Network Troubleshooting

CT046-3-3
Routing

Topics & structure of this lesson

Routing Components
Types of Routing
Routing Protocol
Routing Loops

CT046-3-3 Network Troubleshooting

Routing

Learning Outcomes
To understand the concepts of routing and
routing protocol
To understand the concepts distance
vector and link state routing protocol

CT046-3-3 Network Troubleshooting

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Routing
Process of moving information (packet) across
an internetwork from a source to a destination.
Process of selecting paths in a network along
which to send data or physical traffic.
Routing directs forwarding, the passing of
logically addressed packets from their source to
destination through intermediary nodes

CT046-3-3 Network Troubleshooting

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Routing
Performed by a router.
Refers to routing tables which maintain a
record of the routes to various network
destinations.
Routing is a key feature of the Internet
enables messages to pass from one
computer to another
Analyzes a routing table to determine the
best path.
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Routing Components

Routing involves two basic activities:

determining optimal routing paths
transporting information groups known as
packets through an internetwork.

Routers maintain a routing table to route

packets.

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Routing Table
Source source of routing information
C connected
R - RIP

Subnet/Mask define the IP address of a

network or a subnet
Out Int outgoing interface, informs router
which interface to send the packets
Next-Hop next-hop router, address of the
router where the packets need to be forwarded

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Routing Table

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Routing Table

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Connected Routes
Subnets to which the routers interface are
connected is known as connected routes
Automatically added to routers routing
table

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Types of Routing
Static routing
Route is entered by the network administrator.

Dynamic Routing
Route is built automatically by the routing
protocol
follow rules defined by a routing protocol
independently select the best path.

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Static Routing
Static routing describes a system that does not
implement adaptive routing. .
fixed paths
constructs the routing table in every router
putting in the entries for every network that could
be a destination.
Static routes are unchangeable.

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Static Routes
added to the routing table using a command
Static routes can be used when: Small internetwork which seldom change and has no
redundant link
Router need to dial backup to call other router when a
leased line is down
Small branch offices where each can be reached with
only one possible path
Forward packets to hosts in Internet and not to the
enterprise network.

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Static Routing
Static route operations can be divided into :
Network administrator configures the route
Router installs the route in the routing table
The static route is used to route packets.
use the ip route command to manually
configure a static route.
The administrative distance is an optional
parameter that indicates the reliability of a route.

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Administrative Distance
A lower value indicates a more reliable route.
A route with a lower administrative distance will be
installed before a similar route with a higher
administrative distance.
Default administrative distance of a static route is
1.
In routing table, static route with the outgoing
interface option as directly connected.

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Default Route
to forward packets that do not match any
other routes in the routing table
no default route; discard the packet
other router must have either a route to
that destination or its own default route
One of the routers should have a route to
the destination.

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Advantages of Static Routing

Low Processor Overhead
Dont calculate best path
need less processor power and less memory

No Bandwidth Utilization
No updating each other with static routes

Secure Operation
Less vulnerable to attack as dont accept updates
Dont send updates to untrusted source

Predictability
Administrator precisely control paths selection

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Disadvantages of Static Routing

High Maintenance Configuration
Configure routes manually
Complex network requires high maintenance

No adaptability
Not fault tolerant
When there is a change in the network or a failure occurs between two
statically defined nodes, traffic will not be rerouted.
packets will have to wait for the failure to be repaired or the static route
to be updated by the administrator before being transmitted.
Most requests will time out (ultimately failing) before these repairs can
be made.

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Dynamic Routing
constructs routing tables automatically
based on information by routing protocols.
dominates the Internet.

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Advantages of Dynamic Routing

High degree of adaptability
Learn network topology
Alert each other about other links

Low maintenance configuration

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Disadvantages of Dynamic
Routing
High bandwidth utilization
Send and receive routing updates
Slow performance

Increased processor overhead and

memory utilization
Require large memory and more CPU time

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Routing Protocol
specifies how routers communicate
select routes between any two nodes
router has a priori knowledge only about
its immediate neighbors.
shares this information for knowledge of
the network topology
operates at Layer 3 of the OSI model
defined in documents called RFC
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Routing Protocol Functions

learn routing information

advertise routing information
select the best route based on the metric
any changes in topology, converge quickly

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Routed Protocols

Referred as network protocols.

transported by routing protocols across an internetwork.
perform a variety of functions required for communication
between user applications in source and destination
devices
occur at the upper five layers of the OSI reference model:
i. network layer
ii. transport layer
iii. session layer
iv. presentation layer
v. application layer.

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Routed protocol vs Routing protocol

Routed Protocols

Routing Protocols

protocols that are routed over

an internetwork

protocols that implement

routing algorithms

Internet Protocol (IP)

used by intermediate systems to

build tables used in determining
path selection of routed
protocols.

DECnet

Interior Gateway Routing

Protocol (IGRP)

AppleTalk

Open Shortest Path First

(OSPF)

Novell NetWare

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

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Routing Protocol
The router uses two basic functions:
path determination function
switching function

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Path Determination Function

occurs at the network layer
evaluate the paths to a destination
establish the preferred way to handle a
packet.
uses the routing table to determine the
best path and uses the switching function
to forward the packet.

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Switching Function
the internal process of a router
accept a packet on one interface and
forward it to a second interface on the
same router.
A key responsibility
to encapsulate packets in the appropriate
frame type for the next data link.

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Routing Protocol

Interior Gateway Protocols (IGPs)

exchange routing-information within a
single autonomous system.

Used between routers of same autonomous systems (AS).

Exterior Gateway Protocols (EGPs) route

between separate autonomous systems.

Used between routers of different autonomous systems

(AS).
ASN numbering are controlled globally by IANA (Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority)

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Types of Routing Protocol

Interior routing protocols

Exterior routing protocols

Router Information Protocol

(RIP)

Exterior Gateway Protocol

(EGP)

Open Shortest Path First

(OSPF)

Border Gateway Protocol

(BGP)

Intermediate System to
Intermediate System (IS-IS)
Interior Gateway Routing
Protocol (IGRP)
Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP)

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IGP vs EGP

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Classes of Routing Protocol

Distance vector
Periodically sends route table to other routers
Works best on LANs, not WANs

Link-state
Routing tables are broadcast at startup and
then only when they change
OSPF uses link-state

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Distance Vector
known as Bellman-Ford algorithm.
passes periodic copies of a routing table
regular updates between routers communicate topology
changes.
perform routing decisions based on the information by
neighboring routers.
based on the distance (number of hops) and vector (direction)
Before sending an update, each router adds its own distance
value to the route's metric.
When a router receives an update, it maps the learned
network to the receiving interface.
The router then uses that interface to reach those
destinations.

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Distance Vector

maintain a database of network topology

information
send its entire routing table to each of its
adjacent neighbors.
router does not know the exact topology of
an internetwork. Why?
Can only see its neighboring
routers
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Distance Vector
Routing Protocol

Distance Vector

Connected Interface

Static Route

IGRP

100

OSPF

110

RIP

120

Unknown

255

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Distance Vector
Send full periodic routing updates
Update includes a list of subnets and the
distances in metric
Routers do not know the network topology
except the neighboring routers
If theres multiple routes, chooses the best
route which has the lowest metric

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Distance Vector
Distance vector are classful routing protocols
do not send subnet information in updates
do not support scalability features such as Variable
Length Subnet Masking (VLSM) or supernetting.
converge slowly compared to link-state protocols not
suitable for complex and scalable internetworks
Eg: RIP restricts networks from growing beyond 15 hops
IGRP supports a 255-hop maximum
But IGRP is a Cisco-proprietary protocol, cannot support
a multi-vendor routing environment
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Distance Vector Routing Protocol

Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP)
Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP) balanced
hybrid
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

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Link State
Link-state algorithms
Uses Shortest Path First (SPF) algorithms/Djikstra
Algorithms
flood routing information to all routers in the internetwork
that creates a map of the entire network.

assemble all the information to calculate the shortest

path routes and builds routing tables showing the best
path
Once converged, send update packets, which contain
only changes rather than whole routing table.
Update packets are passed across the network in eventtriggered updates

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Link State
builds a complete database of all the link states
router gathers enough information to create the
network map
Each router individually runs the SPF algorithm
on its link-state database
to identify the best paths

These paths form a tree with the local router as

its root.

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Link State
advertise the states of their links to all other
routers in the area
When a network link changes state, a
notification called a link-state advertisement
(LSA) is flooded throughout the network.
All the routers note the change and adjust their
routes accordingly.
Also has periodic reflooding of LSA but longer
interval time
more reliable, easier to debug, and less
bandwidth-intensive
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Link State
Link-state advertisements (LSAs) routing information
that is sent between routers.
Router LSA identifies router ID, router interfaces IP
addresses, status (up or down) of each interface, cost
(metric) associated with each interface
Link LSA identifies each subnet and routers that are
attached to that subnet

Topological database collection of information (data

structure) gathered from LSAs.
SPF algorithm calculation performed on the database
resulting in the SPF tree.
Routing tables A list of the known paths and interfaces.
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Link State

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Advantages of Link State

Faster Convergence
Improved bandwidth utilization
support Classless Inter-Domain Routing
(CIDR), VLSM, and supernetting

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Disadvantages of Link State

Processor overhead
Memory requirements
Bandwidth Consumption
Complex administration

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Link State
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
Intermediate System to Intermediate
System (IS-IS)

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Convergence
collaborative and independent process
Even though the routers share information but must
calculate routing table on their own.
To have accurate table, routers should have common
view of the network's topology.
When all routers agree on the topology, they have
converged.
Rapid convergence means rapid recovery from link
failure or other network changes.
Routing protocols are judged by how quickly they
converge.
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Convergence
When converging process happens, the
network is susceptible to routing problems.
When a link is down but routers are
unaware, individual tables will be
contradictory and routing problems
Routing problems such as
dropped packets
routing loop
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Convergence
Factors affecting convergence time:

routing protocol used

router's distance from the point of change
number of routers in the network
Bandwidth and traffic load on communications links
router's load
Traffic patterns in relation to the topology change

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Routing Loops
occurs when the routers forward packets
which ends up back at the same router.

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Routing Loops Counting to

Infinity

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Solution: Defining a maximum

count

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Solution: Split Horizon

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Solution: Route Poisoning

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Solution: Triggered Updates

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Solution: Holddown Timers

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Summary
Split Horizon

Per-interface feature, limits the route sent

on the interface. Does not send the routing
updates to the original route.

Poison
Reverse

Upon learning of a failed route, advertise a

poisoned route, suspending the split
horizon
rules.

Triggered
Update

Sends an immediate update(without waiting

for the periodic update) when theres a
failed route.

Holddown
Timers

Sets a timer to confirm the failed route.

Poison Route

A route advertised with infinite metric.

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Next Session
Troubleshooting Approach

Connectivity Problems
Performance Problems
Systematic Troubleshooting Method
Troubleshooting Process
Selecting a Troubleshooting Approach

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