IPX Routing
The following is a brief introduction to IPX routing in the
context of a Novell environment. For more information, consult
Novell's IPX Router reference.
Because ipx is always dynamically routed, and the routing
architecture works by "learning" network addressing
automatically, there is usually no need to do anything special in
the setup of an IPX network in order to get routing to function.
Thus this section is provided for completeness only.
An IPX address consists of a 4-byte Network Number, a 6-byte
Node Number, and a 2-byte Socket Number. The node number
is usually the hardware address of the interface card, and must
be unique inside the particular IPX network. The network
number must be the same for all nodes on a particular physical
network segment. Socket numbers correspond to the particular
service being accessed. Consider the following IPX network:
Nodes A and D are Novell NetWare workstations, and Nodes B,
C and E are Novell NetWare Servers. Node C has two Ethernet
cards and acts as an IPX router between the two networks.
The NetWare Servers broadcast routing information and service
advertisements to all nodes on the network segment using
RIP/SAP or NLSP. Node C forwards this information to
connected networks, so that workstations are made aware of the
addresses of all file and print servers available, and servers are
made aware of the routes to these other servers.
To address a service running on a server, each server has its own
Internal Network Number, which is placed in the network
number field of the IPX header.
For example, suppose A wants to access the file server E whose
internal network number is 5E1C0155. A would have been made
aware of E's address through service advertisements broadcasted
by C. To learn how to reach E, it broadcasts a routing request. C
receives this request and returns its own hardware node number.
A therefore addresses an IPX packet to E using E's internal
network number of 5E1C0155 and node number 22-5A-4D-8C-
C3-DA. The Ethernet header's destination address is Node C's
node address of 34-56-78-9A-BC-DE. C then receives this IPX
packet and observes that the IPX packet header's destination
address is not its own, so it transmits the packet on network
DDEEAADD knowing that E is on that network, using an
Ethernet header destination address of 22-5A-4D-8C-C3-DA.
Address Resolution Protocol
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is an important
protocol of the network layer in the OSI model, which
helps find the MAC (Media Access Control) address given
the system’s IP address. The ARP’s main task is to
convert the 32-bit IP address (for IPv4) to a 48-bit MAC
address.
This protocol is mostly used to determine the hardware
(MAC) address of a device from an IP address. It is also
used when one device wants to communicate with some
other device on a local network. The full form of ARP is
Address Resolution Protocol.
How Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) works?
All OS in an IPv4 network keeps an ARP cache. When the host
requests a MAC address to send a packet to another host in the
LAN, it checks its ARP cache to check that the MAC address
translation already presents.
Let us understand this concept with an example:
Hosta P resolves protocol address for host U for
protocol messages from an application on P sent to U.
P does not resolve a protocol address for host U
By using the internet layer, host P delivers to host U by
routing through T1 and T2.
Host P resolves the T1 hardware address.
Network layer on host P passes packet containing
destination protocol address for U for delivery to T1
T1 delivers the packet to T2 which in turn forwards the
packet to Host U.
Types of ARP
Here are four types of Address Resolution Protocol, which
is given below:
Proxy ARP
Gratuitous ARP
Reverse ARP
Inverse ARP
Proxy ARP:
In the Proxy ARP method, Layer 3 devices can respond to ARP
requests. This ARP type is configured router will respond to the
target IP address and maps the router’s MAC address with the
target IP address and sender when it is reached to its destination.
Gratuitous ARP:
Gratuitous is another type of ARP request of the host. This type
of ARP request helps the network to identify the duplicate IP
address. Therefore, when an ARP request is sent by a router or
switch to get its IP address, no ARP responses are received so
that no other nodes can use the IP address allocated to that
switch or router.
Reverse ARP (RARP)
Reverse ARP, also now called RARP, is a type of ARP
networking protocol which is used by the client system in a
LAN to request its IPv4 address from the ARP router table. The
network admin mostly creates a table in the gateway-router,
which helps determine the MAC address to that specific IP
address.
Inverse ARP (InARP)
Inverse ARP is also called In ARP, is a type of ARP used to find
the nodes’ IP of addresses from the data link layer addresses. In
ARP is widely used for ATM networks frame relays where
Layer 2 virtual circuit addressing acquired from Layer 2
signaling.
ARP Header:
Hardware Type–It is 1 for Ethernet.
Protocol Type–It is a protocol used in the network
layer.
Hardware Address Length–It is the length in bytes
so that it would be 6 for Ethernet.
Protocol Address Length – Its value is 4 bytes.
Operation Code indicates that the packet is an ARP
Request (1) or an ARP Response (2).
Senders Hardware Address – It is a hardware
address of the source node.
Senders Protocol Address -It is a layer 3 address of
the source node.
Target Hardware Address – It is used in a RARP
request, which response impact both the destination’s
hardware and layer 3 addresses.
Target Protocol Address – It is used in an ARP
request when the response carries both layer 3
addresses and the destination’s hardware.
Advantages of using ARP
If you are using ARP, then MAC addresses can easily
be known if you know the IP address of the same
system.
End nodes should not be configured to “know” MAC
addresses. It can be found when needed.
ARP’s goal is to enable each host on a network that
allows you to build up a mapping between IP
addresses and physical addresses.
The set of mappings or table stored in the host is
called ARP table or ARP cache.
