Shortest Path Problem Between Routing Terminals - Implementation in Python

Last Updated : 12 Jul, 2025

The famous Dijkstra's algorithm can be used in a variety of contexts - including as a means to find the shortest route between two routers, also known as Link state routing. This article explains a simulation of Dijkstra's algorithm in which the nodes (routers) are terminals. Once the shortest path between two nodes (terminals) is calculated, the shortest path itself is sent as a message to each terminal on its path in sequence, until the destination terminal is reached. Whenever the message has traversed a node, its terminal displays the traversal. In this way, it is possible to both see and simulate the passage of a message across a shortest calculated route. The procedure to run the following code is as follows:

Execute the driver code
Before providing any input to the driver code, run the router codes router1.py, router2.py, etc. in separate terminals/tabs.
Now provide input to the driver code in the form of a matrix G, in which any entry G[i, j] is the distance from node i to node j. The matrix must be symmetrical. If i=j, then D[i, j]=0 as the distance between a node and itself is considered to be nothing. If there is no direct connection between two nodes, then D[i, j]=999 (the equivalent of infinity).
Specify source and destination nodes, where the nodes vary from 0 to 3, and represent terminals 1 to 4 respectively.

This implementation specifies four nodes but this can easily be extended to N nodes with N terminals and port numbers representing processes running on them respectively. Consider the following example of a four-node network, with distances between them as specified and nodes numbered 0 to 3 from left to right:

For this network, the matrix G with entries G[i, j] as specified above would be:

[[0, 1, 999, 999],
 [1, 0, 2, 999],
 [999, 2, 0, 3],
 [999, 999, 3, 0]]

This matrix would have to be input to the driver code. Dijkstra's algorithm is used to find the shortest path between source and destination. A list containing the remaining path is sent to each node en route to the final destination. The implementation in Python is specified below.

Python3 1==

# Driver Code for implementing Dijkstra's algorithm
import socket
import sys
import pickle

S = set() 
G =[] # adjacency matrix

# give input matrix
for i in range(4): 
    listo =[0, 0, 0, 0]
    
    for j in range(4):
        listo[j]= int(input("give input"))
    G.append(listo)
    
source = int(input("give source")) 
destination = int(input("give destination")) 
Q =[] # empty queue

for i in range(4):
    Q.append(i)
    
d =[0, 0, 0, 0] # initialize d values
pi =[0, 0, 0, 0] # initialize pi values

for i in range(4):
    if(i == source):
        d[i]= 0
    else:
        d[i]= 999
for i in range(4):
    pi[i]= 9000
S.add(source)

# While items still exist in Q
while (len(Q)!= 0): 
    
    # Find the minimum distance x from
    # source of all nodes in Q
    x = min(d[q] for q in Q) 
    u = 0
    for q in Q:
        if(d[q]== x):
            
            # Find the node u in Q with minimum 
            # distance x from source 
            u = q 
            
    print(u, "Is the minimum distance")
    Q.remove(u) # removed the minimum vertex
    S.add(u)
    adj =[]
    for y in range(4):
        
        # find adjacent vertices to minimum vertex
        if(y != u and G[u][y]!= 999):     
            adj.append(y)
            
     # For each adjacent vertex, perform the update
     # of distance and pi vectors        
    for v in adj:        
        if(d[v]>(d[u]+G[u][v])):
            d[v]= d[u]+G[u][v] 
            pi[v]= u # update adjacents distance and pi
route =[]
x = destination

# If destination is source, then pi[x]= 9000. 
if(pi[x]== 9000): 
    print(source)
else:
    
    # Find the path from destination to source
    while(pi[x]!= 9000): 
        route.append(x)
        x = pi[x]
    route.reverse() 
    
    
print(route) # Display the route
print(pi) # Display the path vector
print(d) # Display the distance of each node from source

'''We will now send the calculated minimal route to the terminal 
# representing 'source'. From the source terminal, the 'route' list 
# will be sent to the next hop en route to the final destination. 

# At each intermediate terminal, the router removes its own identity 
 from the list and sends the rest of the route to the next router. 
 This continues until the final router is reached.'''
 
sendingroute = pickle.dumps(route)
sockets =[8895, 8896, 8897, 8898]
sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) 
sock.connect((socket.gethostname(), sockets)) 

try:
    
    # try sendall if it doesn't work. 
    sock.send(sendingroute) 
finally:
    print("")
sock.close()

Python3 1==

# Code for Router 1
import socket
import sys
import pickle

for i in range(1) :
    sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    sock.bind((socket.gethostname(), 8895))
    sock.listen(1)
    connection, client_address = sock.accept()
    route =[]
    sockets =[8895, 8896, 8897, 8898]

    while 1:
        try:
            route = pickle.loads(connection.recv(1024))
    except EOFError:
        break      
        finally:
            break
    print("Traversed 1") 
    socknext = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)

    if(len(route)>0):
        x = route[0]
        route.remove(x)
        dataroute = pickle.dumps(route)
        socknext.connect((socket.gethostname(), sockets[x]))
        try:
            socknext.send(dataroute) # try sendall
            data = socknext.recv(16)
            print(data)
       finally:
               print("")
        socknext.close()

Python3 1==

# Code for Router 2
import socket
import sys
import pickle

for i in range(1) :

    sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    sock.bind((socket.gethostname(), 8896))
    sock.listen(1)
    connection, client_address = sock.accept()
    route =[]
    sockets =[8895, 8896, 8897, 8898]

    while 1:
        try:
            route = pickle.loads(connection.recv(1024))
    except EOFError:
        break      
        finally:
            break
    print("Traversed 2")

    socknext = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)

    if(len(route)>0):

    x = route[0]
        route.remove(x)
        dataroute = pickle.dumps(route)
        socknext.connect((socket.gethostname(), sockets[x]))
        try:
            socknext.send(dataroute) # try sendall
            data = socknext.recv(16)
            print(data)
       finally:
               print("")
        socknext.close()

Python3 1==

# Code for Router 3
import socket
import sys
import pickle

for i in range(1) :
    sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    sock.bind((socket.gethostname(), 8897))
    sock.listen(1)
    connection, client_address = sock.accept()

    route =[]
    sockets =[8895, 8896, 8897, 8898]
    while 1:
        try:
            route = pickle.loads(connection.recv(1024))
    except EOFError:
        break      
        finally:
            break
    print("Traversed 3")
    socknext = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)

    if(len(route)>0):
    x = route[0]
        route.remove(x)
        dataroute = pickle.dumps(route)
        socknext.connect((socket.gethostname(), sockets[x]))
        try:
            socknext.send(dataroute) # try sendall
            data = socknext.recv(16)
            print(data)
       finally:
               print("")
        socknext.close()

Python3 1==

# Code for Router 4
import socket
import sys
import pickle

for i in range(1) :
    sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    sock.bind((socket.gethostname(), 8898))
    sock.listen(1)
    connection, client_address = sock.accept()
    route =[]
    sockets =[8895, 8896, 8897, 8898]

    while 1:
        try:
            route = pickle.loads(connection.recv(1024))
    except EOFError:
        break      
        finally:
            break

    print("Traversed 4")
    socknext = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)

    if(len(route)>0):
    x = route[0]
        route.remove(x)
        dataroute = pickle.dumps(route)
        socknext.connect((socket.gethostname(), sockets[x]))
        try:
            socknext.send(dataroute) # try sendall
            data = socknext.recv(16)
            print(data)
       finally:
               print("")
        socknext.close()