Unit III

ROUTING

Packet Forwarding

The process of packet forwarding simply implies the forwarding of incoming packets to their
intended destination.
 Internet is made up of generally two terms- Interconnection and Network. So, it is a
connection to a large collection of networks. A packet that is to be forwarded may be
associated with the same network as the source host or may belong to a destination
host in a different network. Thus, it depends on the destination how much a packet
may need to travel before arriving at its destination.
 The router is responsible for the process of packet forwarding. It accepts the packet
from the origin host or another router in the packet’s path and places it on the route
leading to the target host.
 The routing table is maintained by the router which is used for deciding the packet
forwarding.

Packet Forwarding in Router:

Routers are used on the network for forwarding a packet from the local network to the remote
network. So, the process of routing involves the packet forwarding from an entry interface out
to an exit interface.

Working:

The following steps are included in the packet forwarding in the router-
 The router takes the arriving packet from an entry interface and then forwards that
packet to another interface.
 The router needs to select the best possible interface for the packet to reach the
intended destination as there exist multiple interfaces in the router.
 The forwarding decision is made by the router based on routing table entries. The
entries in the routing table comprise destination networks and exit interfaces to which
the packet is to be forwarded.
 The selection of exit interface relies on- firstly, the interface must lead to the target
network to which the packet is intended to send, and secondly, it must be the best
possible path leading to the destination network.
Packet Forwarding Techniques:

Following are the packet forwarding techniques based on the destination host:
 Next-Hop Method: By only maintaining the details of the next hop or next router in the
packet’s path, the next-hop approach reduces the size of the routing table. The routing
table maintained using this method does not have the information regarding the whole
route that the packet must take.
 Network-Specific Method: In this method, the entries are not made for all of the
destination hosts in the router’s network. Rather, the entry is made of the destination
networks that are connected to the router.
 Host-Specific Method: In this method, the routing table has the entries for all of the
destination hosts in the destination network. With the increase in the size of the routing
table, the efficiency of the routing table decreases. It finds its application in the
process of verification of route and security purposes.
 Default Method: Let’s assume- A host in network N1 is connected to two routers, one
of which (router R1) is connected to network N2 and the other router R2 to the rest of
the internet. As a result, the routing table only has one default entry for the router R2.

Static and Default Routing

Routing is the technique of determining the optimal path to transmit the data from one
location to another. The router may assist in completing this task. It is a device that operates
on the network layer of the OSI model and the internet layer of the TCP and IP model. The
routing algorithm enables the router to select the best route between the source and the
destination. Furthermore, it stores path data in a table known as the routing table. Static and
dynamic routing are the two forms of routing. Static routes are configured before any network
interactions. In contrast, dynamic routing needs routers to communicate information with
other routers to learn about network paths.

Static Routing

It is also known as "non-adaptive routing". The network administrator contains the routes in
the routing table while using this routing. As a result, the router transfers data from the source
to the destination using the administrator-defined route. Routing decisions don't depend on
factors like network traffic or topology. Furthermore, static routing doesn't need much
bandwidth between routers. The network is also more secure because the network
administrator conducts the necessary routing activities. Furthermore, the overall cost of static
routing is less. Static routing is also unsuitable for big networks with significant traffic due to
the difficulties of manually adding routes to routing tables.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Static Routing

There are various advantages and disadvantages of static routing. Some main advantages and
disadvantages of static routing are as follows:
Advantages

1. It can easily implement in small networks.

2. It doesn't need bandwidth usage between the routers.
3. It doesn't need additional resources as update mechanisms are not required.
4. It is a more secure routing.
5. It is more predictable because the route is specified to the destination.

Disadvantages

1. It is not helpful for complicated topologies and large networks.

2. When the link is failed, it may affect the traffic rerouting.
3. The administrator must use extreme caution when configuring the routes.

Dynamic Routing

Dynamic routing is also known as "adaptive routing", and it is a method of automatic routing.
In other words, when new routers are introduced to the network, the routing tables change.
When a router fails, the routing table automatically modifies to get the destination. As a
result, dynamic routing responds to network and traffic changes. This routing method employs
dynamic routing algorithms to find new routes to the destination. As a result, all network
routers should use dynamic routing protocols that are consistent. Dynamic routing needs
fewer routes. Moreover, it offers more accurate results in determining the optimum path based
on network changes. However, this routing method needs more bandwidth and offers less
security.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Dynamic Routing

There are various advantages and disadvantages of dynamic routing. Some main advantages
and disadvantages of dynamic routing are as follows:

Advantages

1. It is very helpful to all the topologies.

2. Topologies automatically support traffic rerouting.
3. The activities of the router are unaffected by network size.

Disadvantages
 1. Dynamic routes depend on the current topologies.
2. It needs extra resources like CPU, memory, and link bandwidth.
3. It may be complex to implement.
4. It is less secure as routing updates are broadcast and multicast.

Some main differences between Static and Dynamic Routing are as follows:

1. Static routing happens when a router utilizes a manually specified routing entry rather
than information from dynamic routing traffic. In contrast, dynamic routing is a
method in which a router may transmit data via a different route or to a specific
destination based on the current state of the network's communication circuits.
2. Routing tables are manually updated in static routing. In contrast, tables are
automatically updated in dynamic routing.
3. Complex algorithms are not used in static routing. In contrast, dynamic routing utilizes
a complicated algorithm to determine the shortest path or route.
4. Dynamic routing is less secure due to message broadcast and multicast. In contrast,
static routing doesn't require advertisement, which makes it more secure.
5. Static routing requires no additional resources. In contrast, dynamic routing needs
resources like memory, bandwidth, etc.
6. Link failure may interrupt the rerouting in static routing. In contrast, link failure
doesn't affect rerouting in dynamic routing.
7. The routes in static routing are user-defined. In contrast, the routes are updated as
topology changes in dynamic routing.
8. RIP, BGP, EIGRP, and other protocols are used in dynamic routing. In contrast, static
routing doesn't need such protocols.
9. The network architecture is minimal in static routing. In contrast, dynamic routing
highly depends on network infrastructure.

Features Static Routing Dynamic Routing

Definition It happens when a router utilizes a It is a method in which a router may transmit data
manually specified routing entry rather via a different route or to a specific destination
than information from dynamic routing based on the current state of the network's
traffic. communication circuits.

Configuration The routing tables are manually updated The tables are automatically updated in dynamic
Technique in static routing. routing.

Routes Routes are specified by the The routes are updated according to the
administrative. modifications in the network.

Routing It doesn't utilize any complicated It utilizes complicated routing algorithms.

Algorithms routing algorithms.

Link Affect When a link fails in static routing, it The link failure doesn't affect rerouting in dynamic
interrupts the other routing path. routing.

Bandwidth It needs less bandwidth. It needs more bandwidth.

Security It offers high security. It offers less security.

Network Its network infrastructure is minimal. Its network infrastructure is large.

Infrastructure

Routing Protocols It doesn't utilize any protocol. It employs protocols such as eigrp, arp, and others
to calculate the routing process.

Additional It doesn't need any extra resources. It needs extra resources to hold the information.
Resources

Implementation It is implemented in small networks. It is implemented in large networks.

Routing table Routing locations are hand-typed in In dynamic routing, locations are dynamically
building static routing. filled in the table.

Unicast Routing Algorithms

Unicast means the transmission from a single sender to a single receiver. It is a point -to-point
communication between the sender and receiver. There are various unicast protocols such as
TCP, HTTP, etc.
 TCP is the most commonly used unicast protocol. It is a connection-oriented protocol that
relies on acknowledgment from the receiver side.
 HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. It is an object-oriented protocol for
communication.

Major Protocols of Unicast Routing

1. Distance Vector Routing: Distance-Vector routers use a distributed algorithm to compute
their routing tables.
2. Link-State Routing: Link-State routing uses link-state routers to exchange messages that
allow each router to learn the entire network topology.
3. Path-Vector Routing: It is a routing protocol that maintains the path that is updated
dynamically.

Link State Routing

Link state routing is the second family of routing protocols. While distance-vector routers use
a distributed algorithm to compute their routing tables, link-state routing uses link-state
routers to exchange messages that allow each router to learn the entire network topology.
Based on this learned topology, each router is then able to compute its routing table by using
the shortest path computation.
Link state routing is a technique in which each router shares the knowledge of its
neighborhood with every other router i.e. the internet work. The three keys to understand the
link state routing algorithm.
1. Knowledge about the neighborhood: Instead of sending its routing table, a router sends
the information about its neighborhood only. A router broadcast its identities and cost of
the directly attached links to other routers.
2. Flooding: Each router sends the information to every other router on the internetwork
except its neighbors. This process is known as flooding. Every router that receives the
 packet sends the copies to all the neighbors. Finally each and every router receives a copy
of the same information.
3. Information Sharing: A router send the information to every other router only when the
change occurs in the information.
Link state routing has two phase:
1. Reliable Flooding: Initial state– Each node knows the cost of its neighbors. Final state-
Each node knows the entire graph.
2. Route Calculation: Each node uses Dijkstra’ s algorithm on the graph to calculate the
optimal routes to all nodes. The link state routing algorithm is also known as Dijkstra’s
algorithm which is used to find the shortest path from one node to every other node in the
network.
Features of Link State Routing Protocols
 Link State Packet: A small packet that contains routing information.
 Link-State Database: A collection of information gathered from the link-state packet.
 Shortest Path First Algorithm (Dijkstra algorithm): A calculation performed on the
database results in the shortest path
 Routing Table: A list of known paths and interfaces.
Calculation of Shortest Path
To find the shortest path, each node needs to run the famous Dijkstra algorithm. Let us
understand how can we find the shortest path using an example.
Illustration
To understand the Dijkstra Algorithm, let’s take a graph and find the shortest path from the
source to all nodes.
Note: We use a boolean array sptSet[] to represent the set of vertices included in SPT.
If a value sptSet[v] is true, then vertex v is included in SPT, otherwise not.
Array dist[] is used to store the shortest distance values of all vertices.
Consider the below graph and src = 0.

Shortest Path Calculation – Step 1

STEP 1: The set sptSet is initially empty and distances assigned to vertices are {0, INF,
INF, INF, INF, INF, INF, INF} where INF indicates infinite. Now pick the vertex with a
minimum distance value. The vertex 0 is picked and included in sptSet. So sptSet becomes
{0}. After including 0 to sptSet, update the distance values of its adjacent vertices. Adjacent
vertices of 0 are 1 and 7. The distance values of 1 and 7 are updated as 4 and 8.
The following subgraph shows vertices and their distance values. Vertices included in SPT are
included in GREEN color.

Shortest Path Calculation – Step 2

STEP 2: Pick the vertex with minimum distance value and not already included in SPT
(not in sptSET). The vertex 1 is picked and added to sptSet. So sptSet now becomes {0, 1}.
Update the distance values of adjacent vertices of 1. The distance value of vertex 2 becomes
12.

Shortest Path Calculation – Step 3

STEP 3: Pick the vertex with minimum distance value and not already included in SPT
(not in sptSET). Vertex 7 is picked. So sptSet now becomes {0, 1, 7}. Update the distance
values of adjacent vertices of 7. The distance value of vertex 6 and 8 becomes finite (15 and 9
respectively).
 Shortest Path Calculation – Step 4

STEP 4: Pick the vertex with minimum distance value and not already included in SPT
(not in sptSET). Vertex 6 is picked. So sptSet now becomes {0, 1, 7, 6}. Update the distance
values of adjacent vertices of 6. The distance value of vertex 5 and 8 are updated.

Shortest Path Calculation – Step 5

We repeat the above steps until sptSet includes all vertices of the given graph. Finally, we get
the following Shortest Path Tree (SPT).
 Shortest Path Calculation – Step 6

Characteristics of Link State Protocol

 It requires a large amount of memory.
 Shortest path computations require many CPU circles.
 If a network uses little bandwidth; it quickly reacts to topology changes
 All items in the database must be sent to neighbors to form link-state packets.
 All neighbors must be trusted in the topology.
 Authentication mechanisms can be used to avoid undesired adjacency and problems.
 No split horizon techniques are possible in the link-state routing.
 OSPF Protocol

Distance Vector Routing

A distance-vector routing (DVR) protocol requires that a router inform its neighbors of
topology changes periodically. Historically known as the old ARPANET routing algorithm
(or known as Bellman-Ford algorithm).
Bellman Ford Basics – Each router maintains a Distance Vector table containing the distance
between itself and ALL possible destination nodes. Distances, based on a chosen metric, are
computed using information from the neighbors’ distance vectors.

Information kept by DV router -

 Each router has an ID
 Associated with each link connected to a router,
 there is a link cost (static or dynamic).
 Intermediate hops
Distance Vector Table Initialization -
 Distance to itself = 0
 Distance to ALL other routers = infinity number.

Distance Vector Algorithm –

1. A router transmits its distance vector to each of its neighbors in a routing packet.
2. Each router receives and saves the most recently received distance vector from each of its
neighbors.
3. A router recalculates its distance vector when:
 It receives a distance vector from a neighbor containing different information than
before.
 It discovers that a link to a neighbor has gone down.
The DV calculation is based on minimizing the cost to each destination
Dx(y) = Estimate of least cost from x to y
C(x,v) = Node x knows cost to each neighbor v
Dx = [Dx(y): y ? N ] = Node x maintains distance vector
Node x also maintains its neighbors' distance vectors
– For each neighbor v, x maintains Dv = [Dv(y): y ? N ]
 From time-to-time, each node sends its own distance vector estimate to neighbors.
 When a node x receives new DV estimate from any neighbor v, it saves v’s distance
vector and it updates its own DV using B-F equation:

Dx(y) = min { C(x,v) + Dv(y), Dx(y) } for each node y ? N

Example – Consider 3-routers X, Y and Z as shown in figure. Each router have their routing
table. Every routing table will contain distance to the destination nodes.
Consider router X , X will share it routing table to neighbors and neighbors will share it
routing table to it to X and distance from node X to destination will be calculated using
bellmen- ford equation.

Dx(y) = min { C(x,v) + Dv(y)} for each node y ? N

As we can see that distance will be less going from X to Z when Y is intermediate node(hop)
so it will be update in routing table X.

Similarly for Z also –

Finally the routing table for all –

Path Vector Routing Algorithm

A path vector protocol is a computer network routing protocol which maintains the path
information that gets updated dynamically. Updates which have looped through the network and
returned to the same node are easily detected and discarded. This algorithm is sometimes used in
Bellman–Ford routing algorithms to avoid "Count to Infinity" problems.
It is different from the distance vector routing and link state routing. Each entry in the routing
table contains the destination network, the next router and the path to reach the destination.
Path Vector Messages in BGP: The autonomous system boundary routers (ASBR), which
participate in path vector routing, advertise the reachability of networks. Each router that
receives a path vector message must verify that the advertised path is according to its policy. If
the messages comply with the policy, the ASBR modifies its routing table and the message
before sending it to the next neighbor. In the modified message it sends its own AS number and
replaces the next router entry with its own identification.
BGP is an example of a path vector protocol. In BGP the routing table maintains the autonomous
systems that are traversed in order to reach the destination system. Exterior Gateway
Protocol (EGP) does not use path vectors.
It has three phases:

1.) Initiation 2.)Sharing 3.)Updating

RIP V1

Routing Information Protocol (RIP) protocol are the intradomain (interior) routing protocol
which is based on distance vector routing and it is used inside an autonomous system. Routers
and network links are called node. The first column of routing table is destination address. The
cost of metric in this protocol is hop count which is number of networks which need to be
passed to reach destination. Here infinity is defined by a fixed number which is 16 it means
that using a Rip, network cannot have more than 15 hops.
RIP Version-1:
It is an open standard protocol means it works on the various vendor’s routers. It works on
most of the routers, it is classful routing protocol. Updates are broadcasted. Its administrative
distance value is 120, it means it is not reliable. The lesser the administrative distance value the
reliability is much more. Its metric is hop count and max hop count is 15. There will be a total
of 16 routers in the network. When there will be the same number of hop to reach the
destination, Rip starts to perform load balancing. Load balancing means if there are three ways
to reach the destination and each way has same number of routers then packets will be sent to
each path to reach the destination. This reduces traffic and also the load is balanced. It is used
in small companies, in this protocol routing tables are updated in each 30 sec. Whenever link
breaks rip trace out another path to reach the destination. It is one of the slowest protocol.
Advantages of RIP ver1 –
1. Easy to configure, static router are complex.
2. Less overhead
3. No complexity.
Disadvantage of RIP ver1 –
1. Bandwidth utilization is very high as broadcast for every 30 seconds.
2. It works only on hop count.
3. It is not scalable as hop count is only 15. If there will be requirement of more routers in the
network it would be a problem.
4. Convergence is very slow, wastes a lot of time in finding alternate path.
 RIP Version-2:
Due to some deficiencies in the original RIP specification, RIP version 2 was developed in
1993. It supports classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) and has the ability to carry subnet
information, its metric is also hop count, and max hop count 15 is same as rip version 1. It
supports authentication and does subnetting and multicasting. Auto summary can be done on
every router. In RIPv2 Subnet masks are included in the routing update. RIPv2 multicasts the
entire routing table to all adjacent routers at the address 224.0.0.9, as opposed to RIPv1 which
uses broadcast (255.255.255.255).
Advantages of RIP ver2 –
1. It’s a standardized protocol.
2. It’s VLSM compliant.
3. Provides fast convergence.
4. It sends triggered updates when the network changes.
5. Works with snapshot routing – making it ideal for dial networks.
Disadvantage of RIP ver2 – There lies some disadvantages as well:
1. Max hopcount of 15, due to the ‘count-to-infinity’ vulnerability.
2. No concept of neighbours.
3. Exchanges entire table with all neighbours every 30 seconds (except in the case of a
triggered update).
RIP ver1 versus RIP ver2:

RIP Ver1 RIP Ver2

RIP v1 uses what is known as RIP v2 is a classless protocol and it supports variable-length
classful routing subnet masking (VLSM), CIDR, and route summarization

RIPv1 routing updates are

RIP v2 routing updates are multicasted
broadcasted

RIPv1 has no authentication RIP v2 supports authentication

RIP v1 does not carry mask in

RIP v2 does carry mask in updates, so it supports for VLSM
updates
 RIP Ver1 RIP Ver2

IP v2 can be useful in small, flat networks or at the edge of

RIP v1 is an older, no longer
larger networks because of its simplicity in configuration and
much used routing protocol
usage

OSPF :-

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is an IP routing protocol that uses a mathematical algorithm
to calculate the most efficient path to direct traffic on IP networks. OSPF is an open standard
and designated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as one of several Interior
Gateway Protocols (IGPs) within the family of TCP/IP protocols.

Based on link-state or shortest path first (SPF) technology, OSPF distributes routing
information between routers in a single autonomous system (AS). This capability differentiates
OSPF from older TCP/IP routing protocols, which were designed for less complex networks
than those used today.

Using Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm, OSPF calculates the shortest path for all routers in an
area of the AS to efficiently use network bandwidth and ensure scalability. The AS may be
divided into multiple interconnected networks, such as a wide area network (WAN).
The topology is visible only to the routers in the same area.

As a dynamic routing protocol, OSPF not only routes IP packets based on the destination IP
address (given in the packet header), but it also detects topological changes in the AS. After
detecting changes, OSPF calculates new, loop-free routes after a short period (known as
convergence time) in which routing traffic is kept to a minimum.

All the routers in the same area of the OSPF network maintain the same link-state database that
describes the area topology. Each router receives link-state advertisement (LSA) messages
containing information about neighboring routers and path costs from the other routers in that
area. Using these LSAs, each router generates the link-state database and uses the SPF
algorithm to calculate a shortest-path spanning tree.

OSPF was designed and developed by the IETF for TCP/IP environments, mainly large
enterprise networks. OSPF version 2 is defined in RFC 2328 of the IETF Network Working
Group. This protocol is broadly implemented in enterprise routers. IPv6 revisions to this
standard are captured in OSPF version 3 and defined in IETF RFC 5340.

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

The protocol can connect any internetwork of the autonomous system using an arbitrary
topology. The only requirement is that each AS have at least one router that can run BGP and
that is the router connected to at least one other AS’s BGP router. BGP’s main function is to
exchange network reachability information with other BGP systems. Border Gateway Protocol
constructs an autonomous systems graph based on the information exchanged between BGP
routers.
Characteristics of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
 Inter-Autonomous System Configuration: The main role of BGP is to provide
communication between two autonomous systems.
 BGP supports the Next-Hop Paradigm.
 Coordination among multiple BGP speakers within the AS (Autonomous System).
 Path Information: BGP advertisements also include path information, along with the
reachable destination and next destination pair.
 Policy Support: BGP can implement policies that can be configured by the administrator.
For ex:- a router running BGP can be configured to distinguish between the routes that are
known within the AS and that which are known from outside the AS.
 Runs Over TCP.
 BGP conserves network Bandwidth.
 BGP supports CIDR.
 BGP also supports Security.
Functionality of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
BGP peers perform 3 functions, which are given below.
 The first function consists of initial peer acquisition and authentication. both the peers
established a TCP connection and performed message exchange that guarantees both sides
have agreed to communicate.
 The second function mainly focuses on sending negative or positive reach-ability
information.
 The third function verifies that the peers and the network connection between them are
functioning correctly.
Importance of Border Gateway Protocol(BGP)
 Security: BGP is highly secure because it authenticates messages between routers using
preconfigured passwords through which unauthorized traffic is filtered out.
 Scalability: BGP is more scalable because it manages a vast number of routes and
networks present on the internet.
 Supports Multihoming: BGP allows multihoming means an organization can connect to
multiple networks simultaneously.
 Calculate the Best Path: As we know data packets is traveled across the internet from
source to destination every system in between the source and destination has to decide
where the data packet should go next
 TCP/IP Model: BGP is based on the TCP/IP model and it is used to control the network
layer by using transport layer protocol.
Types of Border Gateway Protocol
 External BGP: It is used to interchange routing information between the routers in
different autonomous systems, it is also known as eBGP(External Border Gateway
Protocol). The below image shows how eBGP interchange routing information.
 Internal BGP: It is used to interchange routing information between the routers in the
same autonomous system, it is also known as iBGP(Internal Border Gateway Protocol).
Internal routers also ensure consistency among routers for sharing routing information.
The below image shows how iBGP interchange routing information.
Difference Between BGP and OSPF
Here below are some key differences between BGP and OSPF:
BGP OSPF

It follows the Path Vector Routing Algorithm It follows the Link State Routing Algorithm

The speed of convergence is very slow in The speed of convergence is fast in the case
BGP of OSPF

BGP is also called inter-domain routing OSPF is also called intra-domain routing
protocol protocol

In BGP routing operation is performed In OSPF routing operation is performed

between two AS inside an AS

In BGP, TCP protocol is used In OSPF, IP protocol is used

EIGRP Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP)

It is a dynamic routing protocol that is used to find the best path between any two-layer 3
devices to deliver the packet. EIGRP works on network layer Protocol of OSI model and uses
protocol number 88. It uses metrics to find out the best path between two layer 3 devices
(router or layer 3 switches) operating EIGRP. Administrative Distance for EIGRP are:-

EIGRP routes AD values

Summary Routes 5
Internal Routes 90
external routes 170
It uses some messages to communicate with the neighbour devices that operate EIGRP. These
are:-

1. Hello message-These messages are kept alive messages which are exchanged between two
devices operating EIGRP. These messages are used for neighbour discovery/recovery, if
there is any device operating EIGRP or if any device(operating EIGRP) coming up again.
These messages are used for neighbor discovery if multicast at 224.0.0.10. It contains
values like AS number, k values, etc.
These messages are used as acknowledgement when unicast. A hello with no data is used
as the acknowledgement.
2. NULL update-It is used to calculate SRTT(Smooth Round Trip Timer) and
RTO(Retransmission Time Out).
SRTT: The time is taken by a packet to reach the neighboring router and the
acknowledgement of the packet to reach the local router.
RTO: If a multicast fails then unicast is being sent to that router. RTO is the time for which
the local router waits for an acknowledgement of the packet.
3. Full Update – After exchanging hello messages or after the neighbourship is formed, these
messages are exchanged. This message contains all the best routes.
4. Partial update-These messages are exchanged when there is a topology change and new
links are added. It contains only the new routes, not all the routes. These messages are
multicast.
5. Query message-These messages are multicast when the device is declared dead and it has
no routes to it in its topology table.
6. Reply message – These messages are the acknowledgment of the query message sent to the
originator of the query message stating the route to the network which has been asked in
the query message.
7. Acknowledgement message
It is used to acknowledge EIGRP updates, queries, and replies. Acks are hello packets that
contain no data.
Note:-Hello and acknowledgment packets do not require any acknowledgment.
Reply, query, update messages are reliable messages i.e require acknowledgement.
Composite matrix-The EIGRP composite metric calculation can use up to 5 variables, but only
2 are used by default (K1 and K3). The composite metric values are :
K1 (bandwidth)
K2 (load)
K3 (delay)
K4 (reliability)
K5 (MTU)
The lowest bandwidth, load, delay, reliability, MTU along the path between the source and the
destination is considered in the composite matrix in order to calculate the cost.
Note:- Generally, only k1 and k3 values are used for metric calculation by EIGRP. The values
are 10100 for k1, k2, k3, k4, k5 respectively.
criteria To form EIGRP neighbourship, these criteria should be fulfilled:-
1. k values should match.
2. Autonomous system number should match. (AS is a group of networks running under a
single administrative control) .
3. authentication should match (if applied). EIGRP supports MD5 authentication only.
4. subnet mask should be the same.
Timers:-
Hello timer- The interval in which EIGRP sends a hello message on an interface. It is 5
seconds by default.
5. Dead timer- The interval in which the neighbor will be declared dead if it is not able to
send the hello packet. It is 15 seconds by default.

Multicasting Basics

Multicast is a method of group communication where the sender sends data to multiple
receivers or nodes present in the network simultaneously. Multicasting is a type of one-to-
many and many-to-many communication as it allows sender or senders to send data packets to
multiple receivers at once across LANs or WANs. This process helps in minimizing the data
frame of the network because at once the data can be received by multiple nodes.
Multicasting is considered as the special case of broadcasting as it works in similar to
Broadcasting, but in Multicasting, the information is sent to the targeted or specific members
of the network. This task can be accomplished by transmitting individual copies to each user or
node present in the network, but sending individual copies to each user is inefficient and might
increase the network latency. To overcome these shortcomings, multicasting allows a single
transmission that can be split up among the multiple users, consequently, this reduces the
bandwidth of the signal.

.
Applications : Multicasting is used in many areas like:
1. Internet protocol (IP)
2. Streaming Media
3. It also supports video conferencing applications and webcasts.
– Multicasting use classful addressing of IP address of class – D which ranges from 224.0.0.0
to 239.255.255.255
IP Multicast : Multicasting that takes place over the Internet is known as IP Multicasting.
These multicast follow the internet protocol(IP) to transmit data. IP multicasting uses a
mechanism known as ‘Multicast trees’ to transmit to information among the users of the
network. Multicast trees; allows a single transmission to branch out to the desired receivers.
The branches are created at the Internet routers, the branches are created such that the length of
the transmission will be minimum.

IPV6 Address

IPv6 was developed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the problem of
IPv4 exhaustion. IPv6 is a 128-bits address having an address space of 2128, which is way
bigger than IPv4. IPv6 use Hexa-Decimal format separated by colon (:).

Components in Address format :

1. There are 8 groups and each group represents 2 Bytes (16-bits).

2. Each Hex-Digit is of 4 bits (1 nibble)
3. Delimiter used – colon (:)

The Main reason of IPv6 was the address depletion as the need for electronic devices rose
quickly when Internet Of Things (IOT) came into picture after the 1980s & other reasons are
related to the slowness of the process due to some unnecessary processing, the need for new
options, support for multimedia, and the desperate need for security. IPv6 protocol responds to
the above issues using the following main changes in the protocol:
1. Large address space
An IPv6 address is 128 bits long .compared with the 32 bit address of IPv4, this is a huge(2
raised 96 times) increases in the address space.
Better header format
IPv6 uses a new header format in which options are separated from the base header and
inserted, when needed, between the base header and the upper layer data . This simplifies and
speeds up the routing process because most of the options do not need to be checked by
routers.
3. New options
IPv6 has new options to allow for additional functionalities.
4. Allowance for extension
IPv6 is designed to allow the extension of the protocol if required by new technologies or
applications.
5. Support for resource allocation
In IPv6,the type of service field has been removed, but two new fields , traffic class and flow
label have been added to enables the source to request special handling of the packet . this
mechanism can be used to support traffic such as real-time audio and video.
6. Support for more security
The encryption and authentication options in IPv6 provide confidentiality and integrity of the
packet.
In IPv6 representation, we have three addressing methods :
 Unicast
 Multicast
 Anycast
Addressing methods
1. Unicast Address
Unicast Address identifies a single network interface. A packet sent to a unicast address is
delivered to the interface identified by that address.
2. Multicast Address
Multicast Address is used by multiple hosts, called as groups, acquires a multicast destination
address. These hosts need not be geographically together. If any packet is sent to this multicast
address, it will be distributed to all interfaces corresponding to that multicast address. And
every node is configured in the same way. In simple words, one data packet is sent to multiple
destinations simultaneously.
3. Anycast Address
Anycast Address is assigned to a group of interfaces. Any packet sent to an anycast address
will be delivered to only one member interface (mostly nearest host possible).
Note: Broadcast is not defined in IPv6.
Types of IPv6 address:
We have 128 bits in IPv6 address but by looking at the first few bits we can identify what type
of address it is.

Prefix Allocation Fraction of Address Space

0000 0000 Reserved 1/256

0000 0001 Unassigned (UA) 1/256

 Prefix Allocation Fraction of Address Space

0000 001 Reserved for NSAP 1/128

0000 01 UA 1/64

0000 1 UA 1/32

0001 UA 1/16

001 Global Unicast 1/8

010 UA 1/8

011 UA 1/8

100 UA 1/8

101 UA 1/8

110 UA 1/8

1110 UA 1/16

1111 0 UA 1/32
 Prefix Allocation Fraction of Address Space

1111 10 UA 1/64

1111 110 UA 1/128

1111 1110 0 UA 1/512

1111 1110 10 Link-Local Unicast Addresses 1/1024

1111 1110 11 Site-Local Unicast Addresses 1/1024

1111 1111 Multicast Address 1/256