18ECC303J – Computer

Communication Networks
Course Credit : 4
Theory : 9 Hours

Reference Text Books

1.Behrouz A. Fehrouzan,“Data communication & Networking”, Mc-Graw Hill, 5th Edition Reprint, 2014.
2.Andrew S.Tanenbaum,“Computer Networks”, Pearson Education India, 5th Edition, 2013.
3.William Stallings, “Data & Computer Communication”, Pearson Education India, 10th Edition, 2014.
 Unit 3 – Network Layer

Session 6 Session 7
• Network Layer Protocol- • Internet Protocol(IP)-IPV6
IPV4

Week 8
Session 8
• Routing Protocols-
Distance Vector& Link
State
• Routing Issues-Delivery,
Forwarding and Routing
 (Week 8) Session -6
Network Layer Protocol- IPv4
• The Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the
delivery mechanism used by the TCP/IP
protocols.
• IPv4 is an unreliable and connectionless
datagram protocol.
• IPv4 provides no error control or flow control
(except for error detection on the header).
• IPv4 assumes the unreliability of the underlying
layers and does its best to get a transmission
through to its destination, but with no
guarantees.
• If reliability is important, IPv4 must be paired
with a reliable protocol such as TCP.
• IPv4 is also a connectionless protocol for a
packet-switching network that uses the
datagram approach.
• IPv4 relies on a higher-level protocol to take care
of all these problems.
IP Services
 Delivery service of IP is minimal
 IP provides un unreliable connectionless best effort service.
 Unreliable: IP doesn’t make an attempt to recover lost packets
 Packet can be lost, duplicated, delayed, out-of-order
 No notification of such problems
 Best-effort: Does not make guarantees on the service
• Makes earnest attempt to deliver (IPv4 provides no error control or flow
control, No throughput output, No delay guarantee)
 Connectionless
 Each Packets treated independently
Purpose of the IP
IP: protocol that defines delivery service
 Specifies basic unit of transfer
 Exact format of data
 Performs the routing function
 Chooses the paths for packets
 Includes rules for unreliable packet delivery
 How hosts and routers process packets
 How and when error messages are generated
 When packets can be discarded

5
Datagram:
• Packets in the IPv4 layer are called datagrams
• The datagram begins with a header followed by a data (or payload)

• The header is 20 to 60 bytes in length and contains information essential to routing and delivery.
• It is an 4 byte section (i.e. 32 bits)
• The size of a datagram is determined by the application that sends data.
• Allowing the size of datagrams to vary makes IP adaptable to a variety of applications.
Datagram Format
Version (VER)
• This 4-bit field defines the version of the IPv4 protocol.
• Currently the version is 4. (0100)
• For IPV6 – version is 6 – represented as 0110
• This field tells the IP software running in the processing
machine the datagram format is 4
• If the version of IP changes, then the datagram is
discarded .
Header length (HLEN)
• This 4-bit field defines the total length of the datagram
header in 4-byte words.
• The length of header is variable length from 20 to 60
bytes
• If there are no option, the value of field is 5 ( 5 x 4 – 20
bytes)
• If the value of field is 15 (15 x 4 = 60 bytes)
• The value of the field varies from 0 to 15
Datagram Format
Services
• IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) has changed the
interpretation and name of this 8-bit field.
• This field previously called service type,
is now called differentiated services.
• In service type the
 first 3 bits are called precedence bits.
• defines priority of the datagram – during congestion
• starts from 000 to 111
• If a router is congested
 needs to discard some datagram’s
• lowest precedence are discarded first
• The next 4 bits
• The next 4 bits is type of service (TOS) bits with only one bit set.
The last bit is not used.
 TOS bits Description
• 0000 - Normal service
• 1000 - Minimize Delay (D)
• 0100 - Maximize Throughput (T)
• 0010 - Maximize Reliability (R)
• 0001 - Minimize Cost (C)
 Datagram Format
• Differentiated service
• In differentiated services
• 6 bits define code point , last 2 bits
unused.
• In code point
• If rightmost 3 bits are 0s, the 3 leftmost
bits are same as precedence.
• If 3 rightmost bits are not all 0s, the 6 bits
define 64 services based on the priority
assignment by the Internet or local
authorities.
• First category (Numbers 0,2,4, ….62) - is
assigned by Internet authority
• Second category (Numbers 3, 7,11, 15 …..61) –
by Local authority
• Third category (1, 5, 9, ….61) - is temporary
and used for experimental purpose
Datagram Format
Total length
• The 16-bit field defines the total length (header plus data).
• The total length of the IPv4 datagram is restricted to 65,535
bytes (216 - 1).
• If the length is large for certain lower layer protocols, then
fragmentation is done.
• Some lower layer protocols impose minimum payload length,
in such case padding is done.
Time to live
• Defines lifetime of the datagram.
• This field is used to control the maximum number of hops
(routers) visited by the datagram.
• When the source host sends a datagram, it stores a number.
• Each router that processes the datagram decrements this
number by 1.
• If the value becomes zero, the datagram is discarded.
• Default is 64
• Problems
 Setting it too high the packet will loop a lot
 Setting it too low the packet will not reach the destination
Datagram Format
Protocol
• This 8-bit field defines the higher-level protocol that uses the
services of the IPv4 layer.
• An IPv4 datagram can encapsulate data from several higher-
level protocols such as TCP, UDP, ICMP, and IGMP.
• The values are

Checksum (16 bits)

• Contains the checksum sequence.
Source address
• This 32-bit field defines the IPv4 address of the source.
Destination address
• This 32-bit field defines the IPv4 address of the destination
Every packet contains a full destination address
Forwarding/routing decisions are made at each router
Datagram Format
• Identification, Flags, Fragmentation offset
• These fields are used in fragmentation
Identification
• The 16-bit field identifies a datagram.
• This identification and source IPv4 address uniquely
define a datagram as it leaves the source host.
• To guarantee uniqueness, the IPv4 protocol uses a
counter to label the datagrams.
• When a datagram is fragmented, the value in the
identification field is copied to all fragments.
• All fragments have the same identification number,
which is also the same as the original datagram.
• The identification number helps the destination in
reassembling the datagram.
Datagram Format
• Identification, Flags, Fragmentation offset
• These fields are used in fragmentation
Flags
• It is a 3-bit field.
• The first bit is reserved.
• The second bit is called the do not fragment bit.
• If set , the datagram would not be
fragmented.
• In such case, if it cannot pass through any
available physical network, then it is
discarded.
• The third bit is called the more fragment bit.
• If its value is 1, it means the datagram is not the
last fragment, there are more fragments after
this one.
• If its value is 0, it means this is the last or only
fragment.
Datagram Format
• Identification, Flags, Fragmentation offset
• These fields are used in fragmentation
Fragmentation offset
• The 13-bit field shows relative position of this fragment with
respect to the whole datagram.
• It is offset of the data in the original datagram measured in
units of 8 bytes.
• The following figure shows a datagram with a data size of
4000 bytes fragmented into 3 fragments
• The original datagram are number 0 to 3999
• First fragment carries bytes 0 to 1399
• The offset for this datagram is 0/8 = 0
• The second fragment carries bytes 1400 to 2799 the offset
value for this fragment is 1400/8 = 175
• The third fragment carries bytes 2800 to 3999 the offset value
for this fragment is 2800/8 = 350
• The Value of the offset is measured in units of 8 bytes
• Because the length of the field is only 13 bits long
• Cannot represent a sequence of bytes greater than 8191
Datagram Format
Options Record Route
• The header of the IPv4 datagram is made of two parts: • Used to record the routers that handle the datagram and
can list up to nine router addresses.
1. A fixed part
• Also be used for debugging and management purposes.
2. A variable part.
Strict Source Route
Comprises the options • Used by the source to predetermine a route for the
Maximum of 40 bytes. datagram.
• Sender can choose a route that has minimum delay
• It can be used for or maximum throughput.
Network testing and debugging. • If a datagram specifies a strict source route, all the routers
• The options and their purpose are: defined in the option must only be visited and otherwise it
would be discarded.
 No Operation-- It is a 1-byte option used as filler
between options. Loose Source Route
• In loose source route each router in the list must be visited
 End of Option--it is a 1-byte option used for but the datagram can visit other routers as well.
padding at the end of the option field.
Timestamp
 Record Route • This option is used to record the processing time by a router
 Strict Source Route in milliseconds.
 Loose Source Route • It helps users and managers track the behavior of routers.

 Time stamp
The drawbacks of IPv4

1. Despite all short-term solutions, such as

• Sub-netting, Classless addressing and NAT

 Address depletion is still a long-term problem in the Internet.

2. The Internet must accommodate real-time audio and video transmission that requires
minimum delay strategies and reservation of resources are not provided in IPv4.

3. The Internet must provide encryption and authentication of data for some applications. No
encryption or authentication is provided by IPv4.
Review Questions
1. Which field among flag, offset, TOS and identifier, in the
IPv4 datagram is not related to fragmentation?
2. The TTL field has value 10. How many routers (max) can
process this datagram?
3. In IPv4, what is the length of data field given an HLEN value
of 12 and total length value is 40000?
Answers
1. TOS (TOS-type of service identifies the type of packets. It is not related to fragmentation
but is used to request specific treatment such as high throughput, high reliability or low
latency for the IP packet depending upon the type of service it belongs to.)
2. 10 (TTL stands for Time to Live. This field specifies the life of the IP packet based on the
number of hops it makes (Number of routers it goes through). TTL field is decremented by
one each time the datagram is processed by a router. When the value is 0, the packet is
automatically destroyed.)
3. 39952 (12*4=48, 40000-48=39952)
(Week 8) Session -7
Network Layer Protocol- IPv6
Why IPv6
Shortage of IPv4 addresses
Internet is expanding very rapidly in developing countries like India, China
New devices like phones need IP address
End-to-End Reachability is not possible without IPv6
New Features like Autoconfiguration, better support for QoS, Mobility and
Security, Route Aggregation, Jumbo Frames
The advantages are:
 Larger address space
• An IPv6 address is 128 bits long. Compared with the 32-bit address of IPv4
Is a huge (296) increase in the address space.

 Better header format

• IPv6 uses a new header format in which options are separated from the base header and inserted,
when needed.

 New options
• IPv6 has new options to allow for additional functionalities.

 Allowance for extension

• IPv6 is designed to allow the extension of the protocol if required by new technologies or applications.

 Support for resource allocation

• In IPv6 a mechanism called flow label has been added to enable the source to request special handling
of the packet such as real-time audio and video.

 Support for more security

• The encryption and authentication options provide confidentiality and integrity of the packet.
IPv6

 IPv4: 32 bits or 4 bytes long

 4,200,000,000 possible addressable nodes

 IPv6: 128 bits or 16 bytes

 3.4 * 1038 possible addressable nodes
 340,282,366,920,938,463,374,607,432,768,211,456
 5 * 1028 addresses per person

 Separated by colon, eg:

 Not case sensitive
 Classless Interdomain Routing
 Address Auto configuration
 Do not use broadcasting message ,
 only use multicast and anycast
 Simple and efficient addressing structure
 Hierarchical and contiguous
 Provides for better route summarization(smaller, easier to understand routing
tables)
 Less complicated network mask
 /64 is the standard and default host prefix length

 Integrated security and better support for QOS

An IPv6 address is made of 128 bits divided into eight 16-bits blocks. Each block is then converted into
4-digit Hexadecimal numbers separated by colon symbols.
For example, given below is a 128 bit IPv6 address represented in binary format and divided into eight 16-bits blocks:

Each block is then converted into Hexadecimal and separated by ‘:’ symbol:

Even after converting into Hexadecimal format, IPv6 address remains long. IPv6 provides some rules to shorten the
address.
The rules (Address Abbreviation Rule)are as follows
Rule.1: Discard leading Zero(es):
In Block 5, 0063, the leading two 0s can be omitted, such as (5th block):

Rule.2: If two of more blocks contain consecutive zeroes, omit them all and replace with double colon sign :: , such as
(6th and 7th block):
Consecutive blocks of zeroes can be replaced only once by ::

Rule.3: so if there are still blocks of zeroes in the address, they can be shrunk down to a single zero, such as (2nd
block):
IPv6 Addressing
FC
IPv6 Packet Format
• The IPv6 packet is shown below.
• Each packet is composed of
A mandatory Base Header (40 Bytes) followed by the Payload (65,535 Bytes) of
information.
• The payload consists of two parts:
Optional extension headers
Data from upper layers.
Format of IPv6 Datagram
 Version
The 4-bit field
Defines the version number of the IP is 6
 Priority

The 4-bit priority field defines the priority of the packet

With respect to traffic congestion.
 Flow label

3-Byte (24-bit) field

Designed to provide special handling Particular flow of data.
 Payload length

2-byte payload length field

Defines the length of the IP datagram Excluding the base
header.
 Next header

8-bit field defines, the header that follows the base header in
the datagram.
 Hop limit

8-bit hop limit field serves the same purpose as the TTL field
in IPv4.
Format of IPv6 Datagram
 Source address
 16-Byte (128-bit) Internet address

Identifies the original source of the datagram.

 Destination address

 16-byte (128-bit) Internet address

 Identifies the final destination of the datagram.

 If source routing is used -Contains the address of the

next router.
 Priority

 The 4-bit priority field defines the priority of the packet

With respect to traffic congestion.
 The priority field of the IPv6 packet defines

 Priority of each packet with respect to other packets

 -From same source.

 IPv6 divides traffic into two broad categories:

- Congestion Controlled -
 If a source adapts itself to traffic slowdown when there is
Congestion, the traffic is referred to as congestion-
controlled traffic.
- Non-Congestion Controlled.
Flow Label
• To a router, a flow is a sequence of packets that share the same
characteristics,
 such as traveling the same path, using the same
resources, having the same kind of security, etc.
sent from a source to a destination that needs special handling is
called flow of packets.
• The combination of source address and the flow label uniquely
define a flow of packets.
• A router that supports the handling of flow labels has a flow
label table.
Extension Headers
• The length of the base header is fixed at 40 bytes.
 Gives greater functionality to the IP datagram,
 Can be followed by up to six extension headers.
 Many of these headers are options in IPv4.
• Six types of extension headers are:
• Six types of extension headers are:
1. Hop-by-Hop Option
• Used when the source needs to pass information to all routers visited by the datagram.
The three options are Pad-1, Pad-N, and jumbo payload.
• The Pad1 and Pad-N option is designed for alignment purposes.
• The jumbo payload option
-Define a payload longer than 65,535 bytes.
2.Source Routing
• Combines the concepts of the strict source route and the loose source route options of
IPv4.
3.Fragmentation
• Only the original source can fragment.
• A source must use a path MTU discovery technique to find the smallest MTU supported
by any network on the path.
• The source then fragments using this knowledge.
4.Authentication
• Validates the message sender and ensures the integrity of data.
5.Encrypted Security Payload
• An extension that provides confidentiality and guards against eavesdropping.
6.Destination Option
• Used when the source needs to pass information to destination only.
• Intermediate routers cannot access this information.
Review Questions
1. Which character(s) are used to express a string of zeros
inside of a IPv6 address?
2. How many bits are in an IPv6 address?
3. In the IPv6 header, the traffic class field is similar to which
field in the IPv4 header?
4. IPv6 does not use _________ type of address.
5. The _________ field determines the lifetime of IPv6
datagram
Answers
1. ::
2. 128
3. TOS
4. Broadcast
5. Hop limit
 Session 8:
Routing Protocols- Distance
Vector& Link State

3
Routing Protocol
 Routing protocols are the set of rules used by the routers to communicate between source & destination.
 Each protocol has its own algorithm to choose the best path.
 The metrics by routing protocols ,
*Number of network layer devices along with the path (hop count)
*Bandwidth
*Delay
*Load
*MTU (maximum transmission unit)
*Cost
 Routing protocols store the result of these metrics in routing table.
 TYPES OF ROUTING PROTOCOL
 STATIC ROUTING
 DYNAMIC ROUTING
1. DISTANCE
RIP- RIPv1 , RIPv2
IGRP
2.LINK STATE VECTOR
EIGRP
OSPF
 Interior and Exterior routing protocols
Autonomous system(AS) is a group of networks and
routers under single administration.
Intradomain-Routing inside the AS and Interdomain-
Routing between AS

41
 Distance Vector Routing

Each node( router) maintains a set of triples (table):

Destination, Cost and Next Hop

 Node knows the cost to each neighbor (the distance between

itself and its immediate neighbors)
 Directly connected neighbors exchange updates
 periodically (on the order of several seconds -30s)
 whenever table changes (called triggered update)
 Each update is a list of pairs: Destination, Cost
Update local table if receive a “better” rout (smaller cost)

42
Updating routing table
When a node receives a two-column table from a neighbor, it needs
to update its routing table.
1. The receiving node needs to add the cost between itself and the sending
node to each value in the second column.

2. The receiving node needs to add the name of the sending node to each row
as the third column (next node).

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.
a. If the next-node entry is different, the receiving node chooses the row with the smaller cost.
If there is a tie, the old one is kept.
b. If the next-node entry is the same, the receiving node chooses the new row.

43
 Distance vector routing
Initialization of tables in distance vector routing:

infinite ∞ (
unreachable).
Think the node as the cities and the lines as
the roads connecting them

44
 Distance vector routing

Sharing: Updating in distance vector routing

45
 Distance vector routing
 The least cost route between any two nodes is the route with min
distance.

Each node maintains a table which contains : Destination, Cost, Next

hop

46
 Distance vector routing
1. Each router shares its entire routing table with its
neighbours.
2. Sharing:
 periodically update :on the order of several seconds -30s-
 Triggered update: The change can result from the
following:
 A node receives a table from a neighbor, resulting in changes in its
own table after updating.
 A node detects some failure in the neighboring links which results in
a distance change to infinity ∞

3. Each update is a list of pairs: Destination, Cost

(two column routing table)

47
 Two-Node Loop Instability

A problem with distance vector routing is instability, which means

that a network using this protocol can become unstable
 At the beginning, both the nodes A and B know how to
reach X.
 But suddenly the link between A and X fails. Node A
changes its table.
 If A can send its table to B immediately, everything is
fine.
 The system becomes unstable if B sends its routing
table to A before receiving A’s routing table.
 Node A receives the update from B and assumes that B
has found a new route to X, then it immediately updates
its table.
 Based on the triggered update strategy, A sends
its update to B.
 However , if the instability is between three nodes,
stability cannot be guaranteed.
 Suppose after finding that X is not reachable, node A
sends packet to B and C, where packet to C is lost and it
remains in the dark and still thinks that there is a route to
X via A.
 After a while, node C sends to B its routing table, which
includes the route to X.
 Now node B is fully fooled here. Now B updates its table
with a cost of 8 and thinks it find a route to X via C.
 Now B shares its table to node A, again this node A is
fooled by updating its table with a cost of 12 and thinks
it find a way to reach X via B.
Solutions to two-node instability

 Defining Infinity. Most implementation of the distance vector

protocol define the distance between each node to be 1 and define
16 as infinity. Therefore, the distance vector cannot be used in large
systems
 Split Horizon. In this strategy, instead of flooding the table through
each interface, each node sends only part of its table through each
interface. If node B thinks that the optimum route to reach X is via A,
it does not need to advertise this piece of information to A.
Solutions to two-node instability (cont.)
Solutions to two-node instability (cont.)

Split Horizon and Poison Reverse.

 Normally DVR uses a timer, and if there is no news about a route,

the node deletes the route from its table.
 When node B eliminates the route to X from its advertisement to A,
node A can’t guess that this is due to Split horizon strategy or
because node B hasn’t received any news about X recently
 This strategy is a combination between split horizon and poison
reverse where node B can still advertise the value of X, but if the
source of information is A, it can replace the distance with infinity as
a warning: “Don’t use this value; what I know about this route comes
from you.”
Review Questions
1. In DVR, the periodic update of the routing table normally occurs every _______.
2. In distance vector routing, each node shares its routing table with its ______
periodically.
3. Distance vector routing algorithm is implemented in Internet as _______.
Answers
1. 30 Seconds
2. Immediate neighbours
3. RIP
LSR (Link State Routing)

 It has different philosophy from that of DVR.

 Each node in the domain has the entire topology of the domain – list
of nodes and links, how they are connected including the type,
cost(metric), and conditions of the links.
 Node uses Dijkstra’s algorithm to build a routing table.
 LSR is based on the assumption that, although the global
knowledge about the topology is not clear, each node has partial
knowledge.
 It knows the state( type, condition and cost) of its link.
 In other words the whole topology can be obtained from the partial
knowledge of each node.
Building the routing table:
Four set of actions are required to ensure that each node has the
routing table showing the least cost node to every node.
1. Creation of LSP
2. Dissemination of LSP – Flooding
3. Formation of a shortest path tree for each node
4. Calculation of a routing table based on the shortest path tree.
Creation of LSP:
A LSP can carry a large amount of information.

It carries Node identity, list of links – needed to make the topology

A sequence number – facilitates flooding and distinguishes new LSP’s from

the old LSP’s

An age – prevents the old LSP’s from remaining in the domain for the longer
time.

LSP’s are generated on 2 occasion:

1. when there is a change in the topology of the domain – Triggering

2. on a periodic basis: every 60m or 2 hour

Flooding:
After a node has prepared the LSP, it must be disseminated to all other nodes , not
only to its neighbours.
It is based on the following:
1. The creating node sends a copy of the LSP out of each interface.
2. A node that receives the LSP compares it with the copy. If the newly arrived LSP
is older than the one it has found (by checking the sequence number), it discards
the LSP.
If it is newer one then the node does the following:
1. Discards the old LSP and keep the new LSP
2. sends a copy of it out of each interface except the one from which the packet
arrived.
 Make node A –root of the tree and move it to the tentative list.
Permanent list : Empty Tentative list: A(0)
 Node A – shortest cumulative cost from all nodes in the tentative list.
Add all neighbours of A to the tentative list.
Permanent list : A(0) Tentative list: B(5), C(2), D(3)
 Node C – shortest cumulative cost from all nodes in the tentative list.
Node C has 3 neighbours, but node A is already processed, which
makes the unprocessed neighbours B and E. Node B is already in
tentative list with a cumulative cost of 5.
 Node A can also reach Node B through node C with a cost of 6.
Since 5 < 6, keep the node B with a cost of 5in the T. L. And do not
replace it.
Permanent list : A(0), C(2) Tentative list: B(5),D(3),E(6)

 Keep on doing so we can formulate the shortest path tree and once we
find it , the routing table for A to reach all other nodes by shortest
path can be calculated.
 Routing Issues:
Delivery, Forwarding, and
Routing
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.
Direct versus Indirect Delivery
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
Forwarding techniques to make the size of the routing table manageable
 Next-hop method versus route method
 Network-specific method versus host-specific method
 Default method
Forwarding Techniques
It makes the size of the routing table manageable and also
handle issues such as security.
Route method versus next-hop method
Forwarding Techniques
Host –specific versus network-specific method

• Default method
Network Specific method
Network specific method reduces the routing table and
simplifies the searching process.
Instead of having an entry for every destination host
connected to same physical network , only one entry that
defines the address of the destination network.
In other words, we treat all hosts connected to same network
as one single entity.
Forwarding Process
In classless addressing, we need at least four columns in a routing
table
Example
Make a routing table for router R1, using the configuration in Figure
Example
Routing table for router R1

• Forwarding process for the destination address 180.70.65.140 ?

• Forwarding process for the destination address 18.24.32.78 ?
Address Aggregation
Classless addressing increases the number of routing table entries
To alleviate the problem, the address aggregation is used
Longest Mask Matching
Hierarchical Routing
To solve the problem of gigantic routing tables
Routing Table
Static routing table: created manually
Dynamic routing table: updated periodically by using one of
the dynamic routing protocols such as RIP, OSPF, or BGP
Common fields in a routing table
 Flag: U(up), G(gateway), H(host-specific), D(added by redirection), M(modified by redirection)
 Reference count: number of users of this route at the moment
 Use: the number of packets transmitted through this router for the corresponding destination
Utilities
To find the routing information and the contents of a routing table
netstat and ifconfig
Routing Protocols
A router consults a routing table when a packet is ready to be forwarded
The routing table specifies the optimum path for the packet: static or dynamic
Internet needs dynamic routing tables to be updated as soon as there is a
change
Routing protocols is a combination of rules and procedures for dynamic routing
tables
The routing protocols also include procedures for combining information
received from other routers
Unicast routing and multicasting routing
RIP (Routing Information Protocol), OSPF (Open Shortest Path First), BGP
(Border Gateway Protocol)
Optimization
Which of the available pathways is the optimum pathway ?
One approach is to assign a cost for passing through a network, called metric
Total metric is equal to the sum of the metrics of networks that comprise the
route
Router chooses the route with shortest (smallest) metric
RIP (Routing Information Protocol): hop count
OSPF (Open Shortest Path First): allows administrator to assign a cost based
on the type of service required
BGP (Border Gateway Protocol): criterion is the policy