Dynamic Routing Protocols

• A dynamic routing protocol is a combination of

rules and procedures that lets routers in the
internet inform each other of changes in the
internet
• When a router receives a packet, the decision
about which network to send the packet to is
based on optimization
• One way of achieving optimization is by assigning a
cost for passing through a network  a.k.a. metric
• The metric could be hop count, delay, throughput,
policy, etc.
 AS
• An autonomous system (AS) is a group of
networks and routers under the authority of a
single administration
• Routing inside an AS is referred to as
intradomain routing
• Routing between AS is referred to as
interdomain routing
Routing Protocols
 Distance Vector Routing
• In distance vector routing, the least-cost route
between any two nodes is the route with
minimum distance
• Each node maintains a vector (table) of the
minimum distances to every node
• The table at each node guides the packet to
the desired node by showing the next stop in
the route (next-hop routing)
Distance Vector Routing Tables
 Distance Vector Routing
• At its initial stage, each node can only know the
distance between itself and its immediate neighbors
 those directly connected to it
• The distance for any entry that is not a neighbor is
marked as infinite ∞ (unreachable)
• The nodes then shares its routing table information
with each other
• When a neighbor receives a table, the next-hop
column is replaced with the sender’s name
In distance vector routing, each node shares its routing table with its
immediate neighbors periodically and when there is a change.
Initialization of Vector
 Updating in Distance Vector Routing
• When a node receives routing table information from a
neighbor, it needs to update its routing table
• The receiving node needs to add the cost between
itself and the sending node to each value in the
second column.
• The receiving node needs to add the name of the
sending node to each row as the third column if the
receiving node uses the information from any row.
The sending node is the next node in the route
• The receiving node needs to compare each row of its
old table with the corresponding row of the modified
version of the received table
Updating in Distance Vector
Routing
 When to share?
• The routing table information is sent both
periodically and when there is a change in the
table
• Periodic update
• A node sends its routing table, normally every 30s in a
periodic update (depends on the protocol that is using
distance vector routing)
• Triggered update
• A node sends its routing table to its neighbors anytime
there is a change in its routing table (triggered update)
Two-node Instability
 Two-node Instability
• A problem with distance vector routing is instability
• A few solutions have been proposed for instability of
this kind
• Defining infinity – redefine infinity to a smaller
number, e.g. 100. However, this means that the
distance vector routing cannot be used in large
systems
• Split horizon – route advertisement is sent out an
interface only if they were not learned from updates
entering that interface
• Split horizon and Poison Reverse – the split horizon
strategy can be combined with the poison reverse
strategy. Node B advertises the value for X, but if the
source of information is A, it can replace the distance
with infinity as a warning
Three-node Instability
 RIP
• RIP is an intradomain routing protocol used inside an
AS
• It is a very simple protocol based on distance vector
routing
• RIP implements distance vector routing directly with
some considerations:
• In an AS, we are dealing with routers and networks (links). The routers
have routing tables; networks do not
• The destination in a routing table is a network, which means the first
column defines network addresses
• The metric used by RIP is hop count  the number of links (networks)
to reach the destination
• Infinity is defined as 16  any route in an AS using RIP cannot have
more than 15 hops
• The next-node column defines the address of the router to which the
packet is to be sent to reach its destination
RIP
 Link State Routing
• In link state routing, if each node in the domain has
the entire topology of the domain, the node can use
Dijkstra’s algorithm to build a routing table
• The topology must be dynamic, representing the
latest state of each node and each link
• If there are changes in any point in the network the
topology must be updated for each node
• Based on the assumption that: although the global
knowledge about the topology is unclear, each node
has partial knowledge of its links
Link State Routing
Link State Knowledge
 Link State Routing
• In link state routing, 4 sets of actions are
required to ensure that each node has the
routing table showing the least-cost node to
every other node
• Creation of the states of the links by each node,
called the link state packets (LSP)
• Dissemination of LSPs to every other router, called
flooding, in an efficient and reliable way
• Formation of the shortest path tree for each node
• Calculation of a routing table based on the shortest
path tree
 Creation of LSPs
• LSPs are generated on two occasions:
• When there is a change in the topology of the
domain
• On a periodic basis
 Flooding of LSPs
• Flooding is done based on the following
• The creating node sends a copy of the LSP out of each
interface
• A node that receives an LSP compares it with the copy
it may already have. If the newly arrived LSP is older
than the one it has (based on its sequence no), it
discards the LSP. If it is newer the node does the
following:
• It discards the old LSP and keeps the new one
• It sends a copy of it out of each interface except the one
from which the packet arrived. This guarantees that
flooding stops somewhere in the domain
 Dijkstra Algorithm
• The Dijkstra algorithm creates a shortest path
tree from a graph
• It divides the nodes into two sets: tentative
and permanent
• It finds the neighbors of a current node,
makes them tentative, examines them, and if
they pass the criteria, makes them permanent
Dijkstra Algorithm
 Dijkstra Algorithm
Find shortest paths from given source node to all other nodes,
by developing paths in order of increasing path length
N = set of nodes in the network
s = source node
T = set of nodes so far incorporated by the algorithm
w(i, j) = link cost from node i to node j
w(i, i) = 0
w(i, j) =  if the two nodes are not directly connected
w(i, j)  0 if the two nodes are directly connected
L(n) = cost of least-cost path from node s to node n currently
known
At termination, L(n) is cost of least-cost path from s to n
 Dijkstra Algorithm
 Step 1 [Initialization]
 T = {s} Set of nodes so far incorporated consists of only source node
 L(n) = w(s, n) for n ≠ s
 Initial path costs to neighboring nodes are simply link costs
 Step 2 [Get Next Node]
 Find neighboring node not in T with least-cost path from s
 Incorporate node into T
 Also incorporate the edge that is incident on that node and a node in T that
contributes to the path
 Step 3 [Update Least-Cost Paths]
 L(n) = min[L(n), L(x) + w(x, n)] for all n  T
 If latter term is minimum, path from s to n is path from s to x concatenated
with edge from x to n
 Algorithm terminates when all nodes have been added to T
Shortest Path Tree
Routing table for node A
Dijkstra Algorithm Example
 Dijkstra Algorithm Example
Iteration
T L(2) Path L(3) Path L(4) Path L(5) Path L(6) Path
1 {1} 2 1–2 5 1-3 1 1–4  -  -
2 {1,4} 2 1–2 4 1-4-3 1 1–4 2 1-4–  -
5
3 {1, 2, 2 1–2 4 1-4-3 1 1–4 2 1-4–  -
4} 5
4 {1, 2, 2 1–2 3 1-4- 1 1–4 2 1-4– 4 1-4-
4, 5} 5–3 5 5–6

5 {1, 2, 2 1–2 3 1-4- 1 1–4 2 1-4– 4 1-4-

3, 4, 5–3 5 5–6
5}
6 {1, 2, 2 1-2 3 1-4- 1 1-4 2 1-4– 4 1-4-
3, 4, 5-3 5 5-6
5, 6}
 Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
• OSPF is an intradomain routing protocol based on
link state routing
• To handle routing efficiently and in a timely manner,
OSPF divides an AS into areas  a collection of
networks, hosts and routers all contained within an
AS. All networks inside an area must be connected
• Routers inside an area flood the area with routing
information
• At the border of an area, special routers called area
border routers summarize the information about the
area and send it to other areas
 Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
• Among the areas inside an AS is a special area called
the backbone  all the areas inside and AS must be
connected to the backbone
• The routers inside the backbone are called the
backbone routers. A backbone router can also be an
area border router
• If the connectivity between a backbone and an area
is broken, a virtual link between routers must be
created
• Each area has an area identification. The area
identification of the backbone is zero.
 Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
• OSPF allows the administrator to assign a cost,
called the metric, to each route
• The metric can be based on a type of service
(minimum delay, maximum throughput, etc).
• A router can have multiple routing tables,
each based on a different type of service
• A connection in OSPF is called a link
Areas in an Autonomous System
Types of Links
 Point-to-Point Link
 A point-to-point link connects two routers without any
other host or router in between
 There is no need to assign a network address to this type
of link
 Transient Link
 A transient link is a network with several routers attached
to it
 Data can enter through any of the routers and leave
through any router
 Stub Link
 A stub link is a network that is connected to only one
router
 Data enter the network though this single router and
leave through the same router
 This is a special case of the transient network
Autonomous Systems & OSPF
FIN