ACN (Comp. /Sem.

5MSBTE) 3-20 Unicast& Multicast Routing Protocol

At regular intervals each router sends an update 3. Zero

message which has full information about its routing This field is not actually used by RFC 1058 RIP; it wae
database to all the other routers that are directly
added just to provide backward compatibility with the
connected to it. Some routers will send this message as
older versions of RIP. Its name actually indicates it
often as every 30 seconds, so that the network will
defaulted value.zero.
always have up-to-date information.
4. Family:
RIP uses the UDP network protocol because of its
eficiency and there are no problems if a message gets This field is used to specify the address family used. RI
lost due to any reason. This is because the next update is designed to carry routing information for severa
will be coming in a short time. different protocols. Each entry has an address-famil
identifier to indicate the type of address being specifiec
3.12.5 RIP Message Format: I-Scheme: W-19
For example the value of AFI for IP is 2. Similart
RIP messages can be broadly classified into two types: different values indicate different protocols.
messages that deliver routing information and
5. Network address
messages that request routing information.
The network address field is used for defining th
Both use the same format which consists of a fixed
address of the destination network. In RIP this fieldis 1
header followed by an optional list of network and
bytes long, so that it can be used for any protocol.
distance pairs.
RIP version 1 But the IPv4 address is only 4 byte long. Hence th
Command Version Reserved remaining space in the address field is filled with zeros.

Family All zeros 6. Distance:

Network address This field indicates the number of hops (routers) th-

All zeros have been traversed in the trip to the destination. Th

value is between 1 and 15 for a valid route, or 16 for a
All zeros
unreachable route.
Distance

Repeat of last 20 bytes

3.13 Request and Response Messages
(RIP):
(G-1998) Fig. 3.12.1: RIP messageformat
RIP has two types of messages namely Request a
The summary of the RIP packet format fields illustrated
Response Messages. d o
in Fig. 3.12.1, is as follows

1. Command
3.13.1 Request Message: omol ette ett
The request message is created in the
Indicates whether the type of the packet i.e. a request or following
a response, The request asks that a router send all or situations
part of its routing table. The response can be an 1 It is created by a'router which has just come u
unsolicited regular routing update or a reply to a 2 Or it is created by a router which has some tir
request. Responses contain routing table entries. Out entries.
Multiple RIP packets are used to convey information
In a request message, information about some spec
from large routing tables.
entries or all the entries is asked.
2. Version: Fig. 3.13.1(a) shows the format of the request messa
This field specifies the RIP version used. This field can for one and Fig. 3.13.1(b) shows the format of reque
message for all.
signal different potentially incompatible versions.
 ACN (Comp Sem. 5/MSBTE)
3-21 Unicast &Multicast Routing Protocols
Com 1 Version
Family
Reserved This timer counts down from the set value (25to
All zeros
Network address 35 sec.) and sends an update message when its
Repeated Al Os count reaches a zero. Then the timer is set once
All Os again to a random value between 25 and 35
All Os
seconds
G-2145) (a) Format of request message (RIP) for one
2. Expiration Timer
Fig. 3.13.1
The responsibility of expiration timer is to govern
Com. 1
Version Reserved the validity of a route.
Family All zeros
All Os When a router gives out the update information
Repeated All Os about a route, the value of this timer is set at 180
All Os
sec or 3 minutes.
All Os
This timer is reset, everytime a new update for that
G-2146) (b) Format of request message (RIP) for all
route is received, which under normal working
Fig. 3.13.1 conditions happen after every 30 sec.

3.13.2 Response Message But due to some problem on the Internet, if a new
update for that route is not received within 180
Response message in RIP can be one of the
following sec, then that route is considered expired and the
twotypes hop count of that route is set to 16. This is an
1 Solicited response or 2. Unsolicited response. indication that the destination is not reachable.
A solicited response is the one which is sent
only as an There is a separate expiration timer for each route.
answer to a request message. It carries with it the
information about the destination specified in the 3. Garbage Collection Timer
request message. The router does not purge a particular route from
An unsolicited response, is not sent only once but it is its table even when the information about that
sent periodically (every 30 seconds or so) when there is
route becomes invalid. Instead the router
any change in the routing table. This response is also
continues to advertise that route by increasing its
called as the update packet.
metric value to 16 (destination is not reachable).
3.13.3 Timers in RIP: At the same time, the router sets another timer
RIP uses three different timers as follows for supporting called garbage collection timer to 120 sec. for
its options. this route.
L The periodic timer to control the process of As soon as this count goes to zero, that route is
sending messages. purged from the router table, Due this timers the
2. The expiration timer is used for governing the neighbours become aware that a particular root
validity of a route. has became invalid, before its
purging.
3 The garbage collection timer is used for
4. Disadvantages of RIPV1
advertising the failure of a route.
1. Periodic Timer Some of the important disadvantages of the
original RIP version i.e. RIPv1 are as follows
The task of the periodic timer is to control the
1. RIPv1 only understands the shortest route to a
advertising of the update messages regularly.
destination, which is based on simple count of
As per protocol specifications, this timer should be number of router hops.
set to30 sec. but practically it is set
randomly 2. It depend on other routers for computed routing
between 25 and 35 sec. Each router has one
updates.
periodic timer.

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Pub I1cati0ns
 ACN Comp Sem.5MSBTE) 3-22 Unicast&Muiticast Routing Protoeru
3 Routing tables can get large and these are Soln.
broadcasted every3 seconds Table P. 3.13.1: Routing table at A

Distances are based on hops, not on real costs Next Hop

Cost
(such as the speed of link) Destination
(hopcount)|(Nextrouter)
S. t continues to be a router to router configuration
B B
that means each router is fuly depend on its next
C
outer to implement the same options.
we solve one problem and other appears. E

F
3.13.4 RIP Version 2:
D 2 C
In November 1994, RIP was modified with some

G 2 F
additions (extensions) to overcome some of its
shortcomings. RIP version 1 is still being used on many
Message format (RIPv2):
routers and continues to outnumber OSPF networks.
The modified RIP is called RIP version 2 protocol. The message format of RIPV2 is as shown in Fig. 3.13.2

Version 2 is backward compatible with version 1 and Command Version Reserved

Family Route tag
contains all of the capabilities of the version 1 protocol.
Network address
RIP version 2 implemented the following features : Subnet address
RepeatedK
Next hop address
Features:
Distance
Authentication by means of a simple text password.
(G-2147) Fig. 3.13.2: Message format of RIPv2
Subnet masking used.

Multicasting used to allow for variable-length subnet New Fields:

masks to be implemented. There are some new fields in the message format of
Route tag-to provide a method of separating RIP routes RIPV2 as compared to that in RIPvi. They are as follows
from externally learned routes.
1 Route tag
switch-to allow for interoperability with
Compatibility Subnet mask
version 1 routers Notice that he same format is used for

RIPV and RIPV2. 3 Next hop address.

1. Route tag: This new field is useful in containing

the final routing table at node A
Ex. 3.13.1: Complete information such as autonomous system number. Using
network.
using RIP protocol for the following this field, we can enable RIP to receive information from
Assume the cost of hop count an interdomain protocol.

2. Subnet mask: This field is 4 byte long and it contains

Next the subnet mask or prefix. This shows that the classless
Distance Cost addressing and CIDR is supported by the RIPV2.
Hop
3 Next-hop address: This new field contains the address
of the next hop. This feature is useful in a situation
where the same network is shared by two autonomou
backbone. With the help of ths
systems for example a
he
field, the message can define a router to whicn
packet is to be sent next. Note that this router can De

G-500) Fig. P. 3.13.1 part of the same A.S. or some other A.S.

Tech Knowledge
PubIIC atioui
 ACN (Comp. /Sem.
5MSBTE) 3-23 Unicast&Multicast Routing Protocols
Classless Addressing
There is no field in RIP message which can indicate the
The most
versions
important difference between the two length of message. The length has to be
the
of RIP is
that RIPVI can
determined from the UDP packet. The well known port
classful
addressing, whereas RIPv2 cansupport
also
only the
520 has been assigned to RIP in UDP
classless addressing. support the
Due to the 3.13.5 Problems in RIP
additional field called
possible to define a network subnet mask, it is
RIP is the most used Internet interior routing protocols
Hence classless prefix length in RIPV2.
addressing becomes possible. It is based on the distance vector routing principle. RIP
Authentication: has many limitations. Some of them are as follows

Authentication is a safety measure 1. Width restriction : RIP uses a 4-bit metric to count

ensure the
taken by RIPV2 to router hops to the destination. For RIP infinity is defined
protection of message against unauthorized
advertisement as 16 which corresponds to 15 hops.

For No direct subnet support RIP came into existence

authentication, it is not
necessary to add any extra
2.
field to the prior to subnetting and has no direct support for it. We
packet. Instead the authentication
information is done as the first can use it in the subnetted environment with some
entry of the message.
The value of restrictions.
FFFF16 is entered in the
family field which
indicates that the entry is not the Bandwidth consumptive : An RIP router will broadcast
routing information
but the authentication lists of networks and subnets it can reach after every 30
information, as shown in
Fig. 3.13.3. seconds. This will consume a large amount of
The authentication field in
bandwidth.
Fig. 3.13.3 is used for
defining the authentication protocol and the next field 4. Difficult to diagnos fault: Like any other distance
carries the actual authentication data. vector routing protocols, RIP also is difficult to debug.
Command Version Reserved 5. Weak security: RIP does not have any security features
Ox FFFF Authentication type of its own.
Authentication data
(16 bytes) 6. Looping problem based
Being on
distance vector
principle the RIP faces the looping (routing loop)

(G-2148) Fig. 3.13.3:Authentication problem.

Remedies:
Multicasting
Some of the above mentioned
In RIPv1 broadcasting is used for sending RIP message problems are overcome
with RIP2 while the looping problem be overcome by
can
to all the neighbours. Due to broadcasting of the
using either a link state routing protocol like OSPF or a newer
message, all the routers as well as hosts connected to
distance vector routing protocol like BGP.
the network would receive the RIP message

But in RIPV2 an all round multicast address is used to 3.14 OSPF

send the RIP messages only to the RIP routers on the
The long form of OSPF is Open Shortest Path First
network.
protocol.
Encapsulation: This is another interior routing protocol. It is an
The UDP is used to encapsulate the RIP messages. That intradomain protocol and it is based on the link state
means RIP message is inserted into the UDP user
routing. For handling the routing efficiently and in a

datagram. timely manner, the OSPF divides an AS. into areas.

TechPubllcations
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 Unicast&Multicast Routing Protoco
3-24
ACN (Comp Sem 5MSBTE) network will be ignors
approach two-hop high-speed
Area link would be used insteadd.
and a one-hop low-speed
Networks, hosts and routers are collectively called as an make a router to take a beter path by adjustinn
We can

An system can be imagined to be made of the router port, but h

the hop-count metric
area autonomous on

should be
vanious areas. All the networks inside an area
reduces the available
diameter

connected
RIP updates its entire
table on a periodic basis using the
Area border routers: broadcast address. (RIPV1; RIPV2 uses multicast or
broadcast). But this would
consume bandwidth
which used at the
These are special type of routers are
576 byte data
borders of an area. These routers summarize the information RIP sends its update with the help of a
entries than 512 bytes, then
gram. If there
are more
about the area and sernt it to the other areas.

multiple datagrams must be sent.

Backbone The biggest drawback of RIP is its slow convergence. Iin
A special area inside an autonomous system is called as
the worse case, a RIP update can take over 15 minutes
backbone. All the areas inside an A.S. should be lead to black holes, loops, etc.
end to end. This can

connected to the backbone. RIPv1 does not support VLSM.

So backbone is the primary area and other areas are

Remedies (What OSPF could do)
known as secondary areas
The first shortest-path-first routing protocol was
Backbone routers developed and used in the ARPAnet packet switching
The routers inside the backbone are called as the
network all the way back in 1978. This research work
backbone routers. But a backbone router can also work
was developed and used in many other routing
as an area border router.
protocol types and prototypes. One of those is OSPF
f the connectivity between a backbone and an area is
administration
oSPF provides solutions to most of the drawbacks of
broken, due to some problem, then the
should create a virtual link between routers so that the RIP. Using OSPF we can scale up the routing

backbone can continue to function as primary area architecture well beyond the maximum 16 hops
supported by RIP
Area identification:
Rather than exchanging node (and network) reachability
Each area has an area identification. The area
information, OSPF routers exchange link state
identification of the backbone is zero. An autonomous
system is as shown in Fig. 3.14.1(a) information.

Through the link state information, each router

Disadvantages of the RIP protocol
maintains its own copy of the network topology. From
The maximum distance between any two stations (the
this link-state database, it is possible to find the
metric, measured in router hops) is 15 hops.
shortest routing path.
A destination (network ID) whose hop count is 16 or
more is considered to be nonreachable. For those of you that are familiar with the OSI routing
scheme, many of the features supported by OSPF are
The cost to a destination network is measured in terms
similar to the OSI IS-IS routing protocol.
of number of hops. RIP determines a route based on a
does not take into consideration any The original versions of OSPF are actually derived from
hop count that
than the number of routers between
other criteria other some of the earlier versions of the IS-IS protocol.

source and destination networks.

Due to this
the
 5/MSBTE)
ACN (Comp. /Sem. 3-25
Unicast &Multicast Routing Protocols
Area 1 Area Area 3
net net not
net
net ne
net net ne
Area border ***
Area border
***********
* 4
******* *

net Outer
net roule neD To other
A.S.
Backbone router Backbone router
Area 0 (Backbone). A.S
boundaryrouter
Autonomous system
A*********A*a***5

(G-1786) Fig. 3.14.1(a): Autonomous system

3.14.1 Features of OSPF the link state information for all information in their

1. Type of service routing: local area.

7. OSPF is
t is possible to configure different routers to support
an open specification:
different types of service requirements. For example, The OSPF has been published as an RFC and not
one router can be configured for high-throughput defined as a defacto standard such as RIP. Therefore
while the other one is configured to support minimal anyone can implement the standard, without paying
delivery delay for some other application. royalties. This has been done to encourage many
vendors to use it so that the users are not locked into a
2. Loadbalancing: single vendor's equipment. o
When multiple routes are available, traffic can be evenly
8. OSPF area:
distributed over the routes. This would obviously result
in a higher network efficiency. OSPF divides the network into groups, called an area.
The topology of an area is not known to the rest of the
3. Subdivision of autonomous systems:sb
Autonomous System. This technique minimizes the
t is possible to further divide the system into logical routing traffic required for the protocol. When multiple
areas. This would improve the management of large areas are used, each area has its own copy of the
autonomous systems. topological database
4. Security Several concepts have been incorporated in the
OSPF algorithm. The RIP treated an autonomous
The data exchanges in OSPF are authenticated.
system as a monolithic collection of routes and
Inadvertent or malicious transmissions from foreign
routing nodes are disc arded. Only those hosts intended
subnets, but OSPF introduces the concept of areas.
The concept of hiding the routing information
for the routing network are included. The network isn't
within a OSPF routing domain (Internet
vulnerable to the threat of having routing tables
autonomous system) has also been introduced.
corrupted by faulty route information.
After dividing an autonomous system into a
5. Host:
collection of logical areas, the OSPF can support
OSPF supports specific, network and subnetwork different types of routing nodes (routers) such as
routing. internal routers, area border routers, backbone
routers, and Autonomous System (AS) boundary
Special features are provided to support LAN
environments routers. (See Fig. 3.14.1(a).

Although the relationships between routers are The protocols used to support oSPF routing
maintained on a logical link basis, link state include database broadcast packets and link state
transmissions are minimized by the architecture. change broadcasts. A "Hello" protocol is used to
detect changes in the availability of adjacent
Designated gateways are responsible for transmitting
routers.

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 Unicast& Multicast Routing Protocoh
Cols
ACN (Comp 5/MSBTE)
3-26
between the neighbouring routers isa
The relationship
3.14.2 Metric Each router has been connecte
shown in Fig. 3.14.4(a).
this arrangement
Tne each route by an OSP
to every other neighbour. But
cost assigned to
non-realistic. In order to
metric of that route. In the nonefficient and
administrator is called as extremely
efficient and realistic,
the configuration of
OSPF protocol the metric can be based on a type of make it more

should be used. This

is known as th
service Fig. 3.14.4(b)
designated router is assignedto
which are transient network. The
A router can have multiple routing tables true router and theotheras
one as a
based on different types of service. perform two tasks,
a designated router.

3.14.3 Types of Links : of Fig. 3.14.4(6) every

Due to the realistic arrangement
connection is called has only neighbour ie. the designated
one
In the OSPF protocol terminology, a router

called point to (network), however the designated

router has
as a link. OSPF defines four types of links router

point transient link, stub link and

virtual links as shown multiple (5 in this case) neighbours.
in Fig. 3.14.1(b).
Types of inks xDesignated
router

Point to point Transient Stub Virtual c

(G-501) Fig. 3.14.1(b): Types oflinks (a) Unrealistic representation (b) Realistic representation
(G-1787) Fig. 3.14.4
1. Pointto point link
reduces the number of
defined as the link (connection) The realistic arrangement
A point to point link is router without any other host announcement that each router
has to make to a small
two
that directly connects unrealistic arrangement.
in between. An example
of such a link number as compared to the
or router present
from each node to
a telephone line. Note that there is a
metric
is two routers connected by metric from the
at the other side of router and there is no
designated
Each router has only one neighbour other node.
3.14.2. It is not necessary designated router to any
the link. This is shown in Fig. link. The metric
network address to this A stub link:
to assign any 3.
of the link and they
are
are shown at the two ends to only one
network that is connected
generally the same. A stub link is a

router as shown in Fig. 3.14.5.

Router A Router A
Point to point Router
Router
networ
Designated router
Ethernet
Fig. 3.14.2: Point to point link
G-502(0)
(a) Stub network
(b) Representation

2. Transientlink: G-504) Fig. 3.14.5

routers attached to
it as
network having many Fig. 3.14.5(a) is a special case of
It is The stub network of
a
WANs are of
3.14.3. All LANS and
some
use the same link to
shown in Fig. transient network. The data packets

this type. enter and leave the network.

Each router has several A asa
A, B, C.... etc. are the
routers.
This situation can be represented by using router
the network by a designated
neighbours. node and by replacing connecting
shown in Fig. 3.14.5(b). The link
A router as

router A and the designated

router is
unidirectional

Ethernet router to network.

from
can
administration
the
When this link gets damaged
routers.
create a vitual link between the two
Transient link
(G-503) Fig. 3.14.3: Tech Knewledge
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ACN (Comp./Sem,5/MSBTE) 3-27 Unicast &Multicast Routing Protocols
LSA
3.14.4 Virtual Link:
The administration can create a virtual link between
1. Router 2. Network 3. Summary link 4. Summary link 5. External
two routers, when a link between them gets broken due link LSA Wnk LSA to network LSA to AS boundary linkLSA
router
to some reason.
(G-505) Fig. 3.14.7: Types of LSAs
Such a virtual link could be over a longer path which
1. Router Links:
would go through many routers.
The router produced a router links advertisement for its
3.14.5 Graphical Representation: own area. The advertisement describes the collectedd
Let us now discuss about representing an AS. states of the router's links to the area. This
qraphically. Consider Fig. 3.14.6a) which is a small AS. advertisement also indicates the type of the router i.e.
with multiple networks and routers.
whether it is an area border router or an AS boundary
There are some point to point networks, and transient
router
as well as stub networks.
2. Network Links:
The symbols such as N, and N are used for the
A network link advertisement is produced for every
transient and stub networks. No identity should be
attached to the point to point networks transit multi-access network. This advertisement is

The graphical representation of the A.S. as seen by produced by the designated router for the transit

OSPF has been shown in Fig. 3.14.6(b). network. It describes all the OSPF routers fully adjacent
to the designated router.
3.14.6 LinkState Advertisements (LSAs):
3. Summary Links
Each entity in a network distributes the Link State
Summary Link advertisements describe a single route to
Advertisements (LSAs). An LSA announces the states of
a destination. The destinations described are external to
entity links.
the area but internal to the Autonomous System. Some
Diferent types of LSAs depending on the type of entity condensing of routing information occurs when creating
are as shown in Fig. 3.14.. these summary link state advertisements.

N2 line 5
Ns
T-3 line

(a) Autonomous system

(b) Graphical representation

(G-2115) Fig. 3.14.6: A.S. and its graphical representation
TechPubtlcatlons
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 ACN (Comp. /Sem. 5MSBTE) 3-28 Unicast& Multicast Routing Protocols
4 AS Summary Links Common Header:
8blts 8 bits 16 bits
These are like summary link advertisements but they
describe routes to Autonomous System boundary Version Type Message length
routers Souroe router IP addres9
5. AS Extemal Links Area ldentification
AS extermal advertisements describe routes external to
the Autonomous System.
Checksum Authentication type

3.14.7 OSPF Packet Types Authentication

Different types of OSPF packets are as shown in

(32bits)
Fig. 3.14.8.
(G-2116) Fig. 3.14.9:OSPF common header
OSPF packets
Various fields in the OSPF packet header are as follows

1. Helo 2. Database 3.Linkstate 4. Link state 5. Link state Version

descipton request update ackowledgement
The contents of this 8-bit field tells us about the version
Router ink of the OSPF protocol. It is currently version 2.
Network Ilink
Summary link to network
Summary link to AS boundary router Type
External link
This 8-bit field defines the type of the packet. There are
G-506) Fig. 3.14.8: OSPF packet types five types of OSPF packets and they can defined by
The OSPF protocol runs directly over IP, and uses the adjusting the contents of the type field from 1 to 5.

assigned number 89. Each OSPF packet consists of an Message length

oSPF header followed by the body of a particular This 16-bit field defines the length of the total
message
packet type. OSPF packets need to be sent to specific 1P which includes the header as well as the body.
addresses in nonbroadcast multi-access networks.
Source router IP address
The OSPF operation consist of following stages This 32-bit field defines the IP address of the router that
Neighbours are
discovered by means of sending sends the packet.
The Hello messages and designated routers are
Area identification
elected in muti-access networks.
This 32-bit field defines the area within which the
Adjacent routers are identified and link state
routing takes place.
databases are synchronized.
Checksum:
Link State Advertisements (LSA) are exchanged
This field is used for error detection on the entire
among the adjacent routers so as to maintain the packet
excluding the authentication type and authentication data
topological, databases and also to advertise
field.
interarea and interAS routes, The routers use the
information in the database to generate routing Authentication type
tables. This 16-bit field defines the authentication method used
All OSPF páckets have the same common header which in this area. At this time, two types of authentication are
defined A 0 in this field shows that no authentication is
is as shown in Fig. 3.14.9. This header is same for all the
being used and a 1 represents the use of password for
five packet types of OSPF.
authentication.

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 ACN (Comp. /Sem.5MSBTE) 3-29 Unicast &Multicast Routing Protocols
the
Authentication
But everytime a router forwards this message,

This 64-bit field is the actual value of the authentication cumulative value of this field.

data. In the future, when more authentication types 2. E Flag:

would be defined, this field will contain the result of the that the area
This is a 1 bit flag. If E =1 then it indicates
authentication calculation. The that is connected to the
is a stub area. area

stub
by only one path is called as the
For now, if the authentication type is 0, this field is filled area.
backbone

with Os. If the type is 1, this field carries eight

an 3. T Flag:
character password.
indicates that it is
Thisis also a 1 bit flag. If T 1, then it
=

3.14.8 Link State Update Packet: possible for the router to handle multiple
services

4 Link state type

The heart of OSPF operation is the link state update
packet. So let us discuss that first. A router uses this This field is used for defining the LSA type. There are

five different types of advertisements as follows:

packet to advertise the states of its links.
Fig. 3.14.10 shows the general format of the link state 1. Router link enoed eart inne
2. Network link.
update packet
3. Summary link to network.
OSPF common header 4. Summary link to A.S. boundary router.
24 bytes Type:4
5. External link.
Number of link state advertisements
Link state ID:
combination The contents of this field are dependent on the type of
RepeatedIunk State advertisement Any
of five different kinds
link, as shown in Table 3.14.1.

Table 3.14.1
G-211 Fig. 3.14.10: Format oflink state update packet
Type Link Link state ID
Each update packet may contain many different LSAs.
1 Router link IP address of router
Fig. 3.14.11 shows the general header which is common
to all five types of LSAs. 2. Network link IP address of designated
router.
3.14.9 General LSA Header 3. Summary link to Address of the network
network.
Link state age ReservedE T Link state type
Link state lD 4 Summary link to IP address of AS boundary
Advertising router AS boundary router
Link state sequence number router

Link state checksum Length 5. External link Address of external Network

6. Advertising router:
(G-2118) Fig. 3.14.11 LSA general header
Let us discuss various fields of LSA general header The field contains the IP address of the router which

1.
advertises this message.
Link state age
7. Link state sequence number
This field is useful in indicating the time (in seconds)
elapsed from the instant of generation of this message. This field contains sequence number that is
a
assigned
Ihis type of message travels from router to router to each link state update message.
which is called as flooding. 8. Link state checksum
At the instant of creation of this message by a router,
The contents of this field is not the usual checksum. But
the value of this field is 0.
the value of this field is calculated on a special type

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 ACN (Comp. /Sem. 5/MSBTE) 3-30 Unicast& Multicast RoutingProtocols
called as Fletcher's checksum. This method of Table 3.14.2

calculating checksum considers the whole packet Link

except for the age field to calculate the checksum. LInk type ldentification LInk data
9. Length Type 1:Pointto point Address Interface
neighbor router number
This field is used for defining the length of the whole
Type2 Transient Address of Router
packet, in bytes.
designated router address
3.14.10 Router Link LSA: Type 3: Stub. Network address Network
mask
The links of a true router are defined by a router link.
Type 4: Vitual Address of Router
This advertisement is used by a true router to announce neighborrouter address
information about all its links and at the same time
2 Link data
about the neighbours.
The contents of this field give additional information
A router link has been shown in Fig. 3.14.12. about the link. Therefore the contents of this field are
dependent on the type of link as shown in Table 3.14.2

To transient network 3. Link type:

Advertisingg
router with As shown in Table 3.142, OSPF defines four types of
four link
links on the basis of the type of network, the router is
To stub network
connected to.

Virtual-0 4. Number oftypes of service (TOs):

(G-2119) Fig. 3.14.12: Router link The contents of this field are used for defining the

The router link LSA is used for advertising all the links of number of types of services that are announced for each

a true router. link.

5. Metric for TOS 0:

3.14.11 Router Link Packet:
The default type of service is TOS 0. This field is used for
Fig. 3.14.13 shows the format of router link packet. Let
defining the metric for the default service.
us discuss its various fields.
oSPF common header 6. TOS
24 bytes Type: 4
The contents of this field are used for defining the type
Number of advertisements
LSA general header
of service
20 bytes Type: 1
ReservedE B Reserved Number of router links 7. Metric
Link ID
uink data The contents of this field are used for defining the
Repeated Link type # of TOS Metrio for TOS 0 metric for corresponding TOS
Metrio
Reserved
Repeated 3.14.12 Network Link LSA :
network link
(G-2120) Fig. 3.14.13: Format of router link LSA The links of a network are defined by a

LSA. A designated router distributes this type of LSA

1. Link ID behalf of the transient network. This packet
packets on
the type of
The contents of this field are dependent
on the routers
is used for announcement of existence of all

identifications on the basis of link

link. Different link to the network as shown in Fig. 3.14.14.
in Table 3.14.2.
type are as shown
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 ACN (Comp./Sem. 5/MSBTE) 3-31
Unlcast&Multicast Routing Protocols

Designated router The important fields in this are as follows

advertises the links
1. Network mask:
the
Ihe contents of this field are used for defining
(G-2121) Fig. 3.14.14: Network links network mask.

Cin 3,14.15 shows the format of network link 2. TOS

advertisement define the type of

The contents of this field are used to
OSPF common header
24 bytes service.
ype:4
Number of advertisements 3. Metric: bobe
LSA general header the
20 bytes The contents of this field are used
for defining
Type: 2
in the TOS field.
Network mask metric for the type of service stated
Repeated Attached router

3.14.15 : Network link advertisement format

3.14.14 Summary Link to AS Boundary
G-212 Fig. Router LSA:
The important fields of the network link LSA are as
given below. designed to let every
The previous advertisement was

the networks that

router know the cost to reach all
1. Network mask
used for the belong to an A.S.
The contents of this field are defining
network mask But what if a router inside an AS wants to send a packet

2 Attached router: outside the AS?

must know the
the IP In order to accomplish this, the router
The contents of this field are used for defining
router.
addresses of all the attached routers. This field
is a path (route) to an autonomous boundary
repeated field.
This information is provided by the summary link to AS
Network LSA:
3.14.13 Summary Link to boundary router.
router link and network link
Inside an area, the The area boundary simply flood their areas
routers will
information about the contains the
advertisements provide ample with this information. This packet
router links and network links to a router.
information about the route to an AS boundary router.
In addition to this, a
But this information is not enough. Fig. 3.14.17 shows the format for summary link to AS
router is also supposed to
know about the network
boundary router LSA. Its primary objective of this
the
outside its area. This information is provided by to which the AS
packet is to define the network
border routers.
boundary router has been attached.
router link and network
An area border router receives The fields in this format are same as those in the
a routing table for each
link advertisements and create summary link to the network advertisement message.
active in more than
area because it is simultaneously
one areaS OSPF common header
of the summary link
to 24 bytes Type: 4
ig. 3.14.16 shows the format
Number of advertisements
network LSA.
OSPF common header LSA general header
20 bytes Type 4
24 bytes Type
All 0s
Number of advertisements
LSA general header Repeated TOS Metric
20 bytes Type:3
Network mask (G-2124) Fig. 3.14.17: Summary link to AS

Repeated TOS Metric boundary router LSA

network LSA
link to
(G-2123) Fig.33.14.16: Format of summary
rechKnouledgee
ublic ationS
 ACN (Comp. /Sem. 5/MSBTE) 3-32 aauting PtoProtocrh
Unicast& Multicast Routing
3.14.15 External Link LSA: They are as follows:

We have seen how the Hello message

previous advertisement makes
each router to know about the route to AS Database description message.
an boundary
router LInk state acknowledgement message.
But only this much information is not
sufficient because Link state request message.
a router inside an AS would also like to
know about the 1. Hello:Used to discoverand maintain neighbours,
networks available outside the
AS
This informmation is
2. Database Description: Used to form adjacencies. T
provided by
the external link
summarizes all its link state
advertisement. The cost of each network outside the AS router advertisements and
is made available passes this information, via database descripti
(flooded) by the AS boundary router tion
inside that AS, with the packets to the router with which it iS
forminq
help of a routing table created an

by an inter domain routing adjacency.

protocol.
3. Link State Request :After the
This is
accomplished by announcing one single network database description
packets have been exchanged with a
neighbour, the
through an advertisement. A separate announcement is
router may think that link state
made for each
netwo advertisements t
Fig. 3.14.18 shows the format of external link LSA. requires to update or complete the
topological
format is very similar
This database. Link state request packets are sent to
to the the
summary link to the AS
neighbour in order to
boundary router LSA but there are two additional fields. request for these link state
advertisements.
OSPF common header
24 bytes Link State Update : It is used for
transmission of link
Type:4
Number of advertisements stateadvertisements between routers. This could be in
LSA general header response to a link state request packet or to flood a new
20 bytes Type:5 or more recent.link state
advertisement.
Network mask
5. Link State
TOS Metric
Acknowledgment: It is used to make the
flooding of link state
advertisements rêliable.
Repeated Forwarding address state
Each link
advertisement received is explicitly
Extemal route tag acknowledged
(G-2125) Fig. 3.14.18: External link LSA 3.14.17 Encapsulation
These two additional fields follows The IP
are as
datagram acts as a carier for the OSPF packet
1. Forwarding address: That means the
OSPF packet is encapsulated in the IP
The contents datagram.
of this field define the address of a
An OSPF
forwarding router which is defined
by the AS packet carrier with it the
acknowledgement
router. This
boundary mechanism for flow and
forwarding router may prove to be a better
error controls. Thus OSPF does
not need
forwarding destination. a
transport layer protocol for provision of
these services.
External route tag:
This field contents 3.14.18 Comparison between RIP and OsPF:
are used by other protocols except
OSPF.
FunctionlFeature RIPv1 RIPv2 OSPF
3.14.16 Other Packets Standard number RFC 1058 RFC 1723 RFC 2178
There are four other packet types in OSPF. |Link-state protocol No No Yes
They are
essential for the operation of the
protocol even though |Large range of Hop count Hop count Yes, based
they are not used as LSAs. metrics
|(16=Infinity)|(16=Infinity)|on 1-65535
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PuDtIcations
ACN (Comp./Sem.5/MSBTE)
3-33
RIPV1 Unicast &Multicast RoutingProlocois
F u n c t i o n / F e a t u r e

RIPV2 OSPF
Updatepolicy Route table Route tablo 3.15.1 Typos of Autonomous Systems
every Overy |Link-stata We have already discussed sbout autonomous systems.
30 seconds 30 changos, or
secondsevery 30 Now let us discuss about their types.
are as
|minutos] he three categories of autonomous systems
Update address
Broadcast Broadcast, Multicast follows
multicast 1 Stub AS
Dead interval 300 300 2. Multihomed AS Transit AS
|300 3.
seconds seconds
total Seconds Stub AS:
|total total, but one
A stub AS is that type of AS which has only
usually
connection to another AS. The hosts in the AS
can
much less
Send and receive data traffic to the hosts
Supports No Yes
authentication
Yes belonging to other AS.
But note that data traffic cannot pass through a
Convergence time Variable Variable Media stub AS. In other words the stub traffic can be
(based on(based on
delay either a source or sink.
number of number of |dead
routersX routersX interval 2. Multihomed AS:
dead dead An AS which has more than one connection to
interval) interval) other ASs is known as multihomed AS. But it is

Variable-length No Yes Yes interesting to note that a multihomed AS is still

subnets only a source or sink for data traffic.

Supports No Yes Yes For a host in multihomed AS, it is possible to send

Supemettingg and receive data traffic to from more than one AS.
But it does not allow the transient traffic.
Type ofService No No Yes
TOS) That means, the multihomed AS does not allow the
data traffic coming from one AS to just pass
Multipath routing No No Yes
through to the other AS.
Network diameter 15 hops 15 hops 65535 3. Transit AS:
possible
An AS which is a multihomed AS but also allows
Easy to use Yes Yes No
the transient data traffic is called as transit AS.
3.15 Border Gateway Protocol(BGP) 3.15.2 CIDR:
L-Scheme:W-19
A Classless interdomain addressing is used in BGP. That
BGP is an exterior routing protocol. It is a unicast
means BGP makes use of the prefix (As discussed
routing protocol. It is used for the interautonomous earlier) for defining a destination address.
system routing i.e. routing among different ASs.
3.15.3 Path Attributes
It was introduced in 1989 and has four versions. BGP

operation takes place on the basis of the routing The path for a destination address can be presented as
a list of attributes. We get some information from each
method called path vector routing.
attribute about the path.
is used because the distance
vector
Ihis principle The receiving router takes the help of this list of
routing and link state do not prove to be much
routing attributes for making a better decision when applying
utable for interautonomous system routing.
itspolicies
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 3-34 Unicast &Multicast Routing Protocols
ACN (Comp. /Sem.5/MSBTE)
3.15.4 Types of Attributes We can use the E-BGP session for exchanging
information between two nodes which are present in
There are two categories of attributes two different ASs. This is as shown in Fig. 3.16.1.
1. A will known attribute. I- BGP 999sion
E-BGP sesslon
2. An optional attribute.

Every BGP router must recognize the well known

attribute whereas the optional attribute is the one -
which need not be recognized by every router.
-
The well known attributes are further classified into two AS 1 AS-2
ypes namely mandatory and discretionary. (G-2126) Fig. 3.16.1: E-BGP and 1-BGP sessions
We define the well known mandatory attribute as the In Fig. 3.16.1, the session (connection) shown between
one which must appear in the description of router. AS and AS, is E-BGP session. It is shown by a bold line.
On the other hand a well known discretionary attribute The two speaker routers A and Bi will exchange all the

can be defined as the which must be recognized information which is known to them over the E-BGP
one by
each router, but it need not be included in session.
every update
message. But these routers collect information from the other
We can also subdivide the optional attributes into two routers belonging to their own A.S. using the I-BGP
sessions shown by dotted lines in Fig. 3.16.1.
categories as transitive and nontransitive optional
attributes. 3.16.2 Types of Messages
We may define the optional transitive attribute as the BGP uses four different types of messages, as shown in
one which should be passed to next router that has not Fig. 3.16.2.
implemented this attribute. BGP messages

Similarly an optional nontransitive attribute is defined

the which must be discarded if the
1.Open 2.Update 3.Keep alive 4.Notification
as one receiving message message message message
router has not implemented it
G-508) Fig. 3.16.2: BGP message types
3.16 BGP Sessions 3.16.3 Packet Format:
In a BGP session, the two routers using BGP exchange All BGP message types use the basic packet header.
routing information between them. So we can define a
Open, update, and notification messages have
session as connection which has been established
additional fields, but keep-alive messages use only the
between two BGP routers in order to exchange the basic packet header.
routing information.
In order to ensure a reliable session the BGP uses Fig. 3.16.3 illustrates the fields used in the BGP header.
services of TCP. Each BGP packet contains header whose
a
primary
The speciality of such a connection that it lasts for a purpose is to identify the function of the packet in

longer time until something unusual happens. question.

Therefore the BGP sessions are called as the
32 bits
semipermanent connections. Marker
3.16.1 External and Internal BGP
Length (16 bits) Type 8 bit
There are two types of BGP sessions as follows
(G-2127) Fig. 3.16.3: BGP packet header format
1. External BGP (E-BGP) session.
Different important lds in the BGP packet header are
2. Internal BGP (1-BGP) session.
as follows
 5/MSBTE) Unicast&Multicast Routing Protocols
ACN (Comp./Sem. 3-35
or update
receives either a keepalive
Marker the routers
field. contains an authentication value
It does not receive any
isa 32 bit message from the
other. If a router
other
message receiver can predict hold time, then the
that the Or these messages during the
router is considered to be dead.
Length
This is a 16 bit field which indicate the total length of BGP Identifier:
the message in bytes. The value of the length field must defines the router
field
The contents of this 4-byte long
be between 19 and 4096.
which has sent the open message.
Type
8-bit ffield which
5. Option length
Type is an
specifies the message type the length of the
as one ofthe following This one byte field is used for defining
field is zero if
The value of this
total option parameters.
Open Update
there are no option parameters.
Notification Keep-alive
6. Option parameters:
3.16.4 Open Message: This is a variable length field which contains
the option

This message is used by a router running BGP to create The nonzero value of option parameter
parameters.

a neighbourhood relationship. To do so the router indication that there are

some option
length field is an
opens a TCP connection with a neighbor router and Authentication is the only option
parameters.
sends an open message to it.
parameter defined so far
If the neighbor router is interested then it responds by
sending a keepalive message which is an dication3.16.5 The Update Message:
that the relationship between these two neighbor BGP. This
This is the most important message in
routers has been established.
the routers for the following two
message is used by
Format
purposes
- Fig. 3.16.4 shows the format of the open message. 1 In order to withdraw a previously advertised

Common header destination.

19 bytes Type:1
2. In order to announce a route to a new
Version destination.
My autonomous system Hold time
The BGP can withdraw more than one previously
BGP identifier
advertised destinations but in a single update message,
Option length it can advertise only one new destination.
Option
(Variable length) Fig. 3.16.5 shows the format for the update message.
Common header
(G-2128) Fig. 3.16.4: Format of open mesage 19 bytes Type:2
The important fields of the open message are as follows: Unfeasible route length
1. Version |Unfeasible route length|
Withdraw routes
The contents of this 1-byte long field define the version
(Variable length)
of BGP. The current version of BGP is 4.
Path attributes length
2.
My autonomous system: Path attributes
The contents of this 2-byte (16 bit) field are used to (Variable length)
define the autonomous system number.
Network layer reachability information,
3. Hold time
(Variable length)
The contents of this 2-byte field specify the maximum
until of
(G-2129) Fig. 3.16.5: Format of update message
dinount of time in seconds that can elapse one

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 Unicast&Multicast RoutingProtocole
3-36
ACN (Comp. Sem 5MSBTE) The contents
of this 1-byte field ars
follows: 2. Error subcode:
are as of error in each category
in the update message define the type
The important felds used to further
This 2-byte long field is used contents of this
field can be used for
L Unfeasibleroute length: 3. Errordata: The
of the next field. information about the error.
for defining the length more diagnostic
giving
contents of this variable length
2 Withdrawn routes: The
advertised routes 3.16.8 Encapsulation
field gives the list of all the previously
in TCP segments by
which should be deleted. are encapsulated
BGP messages
179. The error control and
of this 2-byte long known port
3 Path attribute length: The
contents
using the well
next field. therefore not needed
feld defines the length of the flow control are
used for TCP connection,
the update, keepalive
4Path attributes: ofthis field
The contents
are
After opening a
whose are exchanged until a

defining the attributes of the path (route) and notification messages

sent.
this update message. notification message is
reachability is announced in
information: The contents Count to
Networklayer reachability BGP Solve the
5. 3.16.9 How does
used for defining the Infinity Problem ?
of this variable length field, are

is actually advertised in this update

network which
and CIDR. vector protocol. But it is
cdassless addressing The BGP is basically a distance
message. BGP4 supports
different from the most other protocols such
very much
3.16.6 Keepalive Message:
as RIP.
all
keepalive messages are regularly exchanged by the cost of each destination,
The Instead of maintaining just
BGP protocol, to tell each other
the routers running the used.
each BGP router keeps track of the path
that they are alive.
is as shown in instead of periodically giving each neighbour
The format of keepalive message Similarly
the possible destination, each
3.16.6 which shows
that it consists of only its estimated cost to
each
Fig. it is
Common header. BGP router tells its neighbour the exact path that
Common header using.
19 bytes Type:3
a set of BGP routers and Table 3.16.1
Fig. 3.16.8 shows
receives from its
shows the information that router F

Fig. 3.16.6: Fomat of keepalive

message
(G-2130) neighbours about "D".
This
3.16.7 Notification Message: BGP can solve the count to infinity problem easily.
be explained as follows: Suppose that the router G
notification message whenever it can
A router sends the in Fig. 3.16.8 crashes, or if the line FG becomes faulty
an error condition or
when a router wants to
detects
three
terminate the connection. then router F receives routes from the remaining

format of the keepalive message. neighbours ie, B, I and E.

Fig. 3.16.7 shows the B
Common header
4
19 bytes Type
Error code

Eror suboode
Error data H
(Varlable length)

Notification message
(G-2131) Fig. 3.16.7: (G-512) Fig. 3.16.8: A set of BGP router
The notification message
has the following importantfields: BCD, IFGCD
As shown in Table 3.16.1, these routes are

of this 1-byte field are used

1. Error code: The contents and EFGCD
of error.
for defining the category
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ACN (Comp./Sem.5/MSBTE) 3-37
Unicast&Multicast Routing Protocols

Table 3.16.1: Informatlon recelved to forward the packet

byF The responsibility of router R is
from neighbours about D routerRg
only through interface the responsibility of
2,
Neighbour Information is to forward the packet only through interface
2.
|l use path BCD to reach D. of the
After arrival of packet at f, the responsibility
G use path GCD to reach host The
D network is to deliver the packet to destínation
|luse path IFGCD to reach D. Ethernet switch will
network broadcasts it to al hosts or

E l use path EFGCD to reach D. deliver it to the destination host.

Looking at these routes, router F

immediately
understands that, the routes IFGCD and EFGCD
are
Source
host
useless because they pass through F itself.
Where
So it decides to choose FBCD path as a new route. This
Ethemet
avoids the count-to-infinity problem.
Switch - Ethemet switch

3.17 Multicast Routing Protocols : -Unicast router

- - - - -Point-lo-point
WAN
this section we are going
In to discuss multicasting and
multicasting protocols.
Amessage can be unicast, multicast or broadcast.

Introduction: Here is
destination
A host
We have already discussed in the previous sections that,
in the datagram forwarding a datagram by a router is (G-2235) Fig. 3.17.1: Concept of unicasting
based on the prefix of the destination address which
3.17.2 Multicasting:
describes the network to which destination host is G931203et
connected. In the following section we will define In multicast communication, the communication takes
unicasting, multicasting and broadcasting to place between one source and a group of destinations
understand the forwarding principle. ie. the source to destination relationship is
one-to-many.
3.17.1 Unicasting
The type of source address is unicast address but the
In the unicast communication, the communication takes
type of destination address is a group address that
place between one source and one destination. That
defines one or more destinations. The group address
means the relation between source and destination is
actually identifies all the members of a group.
one-to-one.
When a router receives a packet, it will forward the
In the IP datagram, both the source and destination copies of packet to all the destinations through 'more
addresses are the unicast addresses assigned to the than one of its interfaces, as shown in Fig. 3.17.2.
hosts.
Router R sends the datagram through interface 2
In unicasting when a router receives a packet it
and 4.
forwards the packet through only one of its interfaces.
Router Rg Sends the datagram via both its interfaces 1
This interface is the one corresponding to the optimum
and 2. As Rg knows that there is atleast one member is
path. The router may discard the packet if the
interested which belongs to this group in the area
destination can not be found.
reached by interfaces 1 and 2.
Fig. 3.17.1 shows the concept of unicasting. Delivery of Router R, sends the datagram through interface 2. R
unicast packet from a source computer to a destination
knows that there is no member interested in
computer is as shown in Fig. 3.17.1 receiving
datagram which belongs to the group in area reached
In Fig. 3.17.1, P is a source and destination computer is by interfacel.
attached to Ethernet switch F.

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 3.17.4 Multiple Unicasting Versus
Source. Multicasting:
host

Where -Ethemet Fig. 3.17.3 shows the concept of multiple unicasting and
Ethemet wiich
Swilch - Multcast multicasting.
ouler

Polnlo-point
Multiple unicasting:
WAN
In this, many packets starts from the source. If there are
four destinations, the source sends four packets. Each
packet is having different unicast destination address.
It is important to note that, between two routers there
can be several copies travelling.
No At least No No At least At least
member One member member one one Example of multiple unicasting is e-mail. If a person
member member member
want to send an e-mail to a group of people, the e-mail
G-223 Fig. 3.17.2: Concept of multicasting application software generates copies of the messages,

3.17.3 Broadcasting: each having a different destination address and one by

one message is sent to each person.
In broadcast communication the source to destination
relationship is of one-to-all type. That means there is Multicasting:

only one source host and all other host act as In multicasting, single packet starts from the source and
destinations is duplicated by the routers. For all replicas, the
On Internet the broadcasting does not take place due destination address in each packet is same. It is

to the huge amount of traffic it woukd create and the important to note that, between any two routers only
one copy of the packet travels.
corresponding bandwidth requirement

Source Source

olcaro

UD1 UD2 UD3 UD4 GM1 GM2 GM3 GM4

(@): Mutlple unicasting b): Multicasting

Where
- Unicastrouter
Muticast router
UD Unicast destination
GM Group member

(G-2237) Fig. 3.17.3: Multiple unicasting versus multicasting

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 Emulatlon of Multicasting wth 3.19 MOSPF:
3.17.5 Shortest
Unicasting: Multicast Open
form of MOSPF is
The long OSPF protocol.
extension of the
nulticasting
can be emulated with unicasting, then Path First and it is to
packet
If
is separate mechanis for multicasting new link state update
needs a
why there his protocol group
of a host with
address
the reasons tor separate mechanism for the unicast
Collowing are 255OCiate

are sponsored by the host.

addresses that
address or LSA.
multicasting:
membership
as group
In multiple unicasting, there is relative delay Such a packet is called
group
1 belong to a particular
between packets which are generated by the the hosts which
Thus only hosts are included
source. 1f there are 100 destinations there is tree. All these
are included in the
delaybetween the first and last packet which is addresses.
with their unicast
unacceptable. In multicasting, as only one packet router
calculates the
is generated by the source there is no delay. In order to improve
efficiency, the
receives a multicast
packet
trees when it
Efficiency of multicasting is more than efficiency shortest path
2.
protocol It
Dijkstra
uses the
of multiple unicasting. From Fig. 3.17.3 it is cear MOSPF is a data driven
obtain its shortest path tree
that, as compared to multiple unicasting, shortest path algorithm
to
multicasting requires less bandwidth. In mutiple
unicasting, some of the links should handle many 3.20 Multicast Distance Vector:
copies.
DVMRP:
3.17.6 APplications of Multicasting: The unicast distance vector routing is simple but

multicast distance vector routing is complicated. It does

Some of the applications of multicasting are as follows: router to send its routing tables to the
not allowa
to distributed databases
1 In order to gain
access
neighbouring routers

2. For information
dissemination
Instead these routers have to their own
construct

3 Dissemination of news. routing tables from scratch by using the information

have teleconferencing from the unicast distance vector tables.
4 So as to

Multicast distance vector of the data

routing makes use
5. To help distance learning.
based trees however the router actualy does not
prepare a routing table.
3.18 Intradomain Routing Protocols
So we can path tree is evanescent.
say that the shortest
During the recent past many new multicast routing After its use ie. when the packet is forwarded, the table
protocols have been designed. Some of them have is destroyed
been obtained by extending their unicast counter parts The multicast distance vector algorithm can achieve this
while some are totally new. by using a process based on four decision making
Fig. 3.18.1l shows the classification of intradomain strategies. They are as follows:
routing protocols. 1 Flooding
Intadomain Reverse path forwarding
proocols
Reverse path broadcasting
Source-based Group-Shared
tree tree Reverse path multicasting
1. Flooding:
DVMRP MOSPF CBT
PIM When a router receives packet, without
a looking
PIM-SM
at the destination group address it sends the
PIM-DM
packet to every interface except the one from
(G-528(a)) Fig. 3.18.1: Multicast routing protocols which the packet has been received.

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cols
But this is not multicasting, this is broadcasting. path
Another problem is that it gives ise to looping
Armval
problems. That means the same packet may return
to the same router from some other interface and
may get forwarded again

Some flooding protocols avoid loops by keeping a Departure Depariure

copy of the packet for sometime and by discarding

any duplicates. Departure

This problem can be corrected by using the next
strategy ie. reverse path forwarding (RPF).

2. ReversePath Fonwarding (RPF):

RPF is modifñed flooding. It avoids looping by
forwarding only one copy and dropping all others. Not the
shorted
In RPF, a router forwards the copy that has path
Armival
travelled the shortest path from the source to the
router. To find if the packet has travelled the
shortest path, RPF uses the unicast routing table of
DVRP. Note that the unicast routing table is based
on the destination address and not the source (b)
(G-519) Fig. 3.20.1: Reverse path forwarding
address, therefore DVMRP understands the
destination address as the source address. 3. Reverse Path Broadcasting (RPB)

Recall that a DVRP table gives the router departure RPF guarantees that each network would receive a copy
information specifically, the shortest path to the of the multicast packet without formation of loops. But.
destination. In DVRMP, the router reverses the RPF does not guarantee that each network would
roles of the destination and the source. The router receive only one copy of the intended packet ie. a
uses the source address of the packet (which is a network may receive two or more copies of the same
unicast address) packet. The reason is that forwarding is not based on
to find the corresponding
the destination address (a group address); instead it is
departng interface in the routing table (as if it
based on the source address.
wants to send a packet to that address).
This problem of RPF has been demonstrated in
f the departing interface found in the table is the
Fig. 3.20.2. In Fig. 3.20.2 the packet created by the
same as the interface from which the packet is
source travels two different paths and hence two copies
arriving, then it is an indication that the packet has of the same packet reach Net-2
traveled the shortest path. In other words, since the Source
path from the router to the source is the shortest,
the path from the source to the router will also be
the shortest because the metrics in distance vector
routing (hop counts) are symmetric. T h e same packet
follows two different
In Fig. 3.20.1a), the packet arrives at interface 1 of .A paths lo reach Net-2

the router from the shortest patth. Hence this

Net
packet is forwarded. But in Fig. 3.20.1(b) the packet
arriving at interface 2 is not forwarded but it is Net-2 receives
two copies of the
discarded. same packet

(G-520) Fig. 3.20.2: Problem in RPF

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Protocols
341 Unicast &Mutlcast Routing
There duplication takes place because atree
has4. Reverse Path Muticasting (RPM)
not been made; stead of a tree we have a RPB broadcasts
the packets.
Net-2 has two parents: routers R and R,
graph YOU must have noted that
efficient way
not an
This is
t does not multicast them.
by
increased ensuring
can be
To eliminate such duplication, we must define only G1 fouting, the efficiency networks
reach only those
one parent router for each network. A network that the muticast packets
which have the active members
of that particular group.
must receive a multicast packet from any source
Multicasting (RPM)
only through the designated parent router. This This is called as Reverse Path
restriction needs to be implemented. Path Multicasting (RPM):
the
Thus for each source, therouter sends the packet in order to covert the broadcasting to muticasting
only out of those interfaces for which it is the RPM uses procedures as follows:
two
designated parent. This policy is called reverse path 1 Pruning and 2 Grafting
broadcasting (RPB), The RPB ensures that the is demonstrated in
The concept of pruning and grafting
packet reaches every network and that every
Fig. 3.20.4.
network receives only one copy of each packet.
Pruning:
RPF and RPB:
Comparison of each network has been
The designated parent router of
the membership
Refer Fig. 3.20.3 which demonstrates the difference gven the responsibility of holding
achieve this.
between RPF and RPB. information The IGMP protocol is used to
souter connected to a
The question is how to determine the designated The process starts when a
is interest in a multicast
parent router ? The answer is that the router with network finds that there no

shortest path to the source can be the designated packet

The router sends a prune message to the upstream
parent router.
router so that it can corresponding interface.
prune the
In RPB, routers send update packets to each other on multicast
That is, the upstream router can stop sending
the periodic basis. They can find out which interface.
messages for this group through that
neighbouring router has the shortest path to the
Now if this router receives prune messages from al
source.
downstream routers, it in turn, sends a prune message
lf more than one routers qualify to be the parent router, to its upstream router.
then the router with smalest 1P address is selected.
Grafting
The router at the bottom of the tree is known as the
R leaf router.

Assume that a leaf router sends a prune message and

after sending the message it suddenly realizes that one
Net 13 of the networks connected to it is interested to receive
RPF: Net 3 receives packets the multicast packet.
trom two routers R and R2 Then the leaf router can send a graft message. This
(a) RPF message will force the upstream router to restart
sending the multicast messages.

RPB: R, is the parent router for N, and N2

and R2 is the parent router for Ng
Net NetNet
(b)RPB (a)RPF

(6-521) Fig. 3.20.3: Difference between RPF and RPB Fig. 3.20.4 (Contd..)

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 3-42 Unicast& Multicast Routing
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passes through every router located between
the
sender and rendezvous router

R, is parent not be Rendezvou

Router R
router lor Net-3
Member Member
Member Member
(b) RPB

Member Member Member

G-523) Fig. 3.21.1: Group shared tree with rendezvous route

The intertaces
b Net 2 and 3 All these intermediate routers will extract the
have beenn necessary
pruned as hese information from the joining message sent by each
nets are not sender.
nkerested n Pruned
receMng route The tree is formed when the rendezvous router receives
milticast
the join messages from all the senders. i.e. members of
packets
groups.
cRPM after pruning fa router wants to leave the group then it has to send
a leave message to its upstream router. Fig. 3.211
shows the group shared tree alongwith the rendezvous
router.

Sending Multicast Packets:

Grafted The route from
Once the tree is formed, any source that is belonging to
route R, to Net-2 has
the group or an outsider can send packets to all the
been grafted
members of the group.
To do so, it sends the packet to the rendezvous router
(d) RPM after grafting
using the unicast address of that router
The rendezvous router then distributes the packet to all
(6-522) Fig. 3.204: Concept of pruning and grafting
the members of the group.
3.21 Core Based Tree (CBT) Protocol Selection of Rendezvous Router:

The CBT is a group shared protocol. t uses the core as The selection of rendezvous router to optimize the

root of the tree. The autonomous system is divided into process and multicasting is not a simple process.

different regions and a core router or rendezvous router

3.22 PIM (Protocol Independent
is selected for each region.
Multicast):_
Fomation of the tree This is the name given to two independent multicast

The first step is to select the rendezvous point After routing protocols
that the unicast address of the selected router is Protocol Independent Multicast Desne Mode

informed to all the routers. (PIM-DM) and

Mmode
unicast (which 2. Protocol Independent Multicast, Sparse
Every router then sends a join message
shows that it wants to join the group). This message (PIM-SM)
Both of them are unicast protocol dependent.
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ACN(Comp. /Sem, 6/MSBTE)
3-43 Unicast&Muticast Routing Protocos
1. PIM-DM;
the
A kogicat tunnel s establshedby escapsulating
The only
IM-DMis usedi an
environment where there is a Tuticast packet ingides unicast packet.
is
nossibility
pos that each router will be
doing protocol that supports MBONE and
tunnelling
multicasting. This is called as dense mode.
DVMRP,
PIM-DM is generally used for applications such as
ANS. This is a source based tree
routing protocol. Review Questions
t uses RPF and pruning and grafting
strategies for Q.1 Wrte short noles on : Hierarchical rouing
multicasting.
t works on the basis of the assumption that the0.2 Wrtle shortnoles on Muicast roung
autonomous system is using a unicast protocol and 3 Whatis unicast routing?
that each router can find an optimum path to the a4
What is multicast routing?
destination at each router interface
(using theQ5 Explain IGMP.
router table).
Q.6 What is transparency in mobile IP ?
The unicast protocol can be RIP or OSPF.
a.7 Write short note on : Network layer congestion.
PIM-DM uses RP and
pruning and grafting Q8 State the difference betwween mubple urneastng ad
strategies to handle multicasting.
mulicasting
2. PIM-SM:
Q.9 Explain the concept of multicast address
This protocol is used when the
probability of each | Q 10 Explain DVMRP.
router being involved in multicasting is very less. Q.11 Define the folowing:
This mode of operation is known as sparse mode.
1. Intradomain routing
In this working environment the broadcasting 2. Interdomain routing.
protocol can not be used. Instead a protocol likeQ 12 Explain the following terms
CBT is preferable.
1. Unicast routing
PIM-SM is a group-shared three routing protocol.
Broadcast routing and
It has rendezvous point (RP) at the source of the
3. Multicast routing.
tree.
Q 13 State the optimality principle.
One of the important characteristics of PIM-SM is
Q.14 What is the diference between static and
that it can switch from a group shared tree strategy dynamic
to a source based tree strategy as and when routing algonthms?
Q. 15 Explain distance vector routing algorithm.
necessary.
PIM-SM is similar to CBT but it uses simpler Q. 16 What is looping in DVR ?
Q.17 Wite
procedure. a short note on: Count to Infinity problem
Q. 18 Explain the link state routing algorithm.
3.23 MBONE (MulticastBackbone) Compare Q. 19
LSR DVR and

The need of multicasting has increased in internet due Q. 20 Explain the Beliman. Ford algorthm.
tomultimedia and real time communication. Q.21 What is PVR ?
But a very small number of internet routers are Q. 22 Explatn the RIP updating algorithm.
muiticast routers. Therefore tunnelling is used to|a. 23 Describe the RIP message format.
overcome this problem.

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