Data and Computer

Communications
Chapter 12 Routing in Switched
Data Networks
Ninth Edition
by William Stallings

Routing in Packet Switching

Networks

key design issue for (packet) switched networks

select route across network between end nodes
characteristics required:

correctness
simplicity
Robustness(Failure)
stability
fairness
Optimality(priorities)
efficiency

Performance Criteria
used for selection of route
simplest is to choose minimum

hop
can be generalized as least cost routing
because least cost is more flexible it is
more common than minimum hop

Decision Time and Place

Network Information Source

and Update Timing

routing decisions usually based on knowledge of

network, traffic load, and link cost

distributed routing
using local knowledge, information from adjacent nodes,
information from all nodes on a potential route

central routing
collect information from all nodes

Routing Strategies - Fixed

Routing
use a single permanent route for each

source to destination pair of nodes

determined using a least cost algorithm
route is fixed

until a change in network topology

based on expected traffic or capacity

advantage is simplicity
disadvantage is lack of flexibility

does not react to network failure or congestion

Fixed
Routing
Tables

Routing Strategies - Flooding

packet sent by node to every neighbor

eventually multiple copies arrive at destination
no network information required
each packet is uniquely numbered so duplicates
can be discarded
need to limit incessant retransmission of packets

nodes can remember identity of packets retransmitted

can include a hop count in packets

Flooding
Example

Properties of Flooding

Routing Strategies - Random

Routing

simplicity of flooding with much less traffic load

node selects one outgoing path for
retransmission of incoming packet
selection can be random or round robin
a refinement is to select outgoing path based on
probability calculation
no network information needed
random route is typically neither least cost nor
minimum hop

Routing Strategies - Adaptive

Routing

used by almost all packet switching networks

routing decisions change as conditions on the
network change due to failure or congestion
requires information about network
Disadvantages:

decisions more complex

tradeoff between quality of network information and
overhead
reacting too quickly can cause oscillation
reacting too slowly means information may be
irrelevant

Adaptive Routing Advantages

Distance Vector Routing

Protocols
Distance Vector Technology

- the

Meaning of Distance Vector

A router using distance vector routing protocols knows

2 things:
Distance to final destination
Vector, or direction, traffic should be directed

BellmanFord algorithm, DUAL FSM

 A distance-vector routing protocol requires

that a router informs its neighbors of

topology changes periodically.
distance-vector routing protocols have
less computational complexity and
message overhead.

Examples of Distance Vector routing

protocols:

Routing Information Protocol (RIP) (Hop count)

Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP)( Bandwidth
+ Delay )
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
(EIGRP)

RIP

RIP Routing Updates

RIP sends routing update messages at regular 30-second intervals and when the network topology changes. RIP
uses broadcast User Datagram Protocol (UDP) data packets to exchange routing information.
RIP Routing Metric
RIP uses a single routing metric (hop count) to measure the distance between the source and a destination network.
Each hop in a path from source to destination is assigned a hop-count value
RIP Scalability and Limitations
The low hop count of RIP is considered a scalability limitation for large networks
RIP Stability Features
RIP implements mechanisms such as split horizon, hold-down timers, hop-count limits, and poison reverse to
prevent routing loops and maintain network stability, as explained in the list that follows:
Split horizon If a route is learned on an interface, the information about that route is not sent back out the
interface where it was learned. In this way, split horizon prevents routing loops within the network.
Hold-down timers These timers ignore routing update information for a specified period of time. Hold-down timers
can be reset when the timer expires, Hold-down timers are useful in preventing routing information from flooding the
network when network links are unstable.
Hop-count limit This limits the number of hops allowed in a path from source to destination. The maximum is 15,
and 16 is deemed unreachable. The hop-count limit prevents routing loops from continuing indefinitely.
Poison reverse A route is "poisoned" when a router marks a route as unreachable by setting the hop count to 16
and then passes this route out to a neighboring router, causing the neighboring router to remove the route from its
routing table. This speeds network convergence by preventing invalid routes from being propagated throughout the
network.

IGRP

Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP) is a distance vector interior

routing protocol (IGP) developed by Cisco.
It is used by routers to exchange routing data within an autonomous
system.
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, MTU, and reliability; to compare two routes these metrics
are combined together into a single metric, using a formula which can
be adjusted through the use of pre-set constants
routing updates are broadcast every 90 seconds (by default)
In order to address the issues of address space and other factors, Cisco
created EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing

EIGRP

Increased network width With IP RIP, the largest possible width of your network
is 15 hops. When IP EIGRP is enabled, the largest possible width is 224 hops.
Fast convergence EIGRP uses an algorithm called the Diffusing Update
Algorithm (DUAL). This algorithm guarantees loop-free operation at every instant
throughout a route computation and allows all routers involved in a topology change
to synchronize at the same time. Routers that are not affected by topology changes
are not involved in re-computations. DUAL provides a system for routers to not only
calculate the best current route to each subnet, but also to calculate alternative
routes that could be used if the current route fails. The alternate route, called the
feasible successor route, is guaranteed to be loop-free, so convergence can
happen quickly. Because of DUAL, the convergence time of EIGRP rivals that of
other existing routing protocols.
Partial updates EIGRP sends incremental updates when the state of a
destination changes, instead of sending the entire contents of the routing table. This
feature reduces the bandwidth required for EIGRP packets and also reduces CPU
processing.

Neighbor Tables

Each router keeps state information about adjacent neighbors. When newly
discovered neighbors are learned, the address and interface of the neighbor
are recorded. This information is stored in the neighbor table. When a
neighbor sends a hello packet, it advertises a hold time, which is the amount
of time that a router treats a neighbor as reachable and operational. In other
words, if a hello packet isn't heard within the hold time, the hold time expires
and DUAL is informed of the topology change.

Topology Tables

The topology table contains all destinations advertised by neighboring

routers. Associated with each entry are the destination address and a list of
neighbors that have advertised the destination. For each neighbor, the
advertised metric is recorded. This is the metric that the neighbor stores in
its routing table. If the neighbor is advertising this destination, it must be
using the route to forward packets.
Also associated with the destination is the metric that the router uses to
reach the destination. This is the sum of the best-advertised metric from all
neighbors, plus the link cost to the best neighbor. This is the metric that the
router uses in the routing table and when advertising to other routers.

Feasible Successors
A destination entry is moved from the topology table to the routing table when there
is a feasible successor. All minimum-cost paths to the destination form a set. From
this set, the neighbors that have an advertised metric less than the current routing
table metric are considered feasible successors. A router views feasible successors
as neighbors that are downstream with respect to the destination. These neighbors
and the associated metrics are placed in the forwarding table. When a neighbor
changes the metric that it has been advertising or a topology change occurs in the
network, the set of feasible successors might have to be re-evaluated. However,
this is not categorized as a route re-computation.
Route States
A topology table entry for a destination can have one of two states:
Passive A route is considered in passive state when a router is not performing a
route re-computation.
Active A route is in active state when a router is undergoing a route recomputation.

Packet Formats
EIGRP uses the following five packet types:
Hello/Acks Hello packets are sent for neighbor discovery/recovery and do not
require acknowledgment.
Updates Update packets are used to convey reachability of destinations. When a
new neighbor is discovered, update packets are sent so that the neighbor can build
up its topology table.
Queries Query packets are sent when a destination has no feasible successors.
Replies Reply packets are sent when a destination has no feasible successors and
are sent in response to query packets to instruct the originator not to re-compute the
route because feasible successors exist.
Requests Request packets are used to get specific information from one or more
neighbors.

Link-State Routing protocol

Link-State Routing Process

How routers using Link State Routing Protocols reach

convergence

Each routers learns about its own directly connected networks

Link state routers exchange hello packet to meet other directly
Connected link state routers
Each router builds its own Link State Packet (LSP) which
includes information about neighbors such as neighbor ID, link
type, & bandwidth
After the LSP is created the router floods it to all neighbors who
then store the information and then forward it until all routers
have the same information
Once all the routers have received all the LSPs, the routers then
construct a topological map of the network which is used to
determine the best routes to a destination

 Link state shrtest path algorithm uses

Dijekstra algorithm(Assignment and self

study)

link state routing protocols used for routing

IP

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)

algorithm(Assignment and self study)

Compere between routing

protocol
Routing
protocol

Builds
Topological
map

Router can
independently
determine the
shortest path to
every network.

Convergence

A periodic/
event driven
routing updates

Use
of
LSP

Distance
vector

No

No

Slow

Generally No

No

Link State

Yes

Yes

Fast

Generally Yes

Yes