Chapter 1B
Routing Concepts
Routing Decisions
Router Switching Function
The primary function of a router is to forward packets
toward their destination.
• A switching function is used
• It accepts a packet on one interface, encapsulates it,
and forwards it out of another interface.
Router Switching Function
Router Switching Function
When a router receives a packet from one network, the router performs the
following three steps:
• Step 1. De-encapsulates the Layer 2 frame header and trailer to expose the Layer 3
packet.
• Step 2. Examines the destination IP address of the IP packet to find the best path
in the routing table.
• Step 3. If the router finds a path to the destination, it encapsulates the Layer 3
packet into a new Layer 2 frame and forwards the frame out the exit interface.
As a packet travels from the source device to the destination device,
- the Layer 3 IP addresses do not change
- the Layer 2 data link addresses change at every hop as it is de-
encapsulated and re-encapsulated.
Sending a Packet
For PC1 to send a packet to PC2, the following occurs:
• PC1 checks if destination IPv4 address is on the same network.
- If yes, PC1 obtains destination MAC address
(from its ARP cache or use an ARP request)
- If it is on a different network, PC1 forwards the packet to its default gateway.
PC1 checks its ARP table for the IPv4 to determine the MAC address of the default
gateway,
An ARP request is sent if it is not found.
• When PC1 has the MAC address of Router R1, it can forward the packet.
Hop, Hop Count
Sending a Packet to Different Network(1/3)
Sending a Packet to Different Network(2/3) When R1 receives the Ethernet frame
from PC1, the following occurs:
• R1 checks destination MAC address
which matches the MAC address of the
receiving interface, and copies the
frame into its buffer.
• R1 identifies the Ethernet Type field as
0x800
(indicates that the Ethernet frame
contains an IPv4 packet in the data
portion of the frame)
• R1 de-encapsulates the Ethernet frame.
• the destination IPv4 address of the
packet, 192.168.4.10, does not match
any of the directly connected networks
on R1, so R1 searches the routing table
for a corresponding route.
• R1’s Routing Table has a route for the
192.168.4.0/24 network.
When R1 receives the Ethernet frame
Sending a Packet to Different Network(3/3) from PC1, the following occurs:
• The route that R1 finds to the
192.168.4.0/24 network has a next-hop
address of 192.168.2.2 and an exit
interface of FastEthernet 0/1.
• This means the IPv4 packet has to be
encapsulated in a new Ethernet frame
with the destination MAC address of the
IPv4 address of the next-hop router,
192.168.2.2
• Because the exit interface is on an
Ethernet network, R1 must resolve the
next-hop IPv4 address with a
destination MAC address using ARP,
assuming it is not in its ARP cache.
• When R1 has the MAC address for the
next-hop, the Ethernet frame is
forwarded out of the FastEthernet 0/1
interface of R1.
Packet Routing example (1/3) When router R2 receives a frame on its FA0/0
interface that needs to be forwarded to router R3,
R2 examines the destination MAC address.
Because it matches the MAC address of R2, it
copies the frame into its buffer.
R2 determines that that frame contains an IPv4
packet in the data portion of the frame.
R2 de-encapsulates the Ethernet frame.
Because the destination IP address is on a
different network, the routing table is searched to
find a corresponding route for the destination
IPv4 address.
Note :
S0 - serial0 = port number
S0/0 - serial 0/0 = slot/portnumber
S0/0/0 - serial0/0/0= card/slot/portnumber
Packet Routing Example (2/3) The routing table of R2 has a route
to the 192.168.4.0/24 network with
a next-hop IPv4 address of
192.168.3.2 and an exit interface of
Serial 0/0/0.
Because the exit interface is not
Ethernet, R2 does not have to
resolve the next-hop IP-v4 address
with a destination MAC address.
The IPv4 packet is encapsulated
into a new data link frame used by
the exit interface and sent out the
Serial 0/0/0 exit interface.
Because there are no MAC
addresses on serial interfaces, R2
sets the data link destination
address to an equivalent of a
broadcast.
When R3 receives a frame on its serial
Packet Routing Example (3/3) interface:
R3 copies the data link PPP (Point-to-
Point Protocol) frame into its buffer.
de-encapsulates the data link PPP frame.
searches the routing table for the
destination IPv4 address of the packet.
Because the destination network is on
R3’s directly connected network, the
packet can be sent directly and does not
need to be sent to another router.
Because the exit interface is a directly
connected Ethernet network, R3 must
resolve the destination IPv4 address of
the packet with a destination MAC
address by either finding it in its ARP
cache or send out an ARP request.
Routing Decisions of Router The primary function of a router is to determine
the best path to send packets. It uses a routing
table.
Searching a routing table results in one of three
path choices:
• Directly connected network – If the destination IP
address belongs to a directly connected network ,
the packet is forwarded out of that interface.
• Remote network – If the destination IP address of
the packet belongs to a remote network, the packet
is forwarded to another router.
• No route determined – If the destination IP address
does not belong to a connected network or is in the
routing table, the packet is sent to Gateway of Last
Resort.
The best path to a network is the path with the lowest metric,
Best Path a measurement of distance.
This metric is used by the routing protocol.
Determining the best path to a destination network involves
- the evaluation of multiple paths and
- selecting the optimum or shortest path to reach that network.
Each dynamic routing protocols has their own rules and
metrics to build and update routing tables. For example:
• Routing Information Protocol (RIP) – Hop count
• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) – Cisco’s cost based
cumulative bandwidth from source to destination
• Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) –
Bandwidth, delay, load, reliability
Best Path - Protocols
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) is is
used on a computer network for automating routing
decisions and configuration.
The protocol was designed by Cisco Systems as a
proprietary protocol, available only on Cisco routers.
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol.
How Router handles Cost Load Balancing
If a router has two or more paths with identical metrics to the
same destination network, the router will forward the packets
using both paths equally.
The routing table contains a single destination network, but has
multiple exit interfaces – one for each equal cost path.
This is referred to as equal cost load balancing.
If done correctly, load balancing can increase the effectiveness
and performance of the network.
Equal cost load balancing can be configured to use both
dynamic routing protocols and static routes.
EIGRP supports unequal cost load balancing.
Best Path Administrative Distance
Which route source is more trustworthy, Internal
EIGRP or OSPF?
The routing table might have more than one
route source for the same destination network.
The Cisco IOS uses the administrative
distance (AD) to determine which route to
install in the routing table.
The lower the AD, the more trustworthy.
Based on AD shown in the table, EIGRP is
more trustworthy.
Router Operation
The Routing Table
The routing table of a router,
is a data file stored in the RAM
It stores these information :
• Directly connected routes – Obtained
from the active router interfaces.
• Remote routes – These are remote
networks connected to other routers that
are learned from dynamic routing
protocols or are statically configured.
it contains next hop associations for
remote networks.
The association tells the router what the
next hop is for a destination network.
Routing Table Sources On a Cisco router, the show ip route
command can be used to display the IPv4
routing table.
route information provided in the routing
table include:
- how the route was learned,
- how long the route has been in the table,
- and which interface to send out of to reach
a destination.
Sources of the routing table entries are
identified by a code:
• L - Local Route interfaces
• C - Directly connected interfaces
• S - Static routes
• D – Learned dynamically from another router
using the EIGRP routing protocol.
• O – Learned dynamically from another router
using the OSPF routing protocol.
Remote Network Routing Entries How to interpret the routing table.
The figure to the left highlights the
details for the route to the remote
network 10.1.1.0:
• Route source – how the route was learned
• Destination network – address of the
remote network
• Administrative distance – trustworthiness
of the route
• Metric – value assigned to reach the
remote network; lower the better
• Next-hop – the IPv4 address of the next
router to forward the packet to
• Route timestamp – how much time has
passed since the route was learned
• Outgoing interface – exit interface to
forward packet out of
New Router – Empty Routing Table
A new router without any configured
interfaces will have an empty routing
table.
Before the interface state can added to
the IPv4 routing table, the interface
must:
• Be assigned a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address
• Be activated with the no shutdown
command
• Receive a carrier signal from another
device such as a router, switch, or host.
When the interface is then added to
the routing table as a directly
connected route.
Directly Connected Routing Table Entries
With IOS version 15 and later, an
active directly connected interface
creates two routing table entries:
• The route source “C” identifies the
route as a directly connected network.
• The route source “L” identifies the
IPv4 address assigned to the router’s
interface.
The routing table entry shows the
destination network and the outgoing
interface to use when forwarding
packets to the destination network.
Directly Connected Examples
When interfaces are configured with,
- an appropriate IP address
- subnet mask, and
- activated with the no shutdown
command
they will be automatically added to the
routing table.
As each interface is added, the routing
table automatically adds the connected
(‘C’) and local (‘L’) entries.
Show ipv6 route
The show ipv6 route command is
used to check if IPv6 networks and
specific IPv6 interface addresses have
been installed in the IPv6 routing table.
• A ‘C’ indicates that it is a directly
connected route.
• An ‘L’ indicates it is a local route
(IPv6, it has a /128 prefix)
The ping command can be used to
verify connectivity, eg,
• ping 2001:db8:acad:3::2
Static Routes
Only after directly connected interfaces are
added to the routing table, then static or dynamic
routing can be configured.
Static routes are manually configured. It defines
a path between two networking devices.
If the network topology changes, static routes
must manually be reconfigured.
Benefits of static routes include:
• Improved security
• Resource efficiency – less bandwidth usage
• no CPU cycles are used to calculate and
communicate route
Static Routes
There are two main types of static routes in the routing table:
• Static route to a specific network
• Default static route
IPv4 static routes are configured using the following command:
• ip route network mask { next-hop-ip | exit-intf }
A static route appears in the routing table with the code ‘S’.
The default static route specifies the exit point to use when the routing table
does not have a path for the destination network. Use the command:
• ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 { exit-intf | next-hop-ip }
Statically Learned Routes
Static Route Examples
The figure to the left shows the
configuration of an IPv4 default static
route on R1 to the Serial 0/0/0 interface.
• The ‘S’ indicates that it is a static route
• The asterisk (*) identifies this as a
possible candidate to be the default route.
• Notice that this route was chosen to be
the Gateway of last resort (default route).
Statically Learned Routes
Here are two static route configurations
Static Route Examples from R2 to reach the two LANs on R1:
• ip route 192.168.10.0 255.255.255.0 s0/0/0
• ip route 192.168.11.0 255.255.255.0
209.165.200.225
Which route was configured to use the exit
interface?
192.168.10.0 255.255.255.0 s0/0/0
Will they send packets for these
networks to the same router?
Yes
Statically Learned Routes
Static IPv6 Route Examples To configure a default IPv6 static
route, use the ipv6 route ::/0 [ipv6-
address | interface-type interface-
number} global configuration
command:
• ipv6 route ::/0 s0/0/0
• there is no asterisk (*) or Gateway
of Last Resort explicitly identified in
the routing table.
Use the show ipv6 route
command to verify the static routes
were installed.
Like IPv4, static routes are explicitly configured to reach a
specific remote network. For example: Use ping to verify remote network
connectivity from R1:
• ipv6 route 2001:0DB8:ACAD:1::/64 2001:0Db8:ACAD:3::1
• ipv6 route 2001:0DB8:ACAD:2::/64 s0/0/0 • ping 2001:0DB8:ACAD:4::1
Notice that one of these routes uses an exit interface while the
other uses a next hop address.
Dynamic Routing & Protocols
Static Routing is done manually by human beings.
Dynamic routing is done by the Network OS.
Dynamic routing protocols use network discovery to share information about the networks
that it knows about, with other routers that are using the same routing protocol.
• Routers automatically learn about remote networks from other routers
• These networks and the best path to each are added to the routing table of the router.
Routers converge after they have finished exchanging and updating their routing tables.
Routers then maintain the networks in their routing tables.
Dynamic Routing & Protocols
IPv4 Dynamic Routing Protocols One of the major advantages of dynamic
routing protocols over static routes -
determine a new best path if the initial
path becomes unusable.
Dynamic routing protocols can adjust to
topology changes without involving the
network administrator.
Cisco routers support a variety of IPv4
routing protocols including:
• EIGRP
• OSPF
• IS-IS
• RIP
• Use
router ?
in global config mode to see the complete
list.
END OF CHAPTER 1
