Link State Routing

link-state routing uses link-state routers to exchange messages that allow

each router to learn the entire network topology. Based on this learned
topology, each router is then able to compute its routing table by using
the shortest path computation.

Link state routing is a technique in which each router shares the

knowledge of its neighbourhood with every other router i.e. the internet
work.

The three keys to understand the link state routing algorithm.

1. Knowledge about the neighbourhood: Instead of sending its

routing table, a router sends the information about its
neighbourhood only. A router broadcast its identities and cost of the
directly attached links to other routers.

2. Flooding: Each router sends the information to every other router

on the internetwork except its neighbours. This process is known as
flooding. Every router that receives the packet sends the copies to
all the neighbours. Finally, each and every router receives a copy of
the same information.

3. Information Sharing: A router sends the information to every

other router only when the change occurs in the information.

Link State Routing has two phases:

Reliable Flooding

o Initial state: Each node knows the cost of its neighbours.

o Final state: Each node knows the entire graph.

Route Calculation
Each node uses Dijkstra's algorithm on the graph to calculate the optimal
routes to all nodes.P

o The Link state routing algorithm is also known as Dijkstra's

algorithm which is used to find the shortest path from one node to
every other node in the network.
o The Dijkstra's algorithm is an iterative, and it has the property that
after kth iteration of the algorithm, the least cost paths are well
known for k destination nodes.
Let's describe some notations:

o c( i , j): Link cost from node i to node j. If i and j nodes are not
directly linked, then c(i , j) = ∞.
o D(v): It defines the cost of the path from source code to destination
v that has the least cost currently.
o P(v): It defines the previous node (neighbour of v) along with
current least cost path from source to v.
o N: It is the total number of nodes available in the network.

Algorithm
Initialization
N = {A} // A is a root node.
for all nodes v
if v adjacent to A
then D(v) = c(A,v)
else D(v) = infinity
loop
find w not in N such that D(w) is a minimum.
Add w to N
Update D(v) for all v adjacent to w and not in N:
D(v) = min(D(v), D(w) + c(w,v))
Until all nodes in N

In the above algorithm, an initialization step is followed by the loop. The

number of times the loop is executed is equal to the total number of
nodes available in the network.

Let's understand through an example:

In the above figure, source vertex is A.

 Step 1:

The first step is an initialization step. The currently known least cost path
from A to its directly attached neighbors, B, C, D are 2,5,1 respectively.
The cost from A to B is set to 2, from A to D is set to 1 and from A to C is
set to 5. The cost from A to E and F are set to infinity as they are not
directly linked to A.

Ste N D(B),P( D(C),P( D(D),P( D(E),P( D(F),P(

p B) C) D) E) F)

1 A 2,A 5,A 1,A ∞ ∞

Step 2:

In the above table, we observe that vertex D contains the least cost path
in step 1. Therefore, it is added in N. Now, we need to determine a least-
cost path through D vertex.

a) Calculating shortest path from A to B

1. v = B, w = D
2. D(B) = min( D(B) , D(D) + c(D,B) )
3. = min( 2, 1+2)>
4. = min( 2, 3)
5. The minimum value is 2. Therefore, the currently shortest path from A to
B is 2.

b) Calculating shortest path from A to C

1. v = C, w = D
2. D(B) = min( D(C) , D(D) + c(D,C) )
3. = min( 5, 1+3)
4. = min( 5, 4)
5. The minimum value is 4. Therefore, the currently shortest path from A to
C is 4.</p>

c) Calculating shortest path from A to E

1. v = E, w = D
2. D(B) = min( D(E) , D(D) + c(D,E) )
3. = min( ∞, 1+1)
4. = min(∞, 2)
5. The minimum value is 2. Therefore, the currently shortest path from A to
E is 2.

Note: The vertex D has no direct link to vertex E. Therefore, the value of D(F) is infinity.
 Step N D(B),P(B) D(C),P(C D(D),P(D) D(E),P(E) D(F),P(F)
)

1 A 2,A 5,A 1,A ∞ ∞

2 AD 2,A 4,D 2,D ∞

Step 3:

In the above table, we observe that both E and B have the least cost path
in step 2. Let's consider the E vertex. Now, we determine the least cost
path of remaining vertices through E.

a) Calculating the shortest path from A to B.

1. v = B, w = E
2. D(B) = min( D(B) , D(E) + c(E,B) )
3. = min( 2 , 2+ ∞ )
4. = min( 2, ∞)
5. The minimum value is 2. Therefore, the currently shortest path from A to
B is 2.
b) Calculating the shortest path from A to C.

1. v = C, w = E
2. D(B) = min( D(C) , D(E) + c(E,C) )
3. = min( 4 , 2+1 )
4. = min( 4,3)
5. The minimum value is 3. Therefore, the currently shortest path from A to
C is 3.

c) Calculating the shortest path from A to F.

1. v = F, w = E
2. D(B) = min( D(F) , D(E) + c(E,F) )
3. = min( ∞ , 2+2 )
4. = min(∞ ,4)
5. The minimum value is 4. Therefore, the currently shortest path from A to F
is 4.

Ste N D(B),P(B) D(C),P(C D(D),P(D) D(E),P(E) D(F),P(F)

p )

1 A 2,A 5,A 1,A ∞ ∞

2 AD 2,A 4,D 2,D ∞

3 AD 2,A 3,E 4,E

E
 Step 4:

In the above table, we observe that B vertex has the least cost path in
step 3. Therefore, it is added in N. Now, we determine the least cost path
of remaining vertices through B.

a) Calculating the shortest path from A to C.

1. v = C, w = B
2. D(B) = min( D(C) , D(B) + c(B,C) )
3. = min( 3 , 2+3 )
4. = min( 3,5)
5. The minimum value is 3. Therefore, the currently shortest path from A to
C is 3.

b) Calculating the shortest path from A to F.

1. v = F, w = B
2. D(B) = min( D(F) , D(B) + c(B,F) )
3. = min( 4, ∞)
4. = min(4, ∞)
5. The minimum value is 4. Therefore, the currently shortest path from A to F
is 4.

Step N D(B),P(B D(C),P(C) D(D),P(D) D(E),P(E) D(F),P(F)

)

1 A 2,A 5,A 1,A ∞ ∞

2 AD 2,A 4,D 2,D ∞

3 ADE 2,A 3,E 4,E

4 ADEB 3,E 4,E

Step 5:

In the above table, we observe that C vertex has the least cost path in
step 4. Therefore, it is added in N. Now, we determine the least cost path
of remaining vertices through C.

a) Calculating the shortest path from A to F.

1. v = F, w = C
2. D(B) = min( D(F) , D(C) + c(C,F) )
3. = min( 4, 3+5)
4. = min(4,8)
5. The minimum value is 4. Therefore, the currently shortest path from A to F
is 4.
 Ste N D(B),P(B D(C),P(C) D(D),P(D) D(E),P(E) D(F),P(F)
p )

1 A 2,A 5,A 1,A ∞ ∞

2 AD 2,A 4,D 2,D ∞

3 ADE 2,A 3,E 4,E

4 ADEB 3,E 4,E

5 ADEBC 4,E

Final table:

Step N D(B),P(B) D(C),P(C) D(D),P(D D(E),P(E) D(F),P(F)

)

1 A 2,A 5,A 1,A ∞ ∞

2 AD 2,A 4,D 2,D ∞

3 ADE 2,A 3,E 4,E

4 ADEB 3,E 4,E

5 ADEBC 4,E

6 ADEBC
F

Disadvantage:
Heavy traffic is created in Line state routing due to Flooding. Flooding can
cause an infinite looping, this problem can be solved by using Time-to-
leave field

Characteristics of Link State Protocol

 It requires a large amount of memory.

 Shortest path computations require many CPU circles.

 If a network uses little bandwidth; it quickly reacts to topology changes

 All items in the database must be sent to neighbors to form link-state packets.

 All neighbors must be trusted in the topology.

 Authentication mechanisms can be used to avoid undesired adjacency and problems.

 No split horizon techniques are possible in the link-state routing.

 OSPF Protocol