Routing

SYED NASRULLAH

Basics of Routing

When we talk about routing protocol, first thing that comes in our
mind is routing.

Basically routing is a process of taking packet from one device

and sending it to another device on a different network.

Routers are used for routing. Every packet has two address;
source and destination. Router uses destination address to
deliver the packet

In following figure we have two PCs. Both are located in different

network. Assume that PC0 sends a packet to PC1. It will go through
the following steps.

Upper layers (application, presentation, session) and transport layer

prepare the data segments and handed down to network layer.

Network layer determines the routed protocol. Routed protocol is

used to transmit user data packet across the network.

IP, IPX are the example of routed protocol

Thus we will also use IP protocol to explain the routing.

Network layer attaches IP header to the segment.

With IP header segment becomes packet. IP header includes several

fields.

One of them is the destination address field It plays leading role in

routing.

Based on it network layer decides whether packet will remain in local

network or goes to the remote network.

All remote requests are sent to the default gateway. Default gateway
is the router that switches packets between different networks

Since our destination address is located in remote network, the

packet need to be sent to the default gateway.

Network layer handed down this packet to Data link layer. Data
link layer appends header, It adds source and destination MAC
address in header and FCS in tail. After this modification packet
becomes frame.

Data link layer uses ARP cache to resolve MAC address. If

destination IP address is located in local network, hosts MAC
address will be used. If destination IP address is located in
remote network then default gateways MAC address will be used.
In our example, destination address is located in remote network
so default gateways MAC address will be used.

Frames are converted in signals. Physical layer puts these signals in

media. Media carries these signals across the network.

Every device in collision domain receives these signals. Signals are

converted in frame. Frame has destination MAC address. Device
matches destination MAC address of frame with its own MAC address. If
both addresses do not match, the frame is discarded.

Router receives these signals in FastEthernet port 0/0. It converts

signals in frame. It compares MAC address. Since both MAC addresses
are same, frame will be processed.

Packet will be pulled from frame. Packet contains destination IP

address.

Router only matches network portion from IP address. Routing table is

built from network address rather than host address.

Router checks its routing table for destination IP address network.

Routing table must have an entry for destination address network

otherwise packet will be discarded immediately.

If router finds an entry for destination address network in routing

table, the packet will be switched to the exit interface. In our example
it will be FastEthernet 0/1.

Exit interface uses ARP protocol to find the MAC address of destination
host. It converts packet in frame by attaching header and tail. In
header it adds its MAC address in source MAC address field and
destination hosts MAC address in destination MAC address field.

Frame is converted in signals. These signals are put in physical media.

All devices in collision domain receive these signals. PC1 also receives
these signals. It converts signals in frame.

Frame has its MAC address in destination MAC address field. So it will
pull packet from frame and hand over the packet to network layer.

Network layer checks IP address in destination IP address fields and

compare it with its own IP address.

If both addresses match, packet will be processed. Segments will be

pulled from packet.

Segments will be handed over to the transport layer.

Transport layer reassemble segments in data and gives it to upper layer.

Upper layers (session, presentation, application) process data and

present it to user.

Same process is repeated every time when two hosts

communicate with each other via router. Routing is a complex
process. Every step given above has several additional steps and
has added complexity. In this article we explained this complex
process in easy steps. Following articles of this series will
describe routing in more details.