18CSS202J- COMPUTER

COMMUNICATION
UNIT –V Contents

• Delivery - Types ( Direct , Indirect)

• Forwarding Techniques -
- Next -hop method
- Route Method
- Network specific Method
- Host specific Method
- Default Method
• Forwarding Process:
Steps followed by Router
• Routing
-Routing Table contents
-Types of Routing - Static & Dynamic
( including tables).
• Autonomous system
• Intradomain & Interdomain routing
• Types of Routing.
Distance vector Routing
Link state Routing

• Path vector Routing

• PROBLEM SOLVING
• RIP version 1 & RIP version2
• OSPF
• Comparison
• EIGRP
• BGP
22-1 DELIVERY

The network layer supervises the handling of the

packets by the underlying physical networks. We define
this handling as the delivery of a packet.

Topics discussed in this section:

Direct Versus Indirect Delivery

22.6
 22-2 FORWARDING

Forwarding means to place the packet in its route to its

destination. Forwarding requires a host or a router to
have a routing table. When a host has a packet to send
or when a router has received a packet to be forwarded,
it looks at this table to find the route to the final
destination.

Topics discussed in this section:

Forwarding Techniques
Forwarding Process
Routing Table

22.8
 Figure 22.2 Route method versus next-hop method

22.9
 Figure 22.3 Host-specific versus network-specific method

22.10
 Figure 22.4 Default method

22.11
Default method

Host A have one entry called the default(normally defined as

network address (0.0.0.0).
Forwarding Process
Simplified forwarding module in classless address
 Example
Make a routing table for router R1, using the
configuration in Figure.
Table Routing table for router R1 in Figure
16
 Static route operation

• Static route operations can be divided into

these three parts:
– Network administrator configures the route
– Router installs the route in the routing table
– Packets are routed using the static route
• Since a static route is manually configured,
the administrator must configure the static
route on the router using the ip route
command.
17
18
Verifying static route configuration
• Use the following steps to verify static route
configuration:
– In privileged mode enter the command show running-config to
view the active configuration.
– Verify that the static route has been correctly entered.
– Enter the command show ip route.
– Verify that the route that was configured is in the routing table.

19
• Advantages of static routing
–-It can backup multiple interfaces/networks on a
router
–-Easy to configure
–-No extra resources are needed
–-More secure
• Disadvantages of static routing
–-Network changes require manual reconfiguration
–-Does not scale well in large topologies

20
 Dynamic Routing Table
• It is updated periodically by using one of the dynamic routing
protocols such as RIP, OSPF or BGP.
• Whenever there is a change in the internet, such as a
shutdown of a router or breaking of a link, the dynamic
routing protocols update all the tables in the routers
automatically.
• The routers in a big internet need to be updated dynamically
for efficient delivery of the IP packets.

21
Figure Common fields in a routing table

Flags
• U(up): U flag indicated the router is up and running.
• G(gateway): G flag means that the destination is in another network.
• H(host-specific): H flag indicates that the entry in the network address is a host specific
address.
• D(added by redirection)
• M(Modified by redirection)

Reference count
This field gives the number of users of this route at the moment.

Use
This field shows the number of packets transmitted through this router for the corresponding
destination.
Figure 22.12 Autonomous systems

22.23
Figure 22.13 Popular routing protocols

22.24
 Distance vector routing

• The least –cost route between any 2 nodes is

the route with minimum distance.

• Initialization
• Sharing
• Updating

25
Figure Distance vector routing tables
Figure Initialization of tables in distance vector routing
Sharing
In distance vector routing, each node shares its routing
table with its immediate neighbors periodically and when
there is a change.

Updating
1. The receiving node needs to add the cost between itself
and sending node to each value in the 2nd column.
2. The receiving node needs to add the name of the
sending node to each row as the 3rd column.
3. The receiving node needs to compare each row of its old
table with the corresponding row of the modified version
of the received table.
Figure Updating in distance vector routing
 LINK STATE ROUTING
• Link state routing has a different philosophy from
that of distance vector routing.
• In link state routing, if each node in the domain
has the entire topology of the domain—the list of
nodes and links, how they are connected
including the
1. Type
2. Cost (metric)
3. The condition of the links (up or down)—the
node can use the Dijkstra algorithm to build a
routing table.
Concept of Link state routing
Link state knowledge
Dijkstra algorithm
Example of formation of shortest path tree
Routing table for node A
 Building Routing Tables
• Creation of the states of the links by each node,
called the link state packets (LSP)
• Distribution of LSPs to every other routers,
called flooding (efficiently)
• Formation of a shortest path tree for each node
• Calculation of a routing table based on the
shortest path tree
 PATH VECTOR ROUTING
• Distance vector and link state routing are both interior
routing protocols. They can be used inside an autonomous
system.
• Both of these routing protocols become intractable when the
domain of operation becomes large.
• Distance vector routing is subject to instability if there is
more than a few hops in the domain of operation.
• Link state routing needs a huge amount of resources to
calculate routing tables. It also creates heavy traffic because
of flooding.
• There is a need for a third routing protocol which we call
path vector routing.
• The principle of path vector routing is similar to that of
distance vector routing.
• In path vector, we assume that there is one node in each
AS that acts on behalf of the entire AS. This is called as
speaker node.
• The speaker node in an AS creates a routing table and
advertises it to speaker nodes in the neighboring ASs.
• A speaker node advertises the path, not the metric of the
nodes, in its AS or other ASs.
• The idea is the same as for DV routing except that only
speaker nodes in each AS can communicate with each
other
Initialization
• Each speaker node can know only the reachability of nodes inside
its AS.
• Node A1 is the speaker node for AS1, B1 for AS2, C1 for AS3 and
D1 for AS4.
• Node A1 creates an initial table that shows A1 to A5 are located in
AS1 and can be reached through it.
• Node B1 advertises that B1 to B4 are located in AS2 and can be
reached through B1. And so on.
Sharing
• A speaker in an AS shares its table with immediate neighbors.
• Node A1 shares its table with B1 and C1.
• Node C1 shares its table with B1 and D1.
• Node B1 shares its table with A1 and C1.
• Node D1 shares its table with C1.
Initial routing tables in path vector routing
Updating
• When a speaker node receives a two column table from a
neighbor, it updates its own table by adding the nodes that
are not in its routing table and adding its own AS and the
AS that sent the table.
• After a while each speaker has a table and knows how to
reach node in other Ass.
1. Loop prevention
• The instability of DV routing and the creation of loops can
be avoided in PV routing.
• When a router receives a message, it checks to see if its AS
is in the path list to the destination.
• If it is, looping is involved and the message is ignored.
Stabilized tables for three autonomous systems
2. Policy routing
• When a router receives a message, it can check the path.
• If one of the AS listed in the path is against its policy, it can ignore
that path and that destination.
• It does not update its routing table with this path, and it does not
send this message to its neighbors.
3. Optimum path
• It cannot include metrics in this route because each AS that is
included in the path may use a different criterion for the metric.
• One system may use, RIP which defines hop count as the metric.
Another may use OSPF with minimum delay defined as the metric.
• The optimum path is the path that fits the organization.(Eg: AS4 to
AS1)
• Other criteria, such as security, safety and reliability can also be
applied.
 RIP
• The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is an intra-domain
(interior) routing protocol used inside an autonomous system.
• It is a very simple protocol based on distance vector routing
which employ the hop count as a routing metric.
• RIP prevents routing loops by implementing a limit on the
number of hops allowed in a path from source to destination.
• The maximum number of hops allowed for RIP is 15, which limits
the size of networks that RIP can support.
• A hop count of 16 is considered an infinite distance and the
route is considered unreachable.
 RIP version 1
• The original specification of RIP was published in 1988 and
uses classful routing.
• The periodic routing updates do not
carry subnet information, lacking support for variable
length subnet masks (VLSM).
• This limitation makes it impossible to have
different-sized subnets inside of the same network class.
• In other words, all subnets in a network class must have
the same size.
• There is also no support for router authentication, making
RIP vulnerable to various attacks.
 RIPv1 Operation
• RIP defines two types of messages.
1. Request Message
2. Response Message
• When a RIP router comes online, it sends a broadcast
Request Message on all of its RIP enabled interfaces. All
the neighboring routers which receive the Request
message respond back with the Response Message
containing their Routing table.
• The Response Message is also unnecessarily sent when
the Update timer expires. On receiving the Routing table,
the router processes each entry of the routing table as per
the following rules
• If there are no route entries matching the one received then
the route entry is added to the routing table automatically,
along with the information about the router from which it
received the routing table.

• If there are matching entries but the hop count metric is

lower than the one already in its routing table, then the
routing table is updated with the new route.

• If there are matching entries but the hop count metric is

higher than the one already in its routing table, then the
routing entry is updated with hop count of 16 (infinite hop).
 RIP Timer

Update Timer(Periodic)
• The update timer controls the interval between two
gratuitous Response Messages.
• By default the value is 30 seconds. The response message
is broadcast to all its RIP enabled interface.

Invalid Timer(Expiration)
• The invalid timer specifies how long a routing entry can be in
Flush Timer
• The flush timer controls the time between the route is invalidated
or marked as unreachable and removal of entry from the routing
table.
• By default the value is 240 seconds. This is 60 seconds longer
than Invalid timer.
• So for 60 seconds the router will be advertising about this
unreachable route to all its neighbors. This timer must be set to a
higher value than the invalid timer.

Hold-down Timer
• The hold-down timer is started per route entry, when the hop
RIP message format
Request messages
RIP message example
 Limitations
• The hop count cannot exceed 15, or routes will be
dropped.
• Most RIP networks are flat. There is no concept of
areas or boundaries in RIP networks.
• Variable Length Subnet Masks are not supported by
RIP version 1 (which is obsolete).
• RIP has slow convergence and count to infinity
problems.
 RIP Configuring and Commands
• ip routing : enables the router
• router rip : you can enter configuration commands to
define the RIP process for router
• network network_address : Telling the router which
networks it should advertise routes for
• write, write terminal : Saving configuration & view
currently running configuration
• ping address : To check and see if the packets are getting
routed
• show ip route : To view the routers current routing table
• show ip rip ? : Gives information about RIP
 RIP version 2
• Due to the deficiencies of the original RIP specification, RIP
version 2 (RIPv2) was developed in 1993 and last standardized in
1998. It included the ability to carry subnet information, thus
supporting Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR). To maintain
backward compatibility, the hop count limit of 15 remained.
• In an effort to avoid unnecessary load on hosts that do not
participate in routing, RIPv2 multicasts the entire routing table to
all adjacent routers at the address 224.0.0.9, as opposed to
RIPv1 which uses broadcast. Unicast addressing is still allowed
for special applications.
 RIP version 2 format

• Route tags were also added in RIP version 2. This functionality

allows a distinction between routes learned from the RIP protocol
and routes learned from other protocols.
 Limitations
• RIP-2 supports generic notion of authentication, but only
“password” is defined so far. Still not very secure.
• RIP2 packet size increases as the number of networks
increases hence it is not suitable for large networks.
• RIP2 generates more protocol traffic than OSPF, because
it propagates routing information by periodically
transmitting the entire routing table to neighbor routers
• RIP2 may be slow to adjust for link failures.
 OSPF
• The Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
protocol is an intra-domain routing protocol
based on link state routing
 Types of links

Point-to-point link
It connects two routers without any other host or router
Transient link
It is a network with several routers attached to it.

It is a network that is connected to only one router.

 Virtual link
• When the link between two routers is
broken, the administration may create a
virtual link between them.
Example of an AS and its graphical representation in OSPF
OSPF common header
Types of OSPF packet
 Hello packet

OSPF uses the hello message to create neighborhood relationship and to test
the reachability of neighbors.

This is the first step in link state routing. Before a router can flood all of the
other routers with information about its neighbors, it must first greet it
neighbors.
 Database description packet

When a router is connected to the system for the first time or after a failure, it
needs the complete link state database immediately. Therefore, it sends hello
packets to greet its neighbors. If this is the first time that the neighbors hear
from the router, they send a database description message.

The database description packet does not contain complete database

information; it only gives an outline, the title of each lines in the database.
Link state request packet
Link state update packet
LSA general header
 LSA General Header
• Link state age
– When a router creates the message, the value of this field is 0
– When each successive router forwards this message, it estimates the transit
time and adds it to the cumulative value of this field
• E flag
– If this flag is set to 1, it means the area is a stub area (an area that is
connected to the backbone area by only one path
• T flag
– If this flag is set to 1, it means the router can handle multiple types of
services
• Advertising router
– The IP address of the router advertising this message
• Link state sequence number
– A sequence number assigned to each link state update message
• EIGRP
“Enhanced” Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
• Cisco proprietary, released in 1994
• Developed from the older IGRP (classful)
• EIGRP is classless, supports VLSM, CIDR
• EIGRP is an advanced distance-vector routing protocol that relies on features
commonly associated with link-state protocols. (sometimes called a hybrid
routing protocol).

• RIP, IGRP, EIGRP

• RIP is a typical distance vector routing protocol enhancements for better
performance using hop count as metric, max 15.
• IGRP was introduced to have a better metric and not be restricted to 15
hops. It is a typical distance vector routing protocol, and classful.
• EIGRP was introduced to be classless and with.
 IGRP EIGRP
• Bellman-Ford algorithm • Diffusing Update
• Ages out routing entries Algorithm (DUAL)
• Sends periodic updates • Does not age out entries
• Keeps best routes only • No periodic updates
• Slow convergence with • Keeps backup routes
holddown timers • Faster convergence, no
holddown timers
 IGRP and EIGRP: A migration path
IGRP EIGRP

Classful Routing Protocol Classless Routing Protocol

• VLSM, CIDR

bandwidth = (10,000,000/bandwidth kbps) bandwidth = (10,000,000/bandwidth kbps) * 256

delay = delay/10 delay = (delay/10) * 256
24 bit metric for bandwidth and delay 32 bit metric for bandwidth and delay
Maximum Hop Count = 255 Maximum Hop Count = 224

No differentiation between internal and Outside routes (redistributed) are tagged as

external routes. external routes.

Automatic redistribution between IGRP and EIGRP as long as “AS” numbers are the same.
 Encapsulation
Frame IP packet EIGRP packet Type/ length/
header header header value data

If Ethernet, Opcode
destination MAC AS number
address multicast
01-00-5E-00-00-0A.
EIGRP Parameters,
Protocol field 88 IP Internal Routes,
destination address IP External Routes.
multicast 224.0.0.10.
 EIGRP packet header
EIGRP packet
header

• Opcode specifies packet type:

Update, Query, Reply, Hello
• Autonomous system (AS) number specifies the
EIGRP process. Several can run at the same
time.
• Other fields allow for reliability if needed.
 Metric Calculation (Review)

– k1 for bandwidth
– k2 for load
– k3 for delay
– k4 and k5 for Reliability
EIGRP
Router(config-router)# metric
bandwidth is in kbps weights tos k1 k2 k3 k4 k5
 Features of EIGRP
• Classless Routing Protocol (VLSM, CIDR)
• Faster convergence times and improved scalability
• Rapid Convergence and Better handling of routing loops – (DUAL) (coming)
• Efficient Use of Bandwidth
– Partial, bounded updates: Incremental updates only to the routers that need them.
– Minimal bandwidth consumption: Uses Hello packets and EIGRP packets by default
use no more that 50% of link’s bandwidth EIGRP packets.
• PDM (Protocol Dependent Module)
– Keeps EIGRP is modular
– Different PDMs can be added to EIGRP as new routed protocols are enhanced or
developed: IPv4, IPv6, IPX, and AppleTalk
 Hello packets
• Used by EIGRP to discover neighbours
• Used to form adjacencies with neighbours.
• Multicasts
• Unreliable delivery

Hello

Hello
 Update packets
• Used to propagate routing information.
• No periodic updates.
• Sent only when necessary.
• Include only required information
• Sent only to those routers that require it.
• Reliable delivery.
• Multicast if to several routers, unicast if to one
router.
 Update packets
• EIGRP updates are sent only when a route
changes.
• EIGRP updates are partial. They include only
information about the changed route.
• EIGRP updates are bounded. They go only to
routers that are affected by the change.
• This keeps updates small and saves
bandwidth.
 Acknowledgement (ACK) packets
• Sent when reliable delivery is used by RTP.
• Sent in response to update packets.
• Unreliable delivery
• Unicast

Update (reliable)

ACK (unreliable)
 Query packet
• Used when searching for a network
• E.g. a route goes down. Is there another
route?
• Uses reliable delivery so requires ACK
• Multicast or unicast
• All neighbours must reply
Query (reliable)

ACK (unreliable)
 Reply packet
• Sent in response to a query from a neighbour.
• Sent reliably so requires ACK.
• Unicast

Query (reliable)

ACK (unreliable)
Reply (reliable)

ACK (unreliable)
 Summary of message types

Unicast Multicast Either

Reliable Reply Update

Query

Unreliable ACK Hello

 EIGRP Terminology
• Neighbor table – Each EIGRP router maintains a neighbor
table that lists adjacent routers. This table is comparable to
the adjacency database used by OSPF. There is a neighbor
table for each protocol that EIGRP supports.

• Topology table – Every EIGRP router maintains a topology

table for each configured network protocol. This table
includes route entries for all destinations that the router
has learned. All learned routes to a destination are
maintained in the topology table.

• Routing table – EIGRP chooses the best routes to a

destination from the topology table and places these routes
in the routing table. Each EIGRP router maintains a routing
table for each network protocol.
• Successor – A successor is a route selected as
the primary route to use to reach a destination.
Successors are the entries kept in the routing
table. Multiple successors for a destination can be
retained in the routing table.

• Feasible successor – A feasible successor is a

backup route. These routes are selected at the
same time the successors are identified, but are
kept in the topology table. Multiple feasible
successors for a destination can be retained in the
topology table.
 Neighbor Table
• Whenever a new neighbor is discovered, the address of that neighbor and
the interface used to reach it are recorded in a new neighbor table entry.

RouterC#show ip eigrp neighbors

IP-EIGRP neighbors for process 44
H Address Interface Hold Uptime SRTT RTO Q Seq
(sec) (ms) Cnt Num
0 192.168.0.1 Se0 11 00:03:09 1138 5000 0 6
1 192.168.1.2 Et0 12 00:34:46 4 200 0 4
 Neighbor Table
RouterC#show ip eigrp neighbors
IP-EIGRP neighbors for process 44
H Address Interface Hold Uptime SRTT RTO Q Seq
(sec) (ms) Cnt Num
0 192.168.0.1 Se0 11 00:03:09 1138 5000 0 6
1 192.168.1.2 Et0 12 00:34:46 4 200 0 4

• Neighbor address The network-layer address of the neighbor router(s).

• Queue count The number of packets waiting in queue to be sent. If this
value is constantly higher than zero, then there may be a congestion
problem at the router. A zero means that there are no EIGRP packets
in the queue.
 Neighbor Table
RouterC#show ip eigrp neighbors
IP-EIGRP neighbors for process 44
H Address Interface Hold Uptime SRTT RTO Q Seq
(sec) (ms) Cnt Num
0 192.168.0.1 Se0 11 00:03:09 1138 5000 0 6
1 192.168.1.2 Et0 12 00:34:46 4 200 0 4

• Smooth Round Trip Timer (SRTT) The average time it takes to send
and receive packets from a neighbor.
• This timer is used to determine the retransmit interval (RTO)

• Hold Time The interval to wait without receiving anything from a

neighbor before considering the link unavailable.
• Originally, the expected packet was a hello packet, but in current
Cisco IOS software releases, any EIGRP packets received after the
first hello will reset the timer.
 Topology Table
• EIGRP uses its topology table to store all the information it needs to calculate a set of
distances and vectors to all reachable destinations.

RouterB#show ip eigrp topology

IP-EIGRP Topology Table for process 44
Codes: P - Passive, A - Active, U - Update, Q - Query, R -
Reply, r - Reply status
P 206.202.17.0/24, 1 successors, FD is 2195456
via 206.202.16.1 (2195456/2169856), Ethernet0
P 206.202.18.0/24, 2 successors, FD is 2198016
via 192.168.0.2 (2198016/284160), Serial0
via 206.202.16.1 (2198016/2172416), Ethernet0
 Topology Table
RTX#sh ip eigrp top 204.100.50.0
IP-EIGRP topology entry for 204.100.50.0/24
State is Passive, Query origin flag is 1, 1 Successor(s), FD
is 2297856
Routing Descriptor Blocks: FD/RD
10.1.0.1 (Serial0), from 10.1.0.1, Send flag is 0x0
Composite metric is (2297856/128256), Route is External
Vector metric:
Minimum bandwidth is 1544 Kbit
Total delay is 25000 microseconds
Reliability is 255/255
Load is 1/255
Minimum MTU is 1500
Hop count is 1
External data:
Originating router is 192.168.1.1
AS number of route is 0
External protocol is Connected, external metric is 0
Administrator tag is 0 (0x00000000)
 IP Routing Table
• EIGRP chooses the best routes (that is, successor) to a destination from the topology
table and places these routes in the routing table.
• Each EIGRP router maintains a topology table for each network protocol.
• EIGRP displays both internal EIGRP routes and external EIGRP routes.

RouterB#show ip route
Codes: C - connected, S - static, I - IGRP, R - RIP, M - mobile, B - BGP
D - EIGRP, EX - EIGRP external, O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area
E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2, E - EGP
i - IS-IS, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2, * - candidate
default U - per-user static route
Gateway of last resort is not set
C 10.1.1.0 is directly connected, Serial0
D 172.16.0.0 [90/2681856] via 10.1.1.0, Serial0
D EX 192.168.1.0 [170/2681856] via 10.1.1.1, 00:00:04, Serial0
 IP Routing Table
• The routing table contains the routes installed by DUAL as the best loop-free paths to
a given destination.
• EIGRP will maintain up to four routes per destination.
• These routes can be of equal, or unequal cost (if using the variance command). (later)

RouterB#show ip route
Codes: C - connected, S - static, I - IGRP, R - RIP, M - mobile, B - BGP
D - EIGRP, EX - EIGRP external, O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area
E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2, E - EGP
i - IS-IS, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2, * - candidate
default U - per-user static route
Gateway of last resort is not set
C 10.1.1.0 is directly connected, Serial0
D 172.16.0.0 [90/2681856] via 10.1.1.0, Serial0
D EX 192.168.1.0 [170/2681856] via 10.1.1.1, 00:00:04, Serial0
 EIGRP Technologies
Four key technologies set EIGRP apart from IGRP
 Hello Intervals and Default Hold Times

• Hello Time The interval of Hello Packets

• Hold Time The interval to wait without receiving anything from a neighbor
before considering the link unavailable.
 DUAL FSM
• The centerpiece of EIGRP is DUAL, the EIGRP route-calculation engine.
– The full name of this technology is DUAL finite state machine
(FSM).
– This engine contains all the logic used to calculate and compare
routes in an EIGRP network.

What is FSM?
• An FSM is an abstract machine, not a mechanical device with moving
parts.
• FSMs define a set of possible states something can go through, what
events causes those states, and what events result from those states.
• Designers use FSMs to describe how a device, computer program, or
routing algorithm will react to a set of input events.
 FSM Example

States such as
Passive and Active
trigger Certain
Events
•
DUAL FSM
DUAL selects alternate routes quickly by using the information in the EIGRP
tables.
• If a link goes down, DUAL looks for a feasible successor in its neighbor and
topology tables.
• A successor is a neighboring router that is currently being used for packet
forwarding, provides the least-cost route to the destination, and is not part of
a routing loop.
• Feasible successors provide the next lowest-cost path without introducing
routing loops.
– Feasible successor routes can be used in case the existing route fails;
packets to the destination network are immediately forwarded to the
feasible successor, which at that point, is promoted to the status of
successor.
• Selects a best loop-free path to a destination, the next hop being known as
the successor.
• All other routers to the same destination, that also meet the feasible
condition, meaning they are also loop-free (later), become feasible
successors, or back-up routes.
• debug eigrp fsm
 What if the successor fails?
Feasible Successor exists:
• If current successor route fails, feasible successor becomes the
current successor, i.e. the current route.
• Routing of packets continue with little delay.

No Feasible Successor exists:

• This may be because the Reported Distance is greater than the
Feasible Distance.
• Before this route can be installed, it must be placed in the active state
and recomputed.
• Routing of packets continue but with more of a delay.
BGP
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is an interdomain routing
protocol using path vector routing. It first appeared in
1989 and has gone through four versions.
Types of AS:
1. Stub AS
• A stub AS has only one connection to another AS.
• The interdomain data traffic in a stub AS can be either
created or terminated in the AS.
• The host in the AS can send/Receive data
traffic/coming form other ASs.
• Data traffic cannot pass through a stub AS. A stub AS
is either a source or a sink.
2. Multihomed AS
• It has more than one connection to other ASs, but it is still only a
source or a sink.
• It can send/receive data traffic from/to more than one AS.
• It does not allow data coming from one AS and going to another
AS to pass through.
3. Transit AS
• It allows transient traffic.
Path attributes
• The path was presented as a list of attributes. Each attribute give
some information about the path.
• The list of attributes helps the receiving router make a more
informed decision when applying its policy.
 Attributes

Well known Optional

Mandatory Discretionary Transitive Non Transitive

• Well Known- one that every BGP router must recognize.
• Optional- one that needs not be recognized by every
router.
• Well known mandatory- one that must appear in the
description of a route.
• Well known Discretionary- one that must be recognized by
each router.
• Optional Transitive – one that must be passed to the next
router by the router that has not implemented this
attribute
• Optional Non Transitive – one that must be discarded if
the receiving router has not implemented.
 BGP Sessions
• The exchange of routing information between two routers using
BGP takes place in a session.
• A session is a connection that is established between two BGP
routers only for the sake of exchanging routing information.
• To create a reliable environment, BGP uses the services of TCP.
• When a TCP connection is created for BGP, it can last for a long
time, until something unusual happens.
• For this reason, BGP sessions are sometimes referred to as semi
permanent connections.
 External and Internal BGP
• If we want to be precise, BGP can have two types of sessions:
external BGP (E-BGP) and internal BGP (I-BGP) sessions.
• The E-BGP session is used to exchange information between two
speaker nodes belonging to two different autonomous systems.
• The IBGP session is used to exchange routing information between
two routers inside an autonomous system.
• The session established between AS1 and AS2 is an E-BGP session.
The two speaker routers exchange information they know about
networks in the Internet.
• However, these two routers need to collect information from
other routers in the autonomous systems. This is done using I-BGP
sessions.
Internal and external BGP sessions
Types of BGP messages
Packet Format
• All BGP packets share the same common header.
• The fields of this header are as follows:
❑ Marker. The 16-byte marker field is reserved for
authentication.
❑ Length. This 2-byte field defines the length of the total
message including the header.
❑ Type. This 1-byte field defines the type of the packet.
 Open message
To create a neighborhood relationship, a router running BGP opens a TCP
connection with a neighbor and sends an open message. If the neighbor
accepts the neighborhood relationship, it responds with a keepalive message,
which means that a relationship has been established between the two routers.

❑ Hold time. This 2-byte field defines the maximum number of seconds
that can elapse until one of the parties receives a keepalive or update
message from the other. If a router does not receive one of these
messages during the hold time period, it considers the other party dead.
BGP identifier. This 4-byte field defines the router that sends
the open message. The router usually uses one of its IP
addresses (because it is unique) for this purpose.

Option length. The open message may contain some option

parameters. In this case, this 1-byte field defines the length of
the total option parameters. If there are no option
parameters, the value of this field is zero.

Option parameters. If the value of the option parameter

length is not zero, it means that there are some option
parameters. Each option parameter itself has two subfields:
the length of the parameter and the parameter value. The
only option parameter defined so far is authentication.
 Update message
The update message is the heart of the BGP protocol. It is used by a
router to withdraw destinations that have been advertised previously,
announce a route to a new destination, or both..
 Unfeasible routes length. This 2-byte field defines the length
of the next field.
Withdrawn routes. This field lists all the routes that must be
deleted from the previously advertised list.
Path attributes length. This 2-byte field defines the length of
the next field.
Network layer reachability information (NLRI). This field
defines the network that is actually advertised by this
message. It has a length field and an IP address prefix. The
length defines the number of bits in the prefix. The prefix
defines the common part of the network address
 Keepalive message

Notification message
A notification message is sent by a router whenever an error condition is detected or a
router wants to close the connection