Routing

Routing is a key feature of the Internet because it enables messages to pass

from one computer to another and eventually reach the target machine. Each
intermediary computer performs routing by passing along the message to the next
computer. Part of this process involves analyzing a routing tableto determine the
best path.
Routing is often confused with bridging, which performs a similar function. The
principal difference between the two is that bridging occurs at a lower level and is
therefore more of a hardware function whereas routing occurs at a higher level
where the software component is more important. And because routing occurs at a
higher level, it can perform more complex analysis to determine the optimal path
for the packet. Routers uses two ways to know the destination of packets; these are
Static and Dynamic routing.

1. Static Routing
Static routing is a form of routing that occurs when a router uses a
manually-configured
routing entry, rather than information from a dynamic routing protocol to forward
traffic.
2. RIP V1- Routing Information Protocol Version 1
FC 1058 from June 1988 defines RIPv1. RIP is a distance-vector routing
protocol that uses router hop count as the metric. RIP is a classful routing protocol
that does not support VLSMs or CIDR.
There is no method for authenticating route updates. A RIP router sends a
copy of its routing table to its neighbors every 30 seconds. RIP uses split horizon
with poison reverse; therefore, route updates are sent out an interface with an
infinite metric for routes learned (received) from the same interface.
The RIP standard was based on the popular routed program used in UNIX
systems since the 1980s. The Cisco implementation of RIP adds support for load
balancing. RIP will load-balance traffic if there are several paths with the same
metric (equal-cost load balancing) to a destination. Also, RIP sends triggered
updates when the metric of a route changes. Triggered updates can help the
network converge faster rather than wait for the periodic update. RIP has an
administrative distance of 120. Chapter 11, "Routing Protocol Selection Criteria,"
covers administrative distance.
RIP summarizes to IP network values at network boundaries. A network
boundary occurs at a router that has one or more interfaces that do not participate
in the specified IP network. The IP address assigned to the interface determines
participation. IP class determines the network value. For example, an IP network
that uses 24-bit subnetworks from 180.100.50.0/24 to 180.100.120.0/24 is
summarized to 180.100.0.0/16 at a network boundary.

RIPv1 Forwarding Information Base

The RIPv1 protocol keeps the following information about each destination:

IP addressIP address of the destination host or network

GatewayThe first gateway along the path to the destination
InterfaceThe physical network that must be used to reach the destination
MetricA number indicating the number of hops to the destination

TimerThe amount of time since the entry was last updated

3. RIP V2 - Routing Information Protocol Version 2

RIPv2 is a classless, distance vector routing protocol as defined in RFC 1723.
Because RIPv2 is a classless routing protocol, which means, it includes the subnet
mask with the network addresses in the routing updates. As with other classless
routing protocols, RIPv2 supports CIDR supernets, VLSM and discontiguous
networks.
Due to the deficiencies of RIPv1, RIP version 2 (RIPv2) was developed
sometime in 1993. Its equipped with the ability to support subnet information and
supports Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR). A router that receives routing
updates from multiple routers advertising the same classful summary route cannot
determine which subnets belong to which summary route. This inability leads to
unexpected results including misrouted packets.
However, with RIPv2 automatic summarization can be disabled with the no
auto-summary command. Automatic summarization must be disabled to support
discontiguous networks.
RIPv2 still maintains the hop count limit of 15 and incorporated a password
authentication mechanism. However, passwords were transmitted in clear-text
format, which were found insufficient for secure communications on the Internet.
The default version of RIP is version 1. The command version 2 is used to
modify RIPv1 to RIPv2. RIPv2 is actually an enhancement of RIPv1's features and
extensions rather than an entirely new protocol. Some of these enhanced features
include:

Next-hop addresses included in the routing updates

Use of multicast addresses in sending updates
Authentication option available

Like RIPv1, RIPv2 is a distance vector routing protocol. Both versions of RIP
share the following features and limitations:

Use of holddown and other timers to help prevent routing loops.

Use of split horizon or split horizon with poison reverse to also help prevent
routing loops.
Use of triggered updates when there is a change in the topology for faster
convergence.
Maximum hop count limit of 15 hops, with the hop count of 16 signifying an
unreachable network.

4. EIGRP - Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol

Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) is an interior gateway
protocol suited for many different topologies and media. In a well designed network,
EIGRP scales well and provides extremely quick convergence times with minimal
network traffic.
EIGRP Theory of Operation

Some of the many advantages of EIGRP are:

very low usage of network resources during normal operation; only hello
packets are transmitted on a stable network
when a change occurs, only routing table changes are propagated, not the
entire routing table; this reduces the load the routing protocol itself places on
the network
rapid convergence times for changes in the network topology (in some
situations convergence can be almost instantaneous)

EIGRP is an enhanced distance vector protocol, relying on the Diffused Update

Algorithm (DUAL) to calculate the shortest path to a destination within a network.
5. OSPF - Open Shortest Path First
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP)
standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and commonly used in
large Enterprise networks. OSPF is a link-state routing protocol providing fast
convergence and excellent scalability. Like all link-state protocols, OSPF is very
efficient in its use of network bandwidth.