Chapter 22

Network Layer:
Delivery, Forwarding,
and Routing

22.1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 22-1 DELIVERY

The network layer supervises the handling of the

packets by the underlying physical networks. We
define this handling as the delivery of a packet.

Topics discussed in this section:

Direct Versus Indirect Delivery

22.2
 Figure 22.1 Direct and indirect delivery

22.3
 22-2 FORWARDING

Forwarding means to place the packet in its route to

its destination. Forwarding requires a host or a router
to have a routing table. When a host has a packet to
send or when a router has received a packet to be
forwarded, it looks at this table to find the route to the
final destination.

Topics discussed in this section:

Forwarding Techniques
Forwarding Process
Routing Table

22.4
 Figure 22.2 Route method versus next-hop method

22.5
 Figure 22.3 Host-specific versus network-specific method

22.6
 Figure 22.4 Default method

22.7
 Figure 22.5 Simplified forwarding module in classless address

22.8
 Note

In classless addressing, we need at

least four columns in a routing table.

22.9
 Example 22.1

Make a routing table for router R1, using the

configuration in Figure 22.6.

Solution
Table 22.1 shows the corresponding table.

22.10
 Figure 22.6 Configuration for Example 22.1

22.11
 Table 22.1 Routing table for router R1 in Figure 22.6

22.12
 Example 22.2

Show the forwarding process if a packet arrives at R1 in

Figure 22.6 with the destination address 180.70.65.140.
Solution
The router performs the following steps:
1. The first mask (/26) is applied to the destination address.
The result is 180.70.65.128, which does not match the
corresponding network address.
2. The second mask (/25) is applied to the destination
address. The result is 180.70.65.128, which matches the
corresponding network address. The next-hop address
and the interface number m0 are passed to ARP for
further processing.
22.13
 Example 22.3

Show the forwarding process if a packet arrives at R1 in

Figure 22.6 with the destination address 201.4.22.35.

Solution
The router performs the following steps:
1. The first mask (/26) is applied to the destination
address. The result is 201.4.22.0, which does not
match the corresponding network address.
2. The second mask (/25) is applied to the destination
address. The result is 201.4.22.0, which does not
match the corresponding network address (row 2).
22.14
 Example 22.3 (continued)

3. The third mask (/24) is applied to the destination

address. The result is 201.4.22.0, which matches the
corresponding network address. The destination
address of the packet and the interface number m3 are
passed to ARP.

22.15
 Example 22.4

Show the forwarding process if a packet arrives at R1 in

Figure 22.6 with the destination address 18.24.32.78.

Solution
This time all masks are applied, one by one, to the
destination address, but no matching network address is
found. When it reaches the end of the table, the module
gives the next-hop address 180.70.65.200 and interface
number m2 to ARP. This is probably an outgoing
package that needs to be sent, via the default router, to
someplace else in the Internet.

22.16
 Figure 22.7 Address aggregation

22.17
 Figure 22.8 Longest mask matching

22.18
 Example 22.5

As an example of hierarchical routing, let us consider

Figure 22.9. A regional ISP is granted 16,384 addresses
starting from 120.14.64.0. The regional ISP has decided
to divide this block into four subblocks, each with 4096
addresses. Three of these subblocks are assigned to three
local ISPs; the second subblock is reserved for future use.
Note that the mask for each block is /20 because the
original block with mask /18 is divided into 4 blocks.
The first local ISP has divided its assigned subblock into
8 smaller blocks and assigned each to a small ISP. Each
small ISP provides services to 128 households, each using
four addresses.
22.19
 Example 22.5 (continued)

The second local ISP has divided its block into 4 blocks
and has assigned the addresses to four large
organizations.
The third local ISP has divided its block into 16 blocks
and assigned each block to a small organization. Each
small organization has 256 addresses, and the mask is
/24.
There is a sense of hierarchy in this configuration. All
routers in the Internet send a packet with destination
address 120.14.64.0 to 120.14.127.255 to the regional
ISP.

22.20
 Figure 22.9 Hierarchical routing with ISPs

22.21
 Figure 22.10 Common fields in a routing table

22.22
 Example 22.6

One utility that can be used to find the contents of a

routing table for a host or router is netstat in UNIX or
LINUX. The next slide shows the list of the contents of a
default server. We have used two options, r and n. The
option r indicates that we are interested in the routing
table, and the option n indicates that we are looking for
numeric addresses. Note that this is a routing table for a
host, not a router. Although we discussed the routing table
for a router throughout the chapter, a host also needs a
routing table.

22.23
 Example 22.6 (continued)

The destination column here defines the network address.

The term gateway used by UNIX is synonymous with
router. This column actually defines the address of the next
hop. The value 0.0.0.0 shows that the delivery is direct. The
last entry has a flag of G, which means that the destination
can be reached through a router (default router). The Iface
defines the interface.
22.24
 Example 22.6 (continued)

More information about the IP address and physical

address of the server can be found by using the ifconfig
command on the given interface (eth0).

22.25
 Figure 22.11 Configuration of the server for Example 22.6

22.26
 22-3 UNICAST ROUTING PROTOCOLS
A routing table can be either static or dynamic. A
static table is one with manual entries. A dynamic
table is one that is updated automatically when there is
a change somewhere in the Internet. A routing
protocol is a combination of rules and procedures that
lets routers in the Internet inform each other of
changes.
Topics discussed in this section:
Optimization
Intra- and Interdomain Routing
Distance Vector Routing and RIP
Link State Routing and OSPF
Path Vector Routing and BGP
22.27
 -1 INTRODUCTION

Unicast routing in the Internet, with a large number of routers and a huge

number of hosts, can be done only by using hierarchical routing: routing in

several steps using different routing algorithms.

.28
 .1.1 General Idea

In unicast routing, a packet is routed, hop by hop, from its source to its destination by

the help of forwarding tables. The source host needs no forwarding table because it

delivers its packet to the default router in its local network. The destination host needs

no forwarding table either because it receives the packet from its default router in its

local network. This means that only the routers that glue together the networks in the

internet need forwarding tables.

.29
 .1.2 Least-Cost Routing

When an internet is modeled as a weighted graph, one of the ways to interpret the best

route from the source router to the destination router is to find the least cost between

the two. In other words, the source router chooses a route to the destination router in

such a way that the total cost for the route is the least cost among all possible routes.

.30
 Figure .1: An internet and its graphical representation

.31
 Figure .2: Least-cost trees for nodes in the internet of Figure 4.56

.32
 Figure 22.12 Autonomous systems

22.33
 -2 ROUTING ALGORITHMS

Several routing algorithms have been designed in the past. The differences between

these methods are in the way they interpret the least cost and the way they create the

least-cost tree for each node.

.34
 Figure 22.13 Popular routing protocols

22.35
 .2.1 Distance-Vector Routing

•The distance-vector (DV) routing uses the goal, to

find the best route.
•In distance-vector routing, the first thing each node
creates is its own least-cost tree with the rudimentary
information it has about its immediate neighbors.
•The incomplete trees are exchanged between
immediate neighbors to make the trees more and more
complete and to represent the whole internet.
•We can say that in distance-vector routing, a router
continuously tells all of its neighbors what it knows
about the whole internet (although the knowledge can
be incomplete).
.36
 Figure .3: Graphical idea behind Bellman-Ford equation

.37
•A least-cost tree is a combination of least-cost paths from
the root of the tree to all destinations.
•These paths are graphically glued together to form the tree.
•Distance-vector routing unglues these paths and creates a
distance vector, a one-dimensional array to represent the
tree.
•Note that the name of the distance vector defines the root,
the indexes define the destinations, and the value of each cell
defines the least cost from the root to the destination.
•A distance vector does not give the path to the destinations
as the least-cost tree does; it gives only the least costs to the
destinations.
•Each node in an internet, when it is booted, creates a very
rudimentary distance vector with the minimum information
the node can obtain from its neighborhood.
.38
•The node sends some greeting messages out of its
interfaces and discovers the identity of the immediate
neighbors and the distance between itself and each
neighbor
•makes a simple distance vector by inserting the
discovered distances in the corresponding cells and
leaves the value of other cells as infinity.
•For example, node A thinks that it is not connected to node G because the corresponding
cell shows the least cost of infinity.
•To improve these vectors, the nodes in the internet need to help each other by exchanging
information.
•After each node has created its vector, it sends a copy of the vector to all its immediate
neighbors.
.39
 Figure .4: The distance vector corresponding to a tree

.40
 Figure .5: The first distance vector for an internet

.41
 Figure .6: Updating distance vectors

.42
 Figure 22.14 Distance vector routing tables

22.43
 Figure 22.15 Initialization of tables in distance vector routing

22.44
 Note

In distance vector routing, each node

shares its routing table with its
immediate neighbors periodically and
when there is a change.

22.45
 Figure 22.16 Updating in distance vector routing

22.46
 Table .1: Distance-Vector Routing Algorithm for A Node

.47
 Figure .7: Two-node instability

.48
 Figure 22.17 Two-node instability

22.49
 Figure 22.18 Three-node instability

22.50
 .3.2 Routing Information Protocol

The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is one of the most widely used intradomain

routing protocols based on the distance-vector routing algorithm we described earlier.

RIP was started as part of the Xerox Network System (XNS), but it was the Berkeley

Software Distribution (BSD) version of UNIX that helped make the use of RIP

widespread.

.51
22.52
 Figure .14: Internet structure

.53
 Figure .15: Hop counts in RIP

1 hop (N4)

2 hops (N3, N4)

3 hops (N2, N3, N4)

.54
 Figure .16: Forwarding tables

.55
 Figure .17: RIP message format

.56
 Example .1

Figure .18 shows a more realistic example of the operation of RIP in an autonomous system. First, the

figure shows all forwarding tables after all routers have been booted. Then we show changes in some

tables when some update messages have been exchanged. Finally, we show the stabilized forwarding

tables when there is no more change.

.57
 Figure .18: Example of an autonomous system using RIP (Part I)

.58
 Figure .18: Example of an autonomous system using RIP (Part II)

.59
 Figure .18: Example of an autonomous system using RIP (Part III)

.60
 Figure 22.19 Example of a domain using RIP

22.61
 Figure 22.20 Concept of link state routing

22.62
 Figure 22.21 Link state knowledge

22.63
 Figure 22.22 Dijkstra algorithm

22.64
 Figure 22.23 Example of formation of shortest path tree

22.65
22.66
 Table 22.2 Routing table for node A

22.67
 Figure .8: Example of a link-state database

.68
 Figure .9: LSPs created and sent out by each node to build LSDB

.69
 Table .2: Dijkstra’s Algorithm

.70
 .3.3 Open Shortest Path First

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is also an intradomain routing protocol like RIP, but

it is based on the link-state routing protocol we described earlier in the chapter. OSPF

is an open protocol, which means that the specification is a public document.

.71
 Figure .19: Metric in OSPF

Total cost: 4
Total cost: 7

Total cost: 12

.72
 Figure .: Forwarding tables in OSPF

.73
 Figure .21: Areas in an autonomous system

.74
 Figure .22: Five different LSPs (Part I)

.75
 Figure .22: Five different LSPs (Part II)

.76
 Figure .23: OSPF message formats (Part I)

Attention

.77
 Figure .23: OSPF message formats (Part II)

Attention

.78
 Figure 22.24 Areas in an autonomous system

22.79
 Figure 22.25 Types of links

22.80
 Figure 22.26 Point-to-point link

22.81
 Figure 22.27 Transient link

22.82
 Figure 22.28 Stub link

22.83
 Figure 22.29 Example of an AS and its graphical representation in OSPF

22.84
 Figure 22.30 Initial routing tables in path vector routing

22.85
 Figure 22.31 Stabilized tables for three autonomous systems

22.86
 Figure 22.32 Internal and external BGP sessions

22.87
 22-4 MULTICAST ROUTING PROTOCOLS

In this section, we discuss multicasting and multicast

routing protocols.

Topics discussed in this section:

Unicast, Multicast, and Broadcast
Applications
Multicast Routing
Routing Protocols

22.88
 Figure 22.33 Unicasting

22.89
 Note

In unicasting, the router forwards the

received packet through
only one of its interfaces.

22.90
 Figure 22.34 Multicasting

22.91
 Note

In multicasting, the router may

forward the received packet
through several of its interfaces.

22.92
 Figure 22.35 Multicasting versus multiple unicasting

22.93
 Note

Emulation of multicasting through

multiple unicasting is not efficient
and may create long delays,
particularly with a large group.

22.94
 Note

In unicast routing, each router in the

domain has a table that defines
a shortest path tree to possible
destinations.

22.95
 Figure 22.36 Shortest path tree in unicast routing

22.96
 Note

In multicast routing, each involved

router needs to construct
a shortest path tree for each group.

22.97
 Figure 22.37 Source-based tree approach

22.98
 Note

In the source-based tree approach, each

router needs to have one shortest path
tree for each group.

22.99
 Figure 22.38 Group-shared tree approach

22.100
 Note

In the group-shared tree approach, only

the core router, which has a shortest
path tree for each group, is involved in
multicasting.

22.101
 Figure 22.39 Taxonomy of common multicast protocols

22.102
 Note

Multicast link state routing uses the

source-based tree approach.

22.103
 Note

Flooding broadcasts packets, but

creates loops in the systems.

22.104
 Note

RPF eliminates the loop in the

flooding process.

22.105
 Figure 22.40 Reverse path forwarding (RPF)

22.106
 Figure 22.41 Problem with RPF

22.107
 Figure 22.42 RPF Versus RPB

22.108
 Note

RPB creates a shortest path broadcast

tree from the source to each destination.
It guarantees that each destination
receives one and only one copy
of the packet.

22.109
 Figure 22.43 RPF, RPB, and RPM

22.110
 Note

RPM adds pruning and grafting to RPB

to create a multicast shortest
path tree that supports dynamic
membership changes.

22.111
 Figure 22.44 Group-shared tree with rendezvous router

22.112
 Figure 22.45 Sending a multicast packet to the rendezvous router

22.113
 Note

In CBT, the source sends the multicast

packet (encapsulated in a unicast
packet) to the core router. The core
router decapsulates the packet and
forwards it to all interested interfaces.

22.114
 Note

PIM-DM is used in a dense multicast

environment, such as a LAN.

22.115
 Note

PIM-DM uses RPF and pruning and

grafting strategies to handle
multicasting.
However, it is independent of the
underlying unicast protocol.

22.116
 Note

PIM-SM is used in a sparse multicast

environment such as a WAN.

22.117
 Note

PIM-SM is similar to CBT but uses a

simpler procedure.

22.118
 Figure 22.46 Logical tunneling

22.119
 Figure 22.47 MBONE

22.120