Shortest Path Routing

School of Electronics Engineering

VIT University
 Routing
How do packets get from A to B
in the Internet?

Internet
A B

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Connectionless
Forwarding
Each router (switch) makes a
LOCAL decision to forward the
packet towards B
R1 R4

R7

R6

R2
A B
R8

R3
R5

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Routing in Network Layer
Determining the feasible path for
packets to follow from each source to
destination.
◦ Best path.
 Minimize the number of hops.
 End to end delay.
 Greatest bandwidth.
Goals
◦ Rapid and accurate delivery of packets.
◦ Adaptability to changes in Network Topology in failures
cases.
◦ Adaptability to varying load –heavy and light traffic periods.
◦ Ability route packets from temporarily congested links.
◦ Avoid routing loops.
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 Routing Metrics
Means for measuring desirability of a path
 Path Length = sum of costs or distances
 Possible metrics
◦ Hop count: rough measure of resources used
◦ Capacity: Send a packet through a path with
highest capacity.
◦ Congestion: Traffic load
◦ Reliability: link availability; BER
◦ Delay: sum of delays along path; complex &
dynamic
◦ Bandwidth: “available capacity” in a path
◦ Load: Link & router utilization along path
◦ Cost
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Shortest Paths & Routing
Many possible paths connect any given
source and to any given destination
Routing involves the selection of the
path to be used to accomplish a given
transfer
Typically it is possible to attach a cost
or distance to a link connecting two
nodes
Routing can then be posed as a
shortest path problem

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 Routing
Routing algorithm based on variants
of shortest path.
 Set of nodes-each node represents packet
switching
 Set of links- each link represents
transmission line between two packet
switches.
◦ Shortest path between pair of nodes is
the path with
2 least 3cost.
1
 Find the
5 path 2from node 1 to 6 with least cost.
1

4
3 1 3 6

2
2 5
4 03/16/25 7
 Multiple paths in packet switching
Network---Datagram Network
1 3
6

2 Node
5
(switch or router)

Three possible (loop free) routes from 1 to 6:

◦ 1-3-6, 1-4-5-6, 1-2-5-6
Datagram Network uses minimum hop
routing.
 Packet destined to node 6 arrive at node1.
 1-3-6,
 Routing Tables in Datagram Packet
Networks-Route from 1 to 5
Node 3

Node 1 Destination Next node Node 6

Destination Next node 1 1 Destination Next node
2 2 2 4 1 3
3 3 4 4 2 5
4 4 5 6 3 3
5 2 6 6 4 3
6 3 5 5

Node 4
Destination Next node
1 1
2 2
Node 2 Node 5
3 3
Destination Next node Destination Next node
5 5
1 1 6 3 1 4
3 1 2 2
4 4 3 4
5 5 4 4
6 5 6 6
 Shortest Path Aroaches
Distance Vector Protocols(Bellman-Ford
Alg.)
◦ Neighbors exchange list of distances to destinations
◦ Best next-hop determined for each destination
◦ Ford-Fulkerson (distributed) shortest path algorithm
◦ Process from destination to source node

Link State Protocols (Dijkstra)

◦ Link state information flooded to all routers
◦ Routers have complete topology information
◦ Shortest path (& hence next hop) calculated
◦ Dijkstra (centralized) shortest path algorithm
◦ Process from Source node to destination node
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 Bellman-Ford Algorithm
 Initialization
◦ Each node has 1 row for each destination d
◦ Distance of node d to itself is zero: Dd(d)=0
◦ Distance of other node j to d is infinite: Dj(d)=  , for j
d
◦ Next node nj = -1 since not yet defined
 Send Step
◦ Send new distance vector to immediate neighbors
across local link
 Receive Step
◦ For each destination d, find the next hop that gives
the minimum distance to d,
 Di=Minj { Cij + Dj }
 Replace old (nj, Di(d)) by new (nj*, Dj*(d)) if new next
node or distance found
◦ Go to send step
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Problem-Distance Vector –Bellman-
Ford algorithm

Aly Bellman-Ford algorithm to find

the minimum distance from each
node to destination (node 6) and the
next node along the shortest path.
2 3
1 1
5 2

4
3 1 3 6

2
2 5
4

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Bellman-Ford Algorithm-Minimum
cost
To find the minimum cost from
each node to the destination
node (node 6 ).
◦ Each node ‘i’ maintains an entry
(n,Di),
 where ‘n’ is the next node and
 Di is the current minimum cost from node ‘i’
to the destination.

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Steps involved
1. Initialization (destination node d
is distance ‘0’ from itself)
 Di(d)=  for all i  d
 Dd=0
2. Updating (find the minimum distance to
destination through neighbors ): For each i
d
Di=Minj { Cij + Dj } for all
ji
3. Repeat the steps until no more changes
occur in the iteration.
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Iteration Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4 Node 5

Initial (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, )

1
2
3

2 3
1 1
5 2

4
3 1 3 6

2
2 5
4
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Iteration Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4 Node 5

Initial (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, )

1 (-1, ) (-1, ) (6,1) (-1, ) (6,2)
2
3
D3=D6+1
n3=6
D6=0
2 3 1
1 1
5 2
0
4 San
3 1 3 6
Jose
2 5 2
4
2
D5=D6+2 D6=0
n5=6
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03/16/25 17
Iteration Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4 Node 5

Initial (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, )

1 (-1, ) (-1, ) (6, 1) (-1, ) (6,2)
2 (3,3) (5,6) (6, 1) (3,3) (6,2)
3

3 1
2 3
1 1
5 2
3 0
4 San
3 1 3 6
Jose
2 2
5
4
6 2

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Iteration Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4 Node 5

Initial (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, ) (-1, )

1 (-1, ) (-1, ) (6, 1) (-1, ) (6,2)
2 (3,3) (5,6) (6, 1) (3,3) (6,2)
3 (3,3) (4,4) (6, 1) (3,3) (6,2)

1
3 2 3
1 1
5 2
3 0
4 San
3 1 3 6
Jose
2
2 5
4
6 4 2

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Shortest path tree to node
6

2 3
1 1
2

4
1 6

2
2 5

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 Consider the network given below. Write the
Bellman-Ford algorithm and use it to find the set
of shortest paths from all nodes to destination
node T.

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S,3 U,8 V,6 W,6 X,5
Y,8 Z,8

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Exercise 1

Apply Bellman-Ford algorithm to find

the minimum distance from each
node to destination (node 5) and the
next node along the shortest path.
2 3
1 1
5 2

4
3 1 3 6

2
2 5
4

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Exercise 2
Consider the network shown below. Using the Bellman-
Ford algorithm, find the set of shortest paths from node
6 to all other nodes.

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