Delivery, Forwarding,

and Routing of IP Packets

Objectives
Upon completion you will be able to:

• Understand the different types of delivery and the connection

• Understand forwarding techniques in classful addressing
• Understand forwarding techniques in classless addressing
• Understand how a routing table works
• Understand the structure of a router

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 1

 Note:

In classful addressing we can have a

routing table with three columns;
in classless addressing, we need at
least four columns.

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 2

 Figure 6.12 Simplified forwarding module in classless address

In classless addressing, the whole address space is one entity; there are no classes.
This means that forwarding requires one row of information for each block involved.
The table needs to be searched based on the network address (first address in the
block).
 The destination address in the packet gives no clue about the network address (as it
does in classful addressing).
To solve the problem, we need to include the mask (/n) in the table; we need to have an
extra column that includes the mask for the corresponding block.
3
 Example 7

Make a routing table for router R1 using the

configuration in Figure 6.13.

See Next Slide

Solution
Table 6.1 shows the corresponding table.

See the table after the figure.

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 4

 Figure 6.13 Configuration for Example 7

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 5

 Table 6.1 Routing table for router R1 in Figure 6.13

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 6

 Example 8

Show the forwarding process if a packet arrives at R1

in Figure 6.13 with the destination address
180.70.65.140.
Solution
The router performs the following steps:
1. The first mask (/26) is applied to the destination
address. The result is 180.70.65.128, which does not
match the corresponding network address.

See Next Slide

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 7

 Example 8 (Continued)

2. The second mask (/25) is applied to the

destination address. The result is 180.70.65.128,
which matches the corresponding network address.
The next-hop address (the destination address of the
packet in this case) and the interface number m0
are passed to ARP for further processing.

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 8

 Example 9

Show the forwarding process if a packet arrives at R1

in Figure 6.13 with the destination address
201.4.22.35.

Solution
The router performs the following steps:

See Next Slide

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 9

 Example 9 (Continued)

1. The first mask (/26) is applied to the destination address.

The result is 201.4.22.0, which does not match the
corresponding network address (row 1).
2. The second mask (/25) is applied to the destination address.
The result is 201.4.22.0, which does not match the
corresponding network address (row 2).
3. The third mask (/24) is applied to the destination address.
The result is 201.4.22.0, which matches the corresponding
network address. The destination address of the package and
the interface number m3 are passed to ARP.

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 10

 Example 10

Show the forwarding process if a packet arrives at R1

in Figure 6.13 with the destination address
18.24.32.78.
Solution
This time all masks are applied to the destination
address, but no matching network address is found.
When it reaches the end of the table, the module gives
the next-hop address 180.70.65.200 and interface
number m2 to ARP. This is probably an outgoing
package that needs to be sent, via the default router, to
some place else in the Internet.
TCP/IP Protocol Suite 11
 Example 11

Now let us give a different type of example. Can we

find the configuration of a router, if we know only its
routing table? The routing table for router R1 is given
in Table 6.2. Can we draw its topology?

See Next Slide

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 12

 Table 6.2 Routing table for Example 11

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 13

 Example 11 (Continued)

Solution
We know some facts but we don’t have all for a
definite topology. We know that router R1 has three
interfaces: m0, m1, and m2. We know that there are
three networks directly connected to router R1. We
know that there are two networks indirectly connected
to R1. There must be at least three other routers
involved (see next-hop column). We know to which
networks these routers are connected by looking at
their IP addresses. So we can put them at their
appropriate place.
See Next Slide
TCP/IP Protocol Suite 14
 Example 11 (Continued)

We know that one router, the default router, is

connected to the rest of the Internet. But there is some
missing information. We do not know if network
130.4.8.0 is directly connected to router R2 or through
a point-to-point network (WAN) and another router.
We do not know if network140.6.12.64 is connected to
router R3 directly or through a point-to-point network
(WAN) and another router. Point-to-point networks
normally do not have an entry in the routing table
because no hosts are connected to them. Figure 6.14
shows our guessed topology.
See Next Slide 15
 Figure 6.14 Guessed topology for Example 6

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 16

 Figure 6.15 Address aggregation

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 17

 Figure 6.16 Longest mask matching

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 18

 Example 12

As an example of hierarchical routing, let us consider Figure

6.17. A regional ISP is granted 16384 addresses starting from
120.14.64.0. The regional ISP has decided to divide this block
into four subblocks, each with 4096 addresses. Three of these
subblocks are assigned to three local ISPs, the second subblock
is reserved for future use. Note that the mask for each block
is /20 because the original block with mask /18 is divided into 4
blocks.

See Next Slide

19
Figure 6.17 Hierarchical routing with ISPs

20
 Example 12 (Continued)

The first local ISP has divided its assigned subblock into 8
smaller blocks and assigned each to a small ISP. Each small
ISP provides services to 128 households (H001 to H128), each
using four addresses. Note that the mask for each small ISP is
now /23 because the block is further divided into 8 blocks.
Each household has a mask of /30, because a household has
only 4 addresses (232−30 is 4).
The second local ISP has divided its block into 4 blocks and
has assigned the addresses to 4 large organizations (LOrg01 to
LOrg04). Note that each large organization has 1024 addresses
and the mask is /22.

See Next Slide

21
 Example 12 (Continued)

The third local ISP has divided its block into 16 blocks and
assigned each block to a small organization (SOrg01 to
SOrg15). Each small organization has 256 addresses and the
mask is /24.
There is a sense of hierarchy in this configuration. All routers
in the Internet send a packet with destination address
120.14.64.0 to 120.14.127.255 to the regional ISP. The regional
ISP sends every packet with destination address 120.14.64.0 to
120.14.79.255 to Local ISP1. Local ISP1 sends every packet
with destination address 120.14.64.0 to 120.14.64.3 to H001.

22
 Forwarding Based on Label
 In 1980s, an effort started to somehow change IP to behave like a
connection-oriented protocol in which the routing is replaced by
switching. In a connectionless network (datagram approach), a
router forwards a packet based on the destination address in the
header of packet. On the other hand, in a connection-oriented
network (virtual-circuit approach), a switch forwards a packet based
on the label attached to a packet. Routing is normally based on
searching the contents of a table; switching can be done by
accessing a table using an index. In other words, routing involves
searching; switching involves accessing.
 Later IETF approved a standard that is called Multi-Protocol Label
Switching. In this standard, some conventional routers in the
Internet can be replaced by MPLS routers that can behave like a
router and a switch. When behaving like a router, MPLS can
forward the packet based on the destination address; when behaving
like a switch, it can forward a packet based on the label. 23
6.4 STRUCTURE OF A ROUTER
We represent a router as a black box that accepts incoming packets from
one of the input ports (interfaces), uses a routing table to find the
departing output port, and sends the packet from this output port.

The topics discussed in this section include:

Components

24
 Figure 6.20 Router components

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 25

 Figure 6.21 Input port

An input port performs the physical and data link layer functions of the router.
The bits are constructed from the received signal. The packet is decapsulated
from the frame. Errors are detected and corrected. The packet is ready to be
forwarded by the network layer. In addition to a physical layer processor and a
data link processor, the input port has buffers (queues) to hold the packets
before they are directed to
the switching fabric.

26
 Figure 6.22 Output port

An output port performs the same functions as the input port, but in the reverse
order. First the outgoing packets are queued, then the packet is encapsulated in
a frame, and finally the physical layer functions are applied to the frame to
create the signal to be sent on the line.

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 27

 Figure 6.22 Routing and Switching part

Routing Processor
The routing processor performs the functions of the network layer. The
destination address is used to find the address of the next hop and, at the
same time, the output port number from which the packet is sent out.

Switching Fabrics
The most difficult task in a router is to move the packet from the input
queue to the output queue. The speed with which this is done affects the
size of the input/output queue and the overall delay in packet delivery.

TCP/IP Protocol Suite 28