases. Existing routing protocol implementations are compact, bundling together a
database, an optimal path calculation algorithm and a network state distribution mechanism.
The aim of this paper is to present a middleware-based approach for designing and managing
routing protocols supported the thought of decomposing routing protocols into fundamental
building blocks and identifying the role of every component, and also to propose a
framework for composing dynamically new routing protocols making use of a distributed
object platform. Therefore A routing protocol allows the communication nodes of various
networks to exchange information so as to update and maintain routing tables. Documented
samples of routing protocols are: RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, and OSPF. The routers are capable to
support multiple independent routing protocols and maintain forwarding tables for several
routed protocols. This includes routing table sizes, convergence times, and failure detection.

3.2 Calculating Cost

3.2 1 how your routing protocol calculates cost?

Every routing protocol uses an algorithm to calculate the simplest path to a destination.
Moreover, every routing algorithm uses metrics to calculate path costs. Metrics are simply
values, like hop count, bandwidth, delay, reliability and cargo. The metrics used depend upon
the routing protocol. For instance, RIP uses the hop count metric only. IGRP uses bandwidth
and delay by default although it are often configured to use other metrics too

Present a formula and explain it if appropriate.

Cost Calculation

Composite matrix is employed to calculate the value and also used for neighbourship
discovery purpose. It’s values

K1 (Bandwidth) – 32

K2 (Load) – 8

K3 (Delay) – 32

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K4 (Reliability) – 8

K5 (MTU) – 24

As only bandwidth and delay is employed to calculate the value. The formula used for cost
calculation is

EIRGP Metric – 256* ((K1*Bandwidth) + (K2*Bandwidth)/(256-Load) +

(K3*Delay)*(K5/(Reliability + K4)))

As values of K1 and K3 are set to 32, and K2 and K4 are set to eight and K5 is about to 24.
Therefore the formula becomes

Metric = 256* (Bandwidth + Sum of all Delay) Where the bandwidth – (10^7/least
bandwidth) and Delay = (sum of all delays / 10)

3.3 Packet Headers

Field Description Size

Is a 4-bit field wont to indicate the protocol version
Version field of the originating EIGRP router process? The version 8
has not changed since its release.
May be a 4-bit field that specifies the EIGRP
Opcode message type, 1 = Update, 3 = Query, 4 = Reply, 5 = 8
Hello, 6 = IPX SA, 10 = SIA Query, 11 = SIA Reply.
May be a 24-bit field that's wont to run a sanity check
on the EIGRP packet itself. This field is predicated
Checksum 16
on the whole EIGRP packet and not including the IP
header.
May be a 32-bit field that's wont to indicate either an
INIT (when set (0x00000001)) for a replacement
EIGRP neighbour or for the Conditional Receive
Flags 32
(CR) (second bit (0x00000002)), utilized in the
proprietary Reliable Multicasting algorithm, for
EIGRP Reliable Transport Protocol. (RTP)
May be a 32-bit field that contains sequence number

Sequence employed by RTP. This is often wont to ensure 32

orderly delivery of reliable packets.

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 May be a 32-bit field that contains the sequence
number last heard from the neighbour to which the
packet is being sent. A Hello packet with a nonzero
Acknowledgment ACK field are going to be treated as an ACK packet 323
instead of as a Hello. Note that an ACK field will
only be nonzero if the packet itself may be a unicast
because an acknowledgment are never multicast.
Autonomous May be a 32-bit field that identifies the amount of the
EIGRP domain. 32
System Number
May be a 32-bit triplet field that's wont to carry route
entries, also as provide EIGRP DUAL information.
EIGRP supports several differing types of TLVs as
follows;

–0x0001 EIGRP Parameters (General TLV Types)

–0x0003 Sequence (General TLV Types)

Type – 16

Type/Length/Value –0x0004 Software Version (General TLV Types)

Length – 16
(TLV)
–0x0005 Next Multicast Sequence (General TLV
Value - 32
Types)

–0x0102 IP Internal Routes (IP-Specific TLV

Types)

–0x0103 IP External Routes (IP-Specific TLV

Types)

Table 1 Packet Headers

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3.4 Operation

Unlike traditional DV protocols like RIP and IGRP, EIGRP doesn't believe periodic updates:
routing updates are sent only there's a change. When a route is lost, the updates stop; the
invalid and flush timers grow and grow (the timers aren't reset), and, ultimately, the route is
flushed from the routing table. This process of convergence assumes periodic updates.
EIGRP’s approach has the advantage that network resources aren't consumed by periodic
updates. However, if a router dies, removing all its downstream routes, how would EIGRP
detect the loss of those routes? EIGRP relies on small hello packets to determine neighbor
relationships and to detect the loss of a neighbor. EIGRP uses reliable transmission for all
updates between neighbors. Neighbors acknowledge the receipt of updates, and if an
acknowledgment isn't received, EIGRP retransmits the update. EIGRP uses the Diffusing
Update Algorithm (DUAL) for all route computations. DUAL’s convergence times are an
order of magnitude less than those of traditional DV algorithms. DUAL is in a position to
realize such low convergence times by maintaining a table of loop-free paths to each
destination, additionally to the least-cost path. EIGRP relies on neighbor relationships to
reliably propagate routing table changes throughout the network; two routers become
neighbors once they see each other's hello packets on a standard network. EIGRP sends hello
packets every 5 seconds on high bandwidth links and each 60 seconds on low bandwidth
multipoint links. Source (Cisco, 2020)

3.5 Overhead

Protocol overhead refers to metadata and network routing information sent by an application,
which uses some of the available bandwidth of a protocol. This extra data, making up the
protocol headers and application-specific information is mentioned as overhead, since it
doesn't contribute to the content of the message. In the similar manner during a network,
when nodes exchange Routing information using an equivalent bandwidth employed by data
packets, incur overhead to the network mentioned as Routing overhead as this information
packets are exchanged periodically in certain intervals of your time. One among the examples
are often the hello packets or the keep alive packets which aren't actually the info packets but
consume the bandwidth of the network causing overhead to the network. Source (Quora, 2020)

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3.5.1 How much data is transmitted from each packet?

EIGRP relies on neighbour relationships to reliably propagate routing table changes

throughout the network; two routers become neighbours once they see each other's hello
packets on a standard network. EIGRP sends hello packets every 5 seconds on high
bandwidth links and each 60 seconds on low bandwidth multipoint links.
3.6 Security

Routing security has received varying levels of attention over the past several years and has
recently begun to attract more attention specifically around Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
on the overall public Internet. Despite this new attention, however, the planet most hospitable
attack is typically not the Internet's BGP tables but the routing systems within your own
enterprise network. Thanks to variety of the sniffing-based attacks, an enterprise routing
infrastructure can easily be attacked with man-in-the-middle and other attacks designed to
corrupt or change the routing tables. Layer 3 device (either router or layer 3 switch) finds a
best path between the source and destination network. Dynamic routing protocols are used to
decrease administrator overhead, i.e., administrator got to configure less but by default all the
routing information is visible to all or any or any interested parties because it is not encrypted
therefore hospitable an attack. We’ll secure the routing protocols like RIP, EIGRP and OSPF
by putting an authentication thereto through creating a key chain and apply it to the interface
on which we are advertising the routes. Here, we'll not mention protocol instead we'll put
authentication on RIP, EIGRP and OSPF. Source (Geeks4Geeks, 2020)

3.6.1 How Security operates?

As Layer 3 routing becomes greater widely used, it gives the capacity to convey intelligence
to the brink of the network – at every and each node. A Layer 2 switch works at the statistics
layer (Layer 2) of the IP stack while a Layer three router works at the community layer
(Layer3). When using Layer 2 switching, all broadcast information packets are forwarded
throughout the community except filters are applied. Most Layer 2 switches use MAC
addressing to connect among gadgets but these must be learnt over the whole network at the
start of a session. In the Layer 3 world, there's intercommunication between networks, routers
and customers both domestically and at far off locations. This communications lets in
intelligence to be brought to every router to ensure network traffic is extra efficaciously
routed. Layer 3 routers allow granular traffic management to be set at a person user, tool and
application level. Not most effective can finely tuned traffic priorities can be set, precision

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price limiting, congestion management and interference avoidance protects in opposition to
community incidents capable of bringing networks to a halt. This allows for greater 'exact
put’ better consistent records rates – throughout the network with reduced factors of failure.
Layer three protocols are dynamic once carried out. A properly designed and carried out
Layer three community also permits the administrator to installation computerized self-
restoration routes for information to allow near real time recuperation of communications
ought to one tool fail. However, by implementing Layer three routing at the threshold, the
community will advantage from stepped forward security, availability and bandwidth
utilization. Source (Data Sat, 2020) Source (Data Sat, 2020)

3.7 Advantages and Disadvantages

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Flat Networks – EIGRP doesn’t have a
Protocol (EIGRP) is a unique Cisco neighborhood like concept, so it's not good
innovation. at handling big hierarchal network. When
running OSPF on an enormous network, we
Highly valued for its ease of deployment will make the network hierarchal by
and fast convergence, EIGRP is commonly dividing the network into areas. Though we
used in many large Enterprise networks. will separate the network into different
EIGRP maintains all of the advantages of EIGRP (AS) domain, then import routing
distance-vector protocols, while avoiding table to every other, but it's not an optimal
the concurrent disadvantages. network design, and really few network has
been designed like this.
EIGRP is a simple protocol to understand
and deploy. It's IPv6-ready, scales No support for DoD – EIGRP maintains
effectively in a well-designed network, and the adjacency relationship by sending
provides extremely quick convergence HELLO message to every other
times. Other EIGRP advantages include: periodically, albeit running on dial up link.
However, the HELLO message may bring
 Easy transition to IPv6 with multi- the dial meet up, this is often not what we
address family support for both IPv4 would like on a dial up link, and particularly
and IPv6 networks. the dial up link may be a backup link. Once
 Superior scaling of Interior Gateway we run EIGRP on a dial up link, so as to
Protocol (IGP) for large dynamic stop this from happening, we usual put a
multipoint (DM) VPN deployments Dialer list and Dialer group on the interface
 Very fast rapid convergence times so as to not let the HELLO message bring
for changes in the network topology the dial meet up.
 Only routing table changes, not the
entire routing table, are propagated,
when a change occurs
 More efficient use of links, through
equal cost multipath (ECMP) and
unequal cost load sharing

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 Table 2 Advantages and Disadvantages

4. Conclusion
Based on the routing protocols, it helps us to gain a better understanding of each routing
protocol’s metric calculations. Based on this assignment we realize that EIGRP has the fastest
convergence for all network topologies. As a result EIGRP utilizes the bandwidth, whereas
RIP sends full routing information through periodic updates, which floods the network and
unnecessarily wastes bandwidth. Therefore the best choice is EIGRP for all network
topologies that are implemented as it has a fast convergence that efficiently utilizes
bandwidth

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5. References

Lindokuhle dlamini. 2020. Introduction to Routing Protocols - lindokuhle dlamini - Medium.

[ONLINE] Available at: https://medium.com/@dlindokuhle8/introduction-to-routing-
protocols-d1718638af8d. [Accessed 20 January 2020].

NETWORK CHEF BD. 2020. Introduction to Routing Protocols - NETWORK CHEF BD.
[ONLINE] Available at: https://networkchefbd.com/routing-protocols/. [Accessed 20 January
2020].

Routing Protocol - an overview | Science Direct Topics. 2020. Routing Protocol - an

overview |Science Direct Topics. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/routing-protocol. [Accessed 20
January 2020].

Wikipedia. 2020. Routing protocol - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routing_protocol. [Accessed 20 January 2020].

Introduction to Routing Protocols | Cumulus Linux 4.0. 2020. Introduction to Routing

Protocols | Cumulus Linux 4.0. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://docs.cumulusnetworks.com/cumulus-linux/Layer-3/Introduction-to-RoutingProtocols/.
[Accessed 20 January 2020].

Router Freak. 2020. Routing Protocols explained, and how to choose and use them.
[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.routerfreak.com/understanding-network-routing-
protocols/. [Accessed 20 January 2020].

Routing protocols. 2020. Routing protocols. [ONLINE] Available at: https://study-

ccna.com/routing-protocols/. [Accessed 20 January 2020].

Comparitech. 2020. Routing Protocol Types - The Ultimate Guide (The Essentials!).
[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.comparitech.com/net-admin/routing-protocol-types-
guide/. [Accessed 20 January 2020].

What is routing protocol? Webopedia Definition. 2020. What is routing protocol? Webopedia
Definition. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/routing_protocol.html. [Accessed 20 January 2020].

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PCMag. 2020. Definition of routing protocol | PCMag. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/routing-protocol. [Accessed 20 January 2020].

Bayt.com. 2020. Disadvantages of EIGRP Protocol? - Bayt.com Specialties. [ONLINE]

Available at: https://specialties.bayt.com/en/specialties/q/351245/disadvantages-of-eigrp-
protocol/. [Accessed 22 January 2020].

Bayt.com. 2020. What is the advantage of EIGRP protocol? - Bayt.com Specialties.

[ONLINE] Available at: https://specialties.bayt.com/en/specialties/q/286817/what-is-the-
advantage-of-eigrp-protocol/. [Accessed 22 January 2020].

7 things that you should know about Layer 3 | Datasat Communications. 2020. 7 things that
you should know about Layer 3 | Datasat Communications. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.datasat.com/information/2014/datasat-layer-3.php. [Accessed 22 January 2020].

Geeksforgeeks. 2020. Securing Routing Protocols - Geeksforgeeks. [ONLINE] Available at:

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/securing-routing-protocols/. [Accessed 22 January 2020].

Search Security. 2020. Routing protocol security. [ONLINE] Available at:

https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/tip/Routing-protocol-security. [Accessed 22 January
2020].

What is routing overhead? - Quora. 2020. What is routing overhead? - Quora. [ONLINE]
Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-is-routing-overhead. [Accessed 22 January 2020].

Cisco. 2020. Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol - Cisco. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/ip/enhanced-interior-gateway-routing-protocol-
eigrp/16406-eigrp-toc.html. [Accessed 22 January 2020].

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