Network Layer

Delivery, Forwarding, and Routing

Computer Networks 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.
• Direct versus Indirect Delivery

Computer Networks 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
• 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

Computer Networks 22-3

 Forwarding Techniques
• Route method versus next-hop method

Computer Networks 22-4

 Forwarding Techniques
• Host –specific versus network-specific method

• Default method

Computer Networks 22-5

 Forwarding Process
• In classless addressing, we need at least four columns in a routing table

Computer Networks 22-6

 Example
• Make a routing table for router R1, using the configuration in Figure

Computer Networks 22-7

 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 ?

Computer Networks 22-8

 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

Computer Networks 22-9

 Utilities
• To find the routing information and the contents of a routing table
• netstat and ifconfig

Computer Networks 22-10

 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)

Computer Networks 22-11

 Intra- and Interdomain Routing
• AS (autonomous system): A group of networks and routers under the authority of a
single administration
• Intradomain routing: inside an AS
• Interdomain routing: between ASs
• R1, R2, R3, and R4 use a intradomain and an interdomain routing protocol.
• The other routes use only intradomain routing protocols

Computer Networks 22-12

Popular (Unicast) Routing Protocols

Computer Networks 22-13

 Distance Vector Routing
• The least-cost route between any two nodes is the route with minimum distance
• Each node maintains a vector(table) of minimum distances to every node
• Distance vector routing table

Computer Networks 22-14

 Distance Vector Routing: Initialization
• At the beginning, each node can know only the distance between itself and its
immediate neighbors

Computer Networks 22-15

 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

Computer Networks 22-16

 Distance Vector Routing: Updating
• When a node receives a two-column table from a neighbor, it need to update its routing table
• Updating rule:
– Choose the smaller cost. If the same, keep the old one
– If the next-node entry is the same, the receiving node chooses the new row

Computer Networks 22-17

 When to Share
• Periodic update: A node sends its routing table, normally every 30 s
• Triggered update: Anode sends its two-column routing table to its neighbors anytime there is a change in its routing
table
• Two-node instability

Computer Networks 22-18

 Two-Node Instability
• Defining infinity: To redefine infinity to a smaller number, such as 100
• Split horizon: Instead of flooding the table through each interface, each node sends
only part of its table through each interface. Node B eliminates the last line of its
routing table before it sends it to A
• Split horizon and poison reverse: Node B can still advertise the value for X, but if
the source of information is A, it can replace the distance with infinity as a
warning: “Do not use this value, what I know about this route comes from you.”

Computer Networks 22-19

 Routing Information Protocol
• RIP: an intradomain routing protocol used inside an AS
• Simple protocol based distance vector routing
• Metric is simple, a hop count. The distance is defined as the number of links
(networks) to reach the destination

Computer Networks 22-20

Example of RIP Updating

Computer Networks 22-21

 Link State Routing
• Each node has the entire topology of the domain- the list of nodes and links, how
they are connected including type, cost, and condition of the links(up or down)
• Node can use Dijkstra’s algorithm to build a routing table

Computer Networks 22-22

 Link State Knowledge
• Each node has partial knowledge: it know the state (type, condition, and cost) of its
links. The whole topology can be compiled from the partial knowledge of each
node

Computer Networks 22-23

 Building Routing Table
1. Creation of the states of the links by each node, called the link state packet (LSP)
2. Dissemination of LSPs to every other router, called flooding, in an efficient and
reliable way
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
– LSP contains node identity, the list of links (to make the topology),
sequence number (to facilitate flooding and distinguish new LSPs from old
ones
– LSPs are generated (1) when there is a change in the topology of the
domain, (2) on a periodic basis, normally 60 min or 2 h

Computer Networks 22-24

 Building Routing Table
• Flooding of LSPs
– The creating node sends a copy of the LSP out of each interface
– A node compares it with the copy it may already have. If the newly arrived
LSP is older than the one it has, it discards the LSP. If it is newer,
1. It discards the old LSP and keeps the new one
2. It sends a copy of it out of each interface except the one from which the
packet arrived

• Formation of shortest path tree: Dijkstra Algorithm

– After receiving all LSPs, each node will have a copy of the whole topology.
Need to find the shortest path to every other node
– The Dijkstra algorithm creates a shortest path tree from a graph

Computer Networks 22-25

Dijkstra Algorithm

Computer Networks 22-26

Example of Dijkstra Algorithm

Computer Networks 22-27

 Routing Table
• Each node uses the shortest path tree protocol to construct its routing table
• The routing table shows the cost of reaching each node from the root

Computer Networks 22-28

 Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
• Popular intradomain routing protocol based on link state routing
• To handle routing efficiently and in a timely manner, OSPF divides an autonomous
system into area
• Area is a collection of network, hosts, and routers all contained within an AS
• AS can also be divided into many different areas
• Area border gateway, backbone router, virtual link

Computer Networks 22-29

 Unicasting
• In unicasting, the router forwards the received packet through only one of its
interfaces

Computer Networks 22-30

 Multicasting
• In multicast routing, the router may forward the received packet through several of
its interfaces.
• Broadcasting is a special case of multicasting

Computer Networks 22-31