The IP Routing Process

The IP routing process is fairly simple and doesn’t change, regardless of the size
network you have.
For an example, we’ll use Figure below to describe step-by-step what happens
when Host_A wants to communicate with Host_B on a different network.

FIGURE: IP routing example using two hosts and one router

In this example, a user on Host_A pings Host_B’s IP address. Routing doesn’t get
simpler than this, but it still involves a lot of steps. Let’s work through them:

1.
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) creates an echo request payload (which
is just the alphabet in the data field).

2.
ICMP hands that payload to Internet Protocol (IP), which then creates a packet. At
a minimum, this packet contains an IP source address, an IP destination address,
and a protocol field with 01h (remember that Cisco likes to use 0x in front of hex
characters, so this could look like 0x01). All of that tells the receiving host whom
it should hand the payload to when the destination is reached—in this example,
ICMP.

3.
Once the packet is created, IP determines whether the destination IP address is
on the local network or a remote one.

4.
Since IP determines that this is a remote request, the packet needs to be sent to
the default gateway so the packet can be routed to the remote network. The
Registry in Windows is parsed to find the configured default gateway.

5.
The default gateway of host 172.16.10.2 (Host_A) is configured to 172.16.10.1. To
be able to send this packet to the default gateway, the hardware address of the
router’s interface Ethernet 0 (configured with the IP address of 172.16.10.1) must
be known. Why? So the packet can be handed down to the Data Link layer,
framed, and sent to the router’s interface connected to the 172.16.10.0 network.
Hosts communicate only via hardware addresses on the local LAN. It is important
to understand that Host_A, in order to communicate to Host_ B, must send the
packets to the MAC address of the default gateway on the local network.

6.
Next, the ARP cache is checked to see if the IP address of the default gateway has
already been resolved to a hardware address:
• If it has, the packet is then free to be handed to the Data Link layer for
framing. (The hardware destination address is also handed down with that
packet.)
• If the hardware address isn’t already in the ARP cache of the host, an ARP
broadcast is sent out onto the local network to search for the hardware
address of 172.16.10.1. The router responds to the request and provides
the hardware address of Ethernet 0, and the host caches this address. The
router also caches the hardware address of Host_A in its ARP cache.

7.
Once the packet and destination hardware address are handed to the Data Link
layer, the LAN driver is used to provide media access via the type of LAN being
used (in this example, Ethernet). A frame is then generated, encapsulating the
packet with control information. Within that frame are the hardware destination
and source addresses, plus, in this case, an Ether-Type field that describes the
Network layer protocol that handed the packet to the Data Link layer—in this
instance, IP. At the end of the frame is something called a Frame Check Sequence
(FCS) field that houses the result of the cyclic redundancy check (CRC).

8.
Once the frame is completed, it’s handed down to the Physical layer to be put on
the physical medium (in this example, twisted-pair wire) one bit at a time.

9.
Every device in the collision domain receives these bits and builds the frame.
They each run a
CRC and check the answer in the FCS field. If the answers don’t match, the frame
is discarded.
• If the CRC matches, then the hardware destination address is checked to
see if it matches, too (which, in this example, is the router’s interface
Ethernet 0).
• If it’s a match, then the Ether-Type field is checked to find the protocol used
at the Network layer.

10.
The packet is pulled from the frame, and what is left of the frame is discarded.
The packet is handed to the protocol listed in the Ether-Type field—it’s given to
IP.

11.
IP receives the packet and checks the IP destination address. Since the packet’s
destination address doesn’t match any of the addresses configured on the
receiving router itself, the router will look up the destination IP network address in
its routing table.

12.
The routing table must have an entry for the network 172.16.20.0, or the packet
will be discarded immediately and an ICMP message will be sent back to the
originating device with a “destination network unreachable” message.

13.
If the router does find an entry for the destination network in its table, the packet
is switched to the exit interface—in this example, interface Ethernet 1.
14.
The router packet-switches the packet to the Ethernet 1 buffer.

15.
The Ethernet 1 buffer needs to know the hardware address of the destination host
and first checks the ARP cache.
• If the hardware address of Host_B has already been resolved, then the
packet and the hardware address are handed down to the Data Link layer
to be framed.
• If the hardware address has not already been resolved, the router sends an
ARP request out E1 looking for the hardware address of 172.16.20.2.
Host_B responds with its hardware address, and the packet and destination
hardware address are both sent to the Data Link layer for framing.

16.
The Data Link layer creates a frame with the destination and source hardware
address, Ether-Type field, and FCS field at the end of the frame. The frame is
handed to the Physical layer to be sent out on the physical medium one bit at a
time.

17.
Host_B receives the frame and immediately runs a CRC. If the result matches
what’s in the FCS field, the hardware destination address is then checked. If the
host finds a match, the Ether-Type field is then checked to determine the protocol
that the packet should be handed to at the Network layer—IP, in this example.

18.
At the Network layer, IP receives the packet and checks the IP destination
address. Since there’s finally a match made, the protocol field is checked to find
out whom the payload should be given to.

19.
The payload is handed to ICMP, which understands that this is an echo request.
ICMP responds to this by immediately discarding the packet and generating a new
payload as an echo reply.

20.
A packet is then created including the source and destination address, protocol
field, and payload. The destination device is now Host_A.

21.
IP then checks to see whether the destination IP address is a device on the local
LAN or on a remote network. Since the destination device is on a remote network,
the packet needs to be sent to the default gateway.

22.
The default gateway IP address is found in the Registry of the Windows device,
and the ARP cache is checked to see if the hardware address has already been
resolved from an IP address.

23.
Once the hardware address of the default gateway is found, the packet and
destination hardware addresses are handed down to the Data Link layer for
framing.
24.
The Data Link layer frames the packet of information and includes the following in
the header:
• The destination and source hardware address
• The Ether-Type field with 0x0800 (IP) in it
• The FCS field with the CRC result

25.
The frame is now handed down to the Physical layer to be sent out over the
network medium one bit at a time.

26.
The router’s Ethernet 1 interface receives the bits and builds a frame. The CRC is
run, and the FCS field is checked to make sure the answers match.

27.
Once the CRC is found to be okay, the hardware destination address is checked.
Since the router’s interface is a match, the packet is pulled from the frame and
the Ether-Type field is checked to see what protocol at the Network layer the
packet should be delivered to.

28.
The protocol is determined to be IP, so it gets the packet. IP runs a CRC check on
the IP header first, and then checks the destination IP address.
Note: IP does not run a complete CRC as the Data Link layer does—it only checks
the
header for errors.

29.
But the router does know how to get to network 172.16.10.0—the exit interface is
Ethernet 0—so the packet is switched to interface Ethernet 0.

30.
The router checks the ARP cache to determine whether the hardware address for
172.16.10.2 has already been resolved.

31.
Since the hardware address to 172.16.10.2 is already cached from the originating
trip to Host_B, the hardware address and packet are handed to the Data Link
layer.

32.
The Data Link layer builds a frame with the destination hardware address and
source hardware address, and then puts IP in the Ether-Type field. A CRC is run on
the frame, and the result is placed in the FCS field.

33.
The frame is then handed to the Physical layer to be sent out onto the local
network one bit at a time.

34.
The destination host receives the frame, runs a CRC, checks the destination
hardware address, and looks in the Ether-Type field to find out whom to hand the
packet to.

35.
IP is the designated receiver, and after the packet is handed to IP at the Network
layer, it checks the protocol field for further direction. IP finds instructions to give
the payload to ICMP, and ICMP determines the packet to be an ICMP echo reply.

36.
ICMP acknowledges that it has received the reply by sending an exclamation
point (!) to the user interface. ICMP then attempts to send four more echo
requests to the destination host.

You’ve just experienced 36 easy steps to understanding IP routing. The key point
to understand here is that if you had a much larger network, the process would
be the same. In a really big internetwork, the packet just goes through more hops
before it finds the destination host.

Note: A very important point to remember is that when Host_A sends a packet to
Host_B, the destination hardware address used is the default gateway Ethernet
interface. This is because frames can’t be placed on remote networks, only local
networks, and packets destined for remote networks must go to the default
gateway.