Lecture 11 - Routing

BN106

Acknowledgement: C. M. White, Data Communications and Computer Networks: A

Business User's Approach, Eighth Edition, 2016, Cengage Learning – Chapter 9
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 Routing

• Each node in a WAN is a router that accepts an input

packet, examines the destination address, and
forwards the packet on to a particular
telecommunications line.
• How does a router decide which line to transmit on?
• A router must select the one transmission line that
will best provide a path to the destination and in an
optimal manner.
• Often many possible routes exist between sender
and receiver.
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 Routing

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 Routing

• The communications network with its nodes

and telecommunication links is essentially a
weighted network graph.
• The edges, or telecommunication links,
between nodes, have a cost associated with
them.
• The cost could be a delay cost, a queue size
cost, a limiting speed, or simply a dollar
amount for using that link.
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 Routing

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 Routing

• The routing method, or algorithm, chosen to

move packets through a network should be:
– Optimal, so the least cost can be found
– Fair, so all packets are treated equally
– Robust, in case link or node failures occur and the
network has to reroute traffic.
– Not too robust so that the chosen paths do not
oscillate too quickly between troubled spots.

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 Least Cost Routing Algorithm

• Dijkstra’s least cost algorithm finds all possible

paths between two locations.
• By identifying all possible paths, it also
identifies the least cost path.
• The algorithm can be applied to determine the
least cost path between any pair of nodes.

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 Least Cost Routing Algorithm

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 Flooding Routing

• When a packet arrives at a node, the node sends a

copy of the packet out every link except the link the
packet arrived on.
• Traffic grows very quickly when every node floods
the packet.
• To limit uncontrolled growth, each packet has a hop
count. Every time a packet hops, its hop count is
incremented. When a packet’s hop count equals a
global hop limit, the packet is discarded.

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 Flooding Routing

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 Flooding Routing

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 Centralized Routing

• One routing table is kept at a “central” node.

• Whenever a node needs a routing decision,
the central node is consulted.
• To survive central node failure, the routing
table should be kept at a backup location.
• The central node should be designed to
support a high amount of traffic consisting of
routing requests.

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 Centralized Routing

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 Distributed Routing

• Each node maintains its own routing table.

• No central site holds a global table.
• Somehow each node has to share information
with other nodes so that the individual routing
tables can be created.
• Possible problem with individual routing
tables holding inaccurate information.

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 Distributed Routing

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 Adaptive Routing versus Static
Routing

• With adaptive routing, routing tables can

change to reflect changes in the network
• Static routing does not allow the routing
tables to change.
• Static routing is simpler but does not adapt to
network congestion or failures.

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 Routing Examples - RIP

• Routing Information Protocol (RIP) - First

routing protocol used on the Internet.
• A form of distance vector routing. It was
adaptive and distributed
• Each node kept its own table and exchanged
routing information with its neighbors.

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 Routing Examples - RIP

• Suppose that Router A has connections to four

networks (123, 234, 345, and 789) and has the
following current routing table:
• Network Hop Cost Next Router
• 123 8 B
• 234 5 C
• 345 6 C
• 789 10 D
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 Routing Examples - RIP

• Now suppose Router D sends out the following

routing information (note that Router D did not
send Next Router information, since each router
will determine that information for itself):
• Network Hop Cost
• 123 4
• 345 5
• 567 7
• 789 10
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 Routing Examples - RIP

• Router A will look at each entry in Router D’s table and make
the following decisions:
1. Router D says Network 123 is 4 hops away (from Router D).
Since Router D is 1 hop away from Router A, Network 123 is
actually 5 hops away from Router A. That is better than the
current entry of 8 hops in Router A’s table, so Router A will
update the entry for Network 123.
2. Router D says Network 345 is 5 hops away. Add one hop to
get to Router D and Network 345 is 6 hops away. That is
currently the same hop count as shown in Router A’s table for
Network 345, so Router A will not update its table.

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 Routing Examples - RIP

• Router A will look at each entry in Router D’s

table and make the following decisions:
3. Router D says Network 567 is 7 hops away.
Add 1 hop to get to Router D, giving 8 hops.
Since Router A has no information about
Network 567, Router A will add this entry to its
table. And since the information is coming from
Router D, Router A’s Next Router entry for
network 567 is set to D.
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 Routing Examples - RIP

4. Router D says Network 789 is 10 hops away.

Add 1 hop to get to Router D. The value of 11
hops is worse than the value currently in Router
A’s table. Since Router A currently has
information from Router D, and Router D is now
saying it takes more hops to get to Network 789,
then Router A has to use this information.

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 Routing Examples - RIP

• Router A’s updated routing table will thus look

like the following:
• Network Hop Cost Next Router
• 123 5 D
• 234 5 C
• 345 6 C
• 567 8 D
• 789 11 D
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 Routing Examples - OSPF

• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) - Second

routing protocol used on the Internet
• A form of link state routing
• It too was adaptive and distributed but more
complicated than RIP and performed much
better

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 Network Congestion

• When a network or a part of a network

becomes so saturated with data packets that
packet transfer is noticeably impeded,
network congestion occurs.
• What can cause network congestion? Node
and link failures; high amounts of traffic;
improper network planning.
• When serious congestion occurs buffers
overflow and packets are lost.
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 Network Congestion

• What can we do to reduce or eliminate

network congestion?
– An application can observe its own traffic and
notice if packets are disappearing. If so, there may
be congestion. This is called implicit congestion
control.
– The network can inform its applications that
congestion has occurred and the applications can
take action. This is called explicit congestion
control.
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 Congestion Avoidance

• Before making a connection, user requests how much

bandwidth is needed, or if connection needs to be real-time
• Network checks to see if it can satisfy user request
• If user request can be satisfied, connection is established
• If a user does not need a high bandwidth or real-time, a
simpler, cheaper connection is created
• This is often called connection admission control
• Asynchronous transfer mode is a very good example of this

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 WANs In Action: The
Smartphone
• The network structure that support cell
phones and smartphones is growing more
complex every day
• All phones within transmission distance of a
cell tower are participating in a broadcast
network

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 WANs In Action: The
Smartphone

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 WANs In Action: The
Smartphone
• Once your data/signal reaches the cell tower,
the data becomes part of a packet-switched
network within the telephone company
• If the data moves from the telephone
company into the Internet, then your data is
passed from one packet switched network to
another

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 Summary

• Wide area networks cover states, countries, the

world
• User connects to a station and the station interfaces
to a network node
• A WAN cloud is based upon nodes (routers/switches)
and high-speed links
• WANs can be circuit-switched (fading away) or packet
switched (datagram and virtual circuit)
• RIP and OSPF are two routing protocols

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