Module 3

Network layer

Switching techniques

In large networks, there can be multiple paths from sender to receiver. The switching technique
will decide the best route for data transmission.

Switching technique is used to connect the systems for making one-to-one communication.

Classification Of Switching Techniques

Circuit Switching

o Circuit switching is a switching technique that establishes a dedicated path between

sender and receiver.
o In the Circuit Switching Technique, once the connection is established then the dedicated
path will remain to exist until the connection is terminated.
o Circuit switching in a network operates in a similar way as the telephone works.
o A complete end-to-end path must exist before the communication takes place.
 o In case of circuit switching technique, when any user wants to send the data, voice, video,
a request signal is sent to the receiver then the receiver sends back the acknowledgment
to ensure the availability of the dedicated path. After receiving the acknowledgment,
dedicated path transfers the data.
o Circuit switching is used in public telephone network. It is used for voice transmission.
o Fixed data can be transferred at a time in circuit switching technology.

Communication through circuit switching has 3 phases

o Circuit establishment
o Data transfer
o Circuit Disconnect

Circuit Switching can use either of the two technologies:

Space Division Switches:

o Space Division Switching is a circuit switching technology in which a single transmission
path is accomplished in a switch by using a physically separate set of crosspoints.
o Space Division Switching can be achieved by using crossbar switch. A crossbar switch is
a metallic crosspoint or semiconductor gate that can be enabled or disabled by a control
unit.
o The Crossbar switch is made by using the semiconductor. For example, Xilinx crossbar
switch using FPGAs.
o Space Division Switching has high speed, high capacity, and nonblocking switches.

Space Division Switches can be categorized in two ways:

 o Crossbar Switch
o Multistage Switch

Crossbar Switch

The Crossbar switch is a switch that has n input lines and n output lines. The crossbar switch has
n2 intersection points known as crosspoints.

Disadvantage of Crossbar switch:

The number of crosspoints increases as the number of stations is increased. Therefore, it

becomes very expensive for a large switch. The solution to this is to use a multistage switch.

Multistage Switch
o Multistage Switch is made by splitting the crossbar switch into the smaller units and then
interconnecting them.
o It reduces the number of crosspoints.
o If one path fails, then there will be an availability of another path.

Advantages Of Circuit Switching:

o In the case of Circuit Switching technique, the communication channel is dedicated.

o It has fixed bandwidth.

Disadvantages Of Circuit Switching:

o Once the dedicated path is established, the only delay occurs in the speed of data
transmission.
o It takes a long time to establish a connection approx 10 seconds during which no data can
be transmitted.
o It is more expensive than other switching techniques as a dedicated path is required for
each connection.
o It is inefficient to use because once the path is established and no data is transferred, then
the capacity of the path is wasted.
o In this case, the connection is dedicated therefore no other data can be transferred even if
the channel is free.
Message Switching

o Message Switching is a switching technique in which a message is transferred as a

complete unit and routed through intermediate nodes at which it is stored and forwarded.
o In Message Switching technique, there is no establishment of a dedicated path between
the sender and receiver.
o The destination address is appended to the message. Message Switching provides a
dynamic routing as the message is routed through the intermediate nodes based on the
information available in the message.
o Message switches are programmed in such a way so that they can provide the most
efficient routes.
o Each and every node stores the entire message and then forward it to the next node. This
type of network is known as store and forward network.
o Message switching treats each message as an independent entity.

Advantages Of Message Switching

o Data channels are shared among the communicating devices that improve the efficiency
of using available bandwidth.
o Traffic congestion can be reduced because the message is temporarily stored in the nodes.
o Message priority can be used to manage the network.
o The size of the message which is sent over the network can be varied. Therefore, it
supports the data of unlimited size.

Disadvantages Of Message Switching

 o The message switches must be equipped with sufficient storage to enable them to store
the messages until the message is forwarded.
o The Long delay can occur due to the storing and forwarding facility provided by the
message switching technique.

Packet Switching

o The packet switching is a switching technique in which the message is sent in one go, but
it is divided into smaller pieces, and they are sent individually.
o The message splits into smaller pieces known as packets and packets are given a unique
number to identify their order at the receiving end.
o Every packet contains some information in its headers such as source address, destination
address and sequence number.
o Packets will travel across the network, taking the shortest path as possible.
o All the packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.
o If any packet is missing or corrupted, then the message will be sent to resend the
message.
o If the correct order of the packets is reached, then the acknowledgment message will be
sent.

Approaches Of Packet Switching:

There are two approaches to Packet Switching:

Datagram Packet switching:

o It is a packet switching technology in which packet is known as a datagram, is considered
as an independent entity. Each packet contains the information about the destination and
switch uses this information to forward the packet to the correct destination.
o The packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.
o In Datagram Packet Switching technique, the path is not fixed.
o Intermediate nodes take the routing decisions to forward the packets.
o Datagram Packet Switching is also known as connectionless switching.

Virtual Circuit Switching

o Virtual Circuit Switching is also known as connection-oriented switching.
o In the case of Virtual circuit switching, a preplanned route is established before the
messages are sent.
o Call request and call accept packets are used to establish the connection between sender
and receiver.
o In this case, the path is fixed for the duration of a logical connection.

Let's understand the concept of virtual circuit switching through a diagram:

 o In the above diagram, A and B are the sender and receiver respectively. 1 and 2 are the
nodes.
o Call request and call accept packets are used to establish a connection between the sender
and receiver.
o When a route is established, data will be transferred.
o After transmission of data, an acknowledgment signal is sent by the receiver that the
message has been received.
o If the user wants to terminate the connection, a clear signal is sent for the termination.

Differences b/w Datagram approach and Virtual Circuit approach

Datagram approach Virtual Circuit approach

Node takes routing decisions to forward the Node does not take any routing decision.
packets.

Congestion cannot occur as all the packets Congestion can occur when the node is busy, and it does no
travel in different directions. allow other packets to pass through.

It is more flexible as all the packets are treated It is not very flexible.
as an independent entity.

Advantages Of Packet Switching:

o Cost-effective: In packet switching technique, switching devices do not require massive

secondary storage to store the packets, so cost is minimized to some extent. Therefore,
we can say that the packet switching technique is a cost-effective technique.
o Reliable: If any node is busy, then the packets can be rerouted. This ensures that the
Packet Switching technique provides reliable communication.
o Efficient: Packet Switching is an efficient technique. It does not require any established
path prior to the transmission, and many users can use the same communication channel
simultaneously, hence makes use of available bandwidth very efficiently.
Disadvantages Of Packet Switching:

o Packet Switching technique cannot be implemented in those applications that require low
delay and high-quality services.
o The protocols used in a packet switching technique are very complex and requires high
implementation cost.
o If the network is overloaded or corrupted, then it requires retransmission of lost packets.
It can also lead to the loss of critical information if errors are nor recovered.

IPAddress :
An Internet Protocol address is an IP address. It is a unique address that identifies the device
on the network. The Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigns IP addresses to all devices on its
network. IP addresses are not generated at random. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
(IANA), a part of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN),
generates and assigns them mathematically . IP addresses are used at the network layer. IP
Addresses are routable in nature.
IPVersionTypes :
There are 2 different versions of IP as follows.
1. IPv4(IPversion4) –
IPv4 employs a 32-bit address. It is composed of four numbers separated by a ‘dot’ i.e.,
periods called an octet (byte). Each number in the octet can range from 0 to 255.
Example – 172.166.3.28
2. IPv6(IPversion6) –
IPv6 is the next generation of Internet Protocol addresses. In comparison to IPV4, IPv6 has
a larger address space. IPv6 has a length of 128 bits and is written in hexadecimal. It is
composed of eight fields, each of which contains two octets. As a result, IPv6 has 16 octets
in total.
Example – 3221:1cd7:74b6:6da7:0000:0000:7349:6472
MACAddress :
A MAC address is a one-of-a-kind identification assigned to a NIC (Network Interface
Controller/Card). The full form of MAC address is Media Access Control address. MAC
addresses are 48 bits long and these addresses could not be routed between networks. MAC
Address is a 12 digit hexadecimal numeral which is most typically expressed with a colon or
hyphen separating every two digits (an octet), making reading easier. MAC Addresses are used
at the Data Link Layer.
Network Addressing

o Network Addressing is one of the major responsibilities of the network layer.

o Network addresses are always logical, i.e., software-based addresses.
 o A host is also known as end system that has one link to the network. The boundary
between the host and link is known as an interface. Therefore, the host can have only one
interface.
o A router is different from the host in that it has two or more links that connect to it. When
a router forwards the datagram, then it forwards the packet to one of the links. The
boundary between the router and link is known as an interface, and the router can have
multiple interfaces, one for each of its links. Each interface is capable of sending and
receiving the IP packets, so IP requires each interface to have an address.
o Each IP address is 32 bits long, and they are represented in the form of "dot-decimal
notation" where each byte is written in the decimal form, and they are separated by the
period. An IP address would look like 193.32.216.9 where 193 represents the decimal
notation of first 8 bits of an address, 32 represents the decimal notation of second 8 bits
of an address.

 Let's understand through a simple example.

o In the above figure, a router has three interfaces labeled as 1, 2 & 3 and each router
interface contains its own IP address.
o Each host contains its own interface and IP address.
 o All the interfaces attached to the LAN 1 is having an IP address in the form of
223.1.1.xxx, and the interfaces attached to the LAN 2 and LAN 3 have an IP address in
the form of 223.1.2.xxx and 223.1.3.xxx respectively.
o Each IP address consists of two parts. The first part (first three bytes in IP address)
specifies the network and second part (last byte of an IP address) specifies the host in the
network.

Classful Addressing

An IP address is 32-bit long. An IP address is divided into sub-classes:

o Class A
o Class B
o Class C
o Class D
o Class E

An ip address is divided into two parts:

o Network ID: It represents the number of networks.

o Host ID: It represents the number of hosts.
In the above diagram, we observe that each class have a specific range of IP addresses. The class
of IP address is used to determine the number of bits used in a class and number of networks and
hosts available in the class.

Class A

In Class A, an IP address is assigned to those networks that contain a large number of hosts.

o The network ID is 8 bits long.

o The host ID is 24 bits long.

In Class A, the first bit in higher order bits of the first octet is always set to 0 and the remaining 7
bits determine the network ID. The 24 bits determine the host ID in any network.

The total number of networks in Class A = 27 = 128 network address

The total number of hosts in Class A = 224 - 2 = 16,777,214 host address

Class B

In Class B, an IP address is assigned to those networks that range from small-sized to large-sized
networks.

o The Network ID is 16 bits long.

o The Host ID is 16 bits long.

In Class B, the higher order bits of the first octet is always set to 10, and the remaining14 bits
determine the network ID. The other 16 bits determine the Host ID.

The total number of networks in Class B = 214 = 16384 network address

The total number of hosts in Class B = 216 - 2 = 65534 host address

Class C
In Class C, an IP address is assigned to only small-sized networks.

o The Network ID is 24 bits long.

o The host ID is 8 bits long.

In Class C, the higher order bits of the first octet is always set to 110, and the remaining 21 bits
determine the network ID. The 8 bits of the host ID determine the host in a network.

The total number of networks = 221 = 2097152 network address

The total number of hosts = 28 - 2 = 254 host address

Class D

In Class D, an IP address is reserved for multicast addresses. It does not possess subnetting. The
higher order bits of the first octet is always set to 1110, and the remaining bits determines the
host ID in any network.

Class E

In Class E, an IP address is used for the future use or for the research and development purposes.
It does not possess any subnetting. The higher order bits of the first octet is always set to 1111,
and the remaining bits determines the host ID in any network.

Rules for assigning Host ID:

The Host ID is used to determine the host within any network. The Host ID is assigned based on
the following rules:
 o The Host ID must be unique within any network.
o The Host ID in which all the bits are set to 0 cannot be assigned as it is used to represent
the network ID of the IP address.
o The Host ID in which all the bits are set to 1 cannot be assigned as it is reserved for the
multicast address.

Rules for assigning Network ID:

If the hosts are located within the same local network, then they are assigned with the same
network ID. The following are the rules for assigning Network ID:

o The network ID cannot start with 127 as 127 is used by Class A.

o The Network ID in which all the bits are set to 0 cannot be assigned as it is used to
specify a particular host on the local network.
o The Network ID in which all the bits are set to 1 cannot be assigned as it is reserved for
the multicast address.

What is IP?

An IP stands for internet protocol. An IP address is assigned to each device connected to a

network. Each device uses an IP address for communication. It also behaves as an identifier as
this address is used to identify the device on a network. It defines the technical format of the
packets. Mainly, both the networks, i.e., IP and TCP, are combined together, so together, they are
referred to as a TCP/IP. It creates a virtual connection between the source and the destination.

We can also define an IP address as a numeric address assigned to each device on a network. An
IP address is assigned to each device so that the device on a network can be identified uniquely.
To facilitate the routing of packets, TCP/IP protocol uses a 32-bit logical address known as
IPv4(Internet Protocol version 4).

An IP address consists of two parts, i.e., the first one is a network address, and the other one is a
host address.

There are two types of IP addresses:

o IPv4
o IPv6
What is IPv4?

IPv4 is a version 4 of IP. It is a current version and the most commonly used IP address. It is a
32-bit address written in four numbers separated by 'dot', i.e., periods. This address is unique for
each device.

For example, 66.94.29.13

The above example represents the IP address in which each group of numbers separated by
periods is called an Octet. Each number in an octet is in the range from 0-255. This address can
produce 4,294,967,296 possible unique addresses.

In today's computer network world, computers do not understand the IP addresses in the standard
numeric format as the computers understand the numbers in binary form only. The binary
number can be either 1 or 0. The IPv4 consists of four sets, and these sets represent the octet. The
bits in each octet represent a number.

Each bit in an octet can be either 1 or 0. If the bit the 1, then the number it represents will count,
and if the bit is 0, then the number it represents does not count.

Representation of 8 Bit Octet

The above representation shows the structure of 8- bit octet.

Now, we will see how to obtain the binary representation of the above IP address, i.e.,
66.94.29.13

Step 1: First, we find the binary number of 66.

To obtain 66, we put 1 under 64 and 2 as the sum of 64 and 2 is equal to 66 (64+2=66), and the
remaining bits will be zero, as shown above. Therefore, the binary bit version of 66 is 01000010.

Step 2: Now, we calculate the binary number of 94.

To obtain 94, we put 1 under 64, 16, 8, 4, and 2 as the sum of these numbers is equal to 94, and
the remaining bits will be zero. Therefore, the binary bit version of 94 is 01011110.

To obtain 29, we put 1 under 16, 8, 4, and 1 as the sum of these numbers is equal to 29, and the
remaining bits will be zero. Therefore, the binary bit version of 29 is 00011101.

Step 4: The last number is 13.

To obtain 13, we put 1 under 8, 4, and 1 as the sum of these numbers is equal to 13, and the
remaining bits will be zero. Therefore, the binary bit version of 13 is 00001101.

Drawback of IPv4

Currently, the population of the world is 7.6 billion. Every user is having more than one device
connected with the internet, and private companies also rely on the internet. As we know that
IPv4 produces 4 billion addresses, which are not enough for each device connected to the
internet on a planet. Although the various techniques were invented, such as variable- length
mask, network address translation, port address translation, classes, inter-domain translation, to
conserve the bandwidth of IP address and slow down the depletion of an IP address. In these
techniques, public IP is converted into a private IP due to which the user having public IP can
also use the internet. But still, this was not so efficient, so it gave rise to the development of the
next generation of IP addresses, i.e., IPv6.

What is IPv6?

IPv4 produces 4 billion addresses, and the developers think that these addresses are enough, but
they were wrong. IPv6 is the next generation of IP addresses. The main difference between IPv4
and IPv6 is the address size of IP addresses. The IPv4 is a 32-bit address, whereas IPv6 is a 128-
bit hexadecimal address. IPv6 provides a large address space, and it contains a simple header as
compared to IPv4.

It provides transition strategies that convert IPv4 into IPv6, and these strategies are as follows:

o Dual stacking: It allows us to have both the versions, i.e., IPv4 and IPv6, on the same
device.
o Tunneling: In this approach, all the users have IPv6 communicates with an IPv4 network
to reach IPv6.
o Network Address Translation: The translation allows the communication between the
hosts having a different version of IP.

This hexadecimal address contains both numbers and alphabets. Due to the usage of both the
numbers and alphabets, IPv6 is capable of producing over 340 undecillion (3.4*1038) addresses.

IPv6 is a 128-bit hexadecimal address made up of 8 sets of 16 bits each, and these 8 sets are
separated by a colon. In IPv6, each hexadecimal character represents 4 bits. So, we need to
convert 4 bits to a hexadecimal number at a time

Address format

The address format of IPv4:

The address format of IPv6:

The above diagram shows the address format of IPv4 and IPv6. An IPv4 is a 32-bit decimal
address. It contains 4 octets or fields separated by 'dot', and each field is 8-bit in size. The
number that each field contains should be in the range of 0-255. Whereas an IPv6 is a 128-bit
hexadecimal address. It contains 8 fields separated by a colon, and each field is 16-bit in size.
 Differences between IPv4 and IPv6

Ipv4 Ipv6

Address length IPv4 is a 32-bit address. IPv6 is a 128-bit address.

Fields IPv4 is a numeric address that consists of 4 IPv6 is an alphanumeric address th

fields which are separated by dot (.). consists of 8 fields, which ar
separated by colon.

Classes IPv4 has 5 different classes of IP address that IPv6 does not contain classes of I
includes Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, addresses.
and Class E.

Number of IP address IPv4 has a limited number of IP addresses. IPv6 has a large number of I
addresses.

VLSM It supports VLSM (Virtual Length Subnet It does not support VLSM.
Mask). Here, VLSM means that Ipv4 converts
IP addresses into a subnet of different sizes.

Address configuration It supports manual and DHCP configuration. It supports manual, DHCP, auto
configuration, and renumbering.

Address space It generates 4 billion unique addresses It generates 340 undecillion uniqu
addresses.

End-to-end connection In IPv4, end-to-end connection integrity is In the case of IPv6, end-to-en
integrity unachievable. connection integrity is achievable.

Security features In IPv4, security depends on the application. In IPv6, IPSEC is developed fo
This IP address is not developed in keeping the security purposes.
security feature in mind.
Address representation In IPv4, the IP address is represented in In IPv6, the representation of the I
decimal. address in hexadecimal.

Fragmentation Fragmentation is done by the senders and the Fragmentation is done by the sende
forwarding routers. only.

Packet flow It does not provide any mechanism for packet It uses flow label field in the header fo
identification flow identification. the packet flow identification.

Checksum field The checksum field is available in IPv4. The checksum field is not available i
IPv6.

Transmission scheme IPv4 is broadcasting. On the other hand, IPv6

multicasting, which provides efficien
network operations.

Encryption and It does not provide encryption and It provides encryption an

Authentication authentication. authentication.

Number of octets It consists of 4 octets. It consists of 8 fields, and each fiel

contains 2 octets. Therefore, the tot
number of octets in IPv6 is 16.

Address Mapping

Address mapping is a process of determining a logical address knowing the physical address of
the device and determining the physical address by knowing the logical address of the device.
Address mapping is required when a packet is routed from source host to destination host in the
same or different network.

Static mapping: In static mapping, it creates a table that contains a logical address with a
physical address.

Dynamic mapping: When a machine knows one of two addresses (logical or physical) through
dynamic mapping, it may use this protocol to find the other one address. There are designed two
protocols for done dynamic mapping.
  Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
 Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)
 Address Resolution Protocol (ARP

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is a communication protocol used to find the MAC (Media
Access Control) address of a device from its IP address. This protocol is used when a device
wants to communicate with another device on a Local Area Network or Ethernet.

Types of ARP

There are four types of Address Resolution Protocol, which is given below:

o Proxy ARP

o Gratuitous ARP

o Reverse ARP (RARP)

o Inverse ARP
Proxy ARP - Proxy ARP is a method through which a Layer 3 devices may respond to ARP
requests for a target that is in a different network from the sender. The Proxy ARP

configured router responds to the ARP and map the MAC address of the router with the target IP

address and fool the sender that it is reached at its destination.

At the backend, the proxy router sends its packets to the appropriate destination because the
packets contain the necessary information.

Gratuitous ARP - Gratuitous ARP is an ARP request

of the host that helps to identify the duplicate IP address. It is a broadcast request for the IP
address of the router. If an ARP request is sent by a switch or router to get its IP address and no
ARP responses are received, so all other nodes cannot use the IP address allocated to that switch
or router. Yet if a router or switch sends an ARP request for its IP address and receives an ARP
response, another node uses the IP address allocated to the switch or router.

There are some primary use cases of gratuitous ARP that are given below:
 o The gratuitous ARP is used to update the ARP table of other devices.

o It also checks whether the host is using the original IP address or a duplicate one.

o Reverse ARP (RARP) - It is a networking protocol used by the client system in a local
area network (LAN) to request its IPv4 address from the ARP gateway router table. A
table is created by the network administrator in the gateway-router that is used to find out
the MAC address to the corresponding IP address.

o When a new system is set up or any machine that has no memory to store the IP address,
then the user has to find the IP address of the device. The device sends a RARP broadcast
packet, including its own MAC address in the address field of both the sender and the
receiver hardware. A host installed inside of the local network called the RARP-server is
prepared to respond to such type of broadcast packet. The RARP server is then trying to
locate a mapping table entry in the IP to MAC address. If any entry matches the item in
the table, then the RARP server sends the response packet along with the IP address to
the requesting computer.

ImportantFeaturesofBootstrapProtocol :
Here, we will discuss the features of Bootstrap Protocol as follows.
o Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) is a basic protocol that automatically provides each
participant in a network connection with a unique IP address for identification and
authentication as soon as it connects to the network. This helps the server to speed up
data transfers and connection requests.
o BOOTP uses a unique IP address algorithm to provide each system on the network
with a completely different IP address in a fraction of a second.
o This shortens the connection time between the server and the client. It starts the
process of downloading and updating the source code even with very little
information.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network management protocol used to

dynamically assign an IP address to nay device, or node, on a network so they can communicate
using IP (Internet Protocol). DHCP automates and centrally manages these configurations. There
is no need to manually assign IP addresses to new devices. Therefore, there is no requirement for
any user configuration to connect to a DHCP based network.

DHCP can be implemented on local networks as well as large enterprise networks. DHCP is the
default protocol used by the most routers and networking equipment. DHCP is also called RFC
(Request for comments) 2131.
 DHCP does the following:
o DHCP manages the provision of all the nodes or devices added or dropped from the
network.
o DHCP maintains the unique IP address of the host using a DHCP server.

o It sends a request to the DHCP server whenever a client/node/device, which is configured

to work with DHCP, connects to a network. The server acknowledges by providing an IP
address to the client/node/device.

DHCP is also used to configure the proper subnet mask, default gateway and DNS server
information on the node or device.

There are many versions of DCHP are available for use in IPV4 (Internet Protocol Version 4)
and IPV6 (Internet Protocol Version 6).

How DHCP works

DHCP runs at the application layer of the TCP/IP protocol stack to dynamically assign IP
addresses to DHCP clients/nodes and to allocate TCP/IP configuration information to the DHCP
clients. Information includes subnet mask information, default gateway, IP addresses and domain
name system addresses.

DHCP is based on client-server protocol in which servers manage a pool of unique IP addresses,
as well as information about client configuration parameters, and assign addresses out of those
address pools.

FORWARDING

Forwarding means to place the packet in its route to its destination. Forwarding 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 received a packet to be forwarded.

unicast routing

Most of the traffic on the internet and intranets known as unicast data or unicast traffic is sent
with specified destination. Routing unicast data over the internet is called unicast routing. It is
the simplest form of routing because the destination is already known. Hence the router just has
to look up the routing table and forward the packet to next hop.

There are three major protocols for unicasting:

1. Distance Vector Routing
2. Link State Routing
3. Path-Vector Routing

Distance Vector Routing

In the Distance Vector Routing or the DVR the router needs to inform the neighbours
about topology changes periodically. It uses User datagram protocol or UDP for
transportation.

Link State Routing

It is the second family of routing protocols. Link state routing uses link state routers to
exchange messages that allow each router to learn the entire network topology.
The features of the link state routing are as follows:
1. Link state packet: It is a small packet containing the routing information.
2. Link state database: It is a collection of information gathered from the link state packet.
3. Shortest path first algorithm: It is a calculation performed on the database results into the shortest
path.
4. Routing table: it is a list of the known paths.

Path-Vector Routing
Path-vector routing is a routing algorithm that is useful for interdomain routing.
It is based on a similar principle as Distance vector routing, it assumes that there is one
node in each system, and it acts on behalf of the entire autonomous system is
called Speaker node. It creates a routing cable and advertises to the speaker node.