Internet Protocol: Routing IP Datagrams

1. Internet Protocol:Routing IP Datagrams D. E. Comer, “Internetworking with TCP/IP: Principles, Protocols and Architectures”, Ch. 8, Prentice Hall, 2000 presented by Roozbeh Farahbodrfarahbo@sfu.ca

2. Routing • Routing: The process of choosing a path over which to send packets. • Router: A computer – in general – making this choice. • Routing occurs at several levels: • From node to node in a simple LAN • From LAN to LAN in a WAN

3. Internet, Router, Host • Internet is composed of multiple physical networks interconnected by computers called routers. • Routers have direct connections to two or more networks. • A Host usually connects directly to one physical network.

4. Direct / Indirect Delivery • Routing can be divided in to two forms: • Direct Delivery • When two machines are both attached to the same underlying physical transmission system (i.e. a single Ethernet) • Indirect Delivery • When two machines are not directly attached to the same network and packets must go through at least one router for delivery.

5. Direct Delivery • Delivery from A to C: • A encapsulates the datagram in a physical frame • Maps the destination IP address to a physical address (MAC address) • Uses the network hardware to deliver it • How does A know whether C is in the same network?

6. Network Prefix • IP addresses are divided into a Network Prefix and a Host Suffix • By checking the network prefix of the destination IP address, sender will know if it is directly connected to the destination machine or not.

7. Indirect Delivery • B wants to deliver a datagram to D • B checks the network prefix and realizes that D is outside of L1. • In an internet, every host can reach a router directly. • B sends the packet to R1directly and lets R1 handle the delivery.

8. Table-Driven Routing • How does B decide to send the datagram to R1 and not to R2? • How does R1 know where to send the datagram? • The usual IP routing algorithm employs an Internet Routing Table or IP Routing Table. • Both hosts and routers have IP routing tables. • IP routing tables, based on the destination address, tell the router where to send a datagram.

9. Information Hiding • Do we need to keep the list of all possible destination addresses? • Taking the advantage of Network Prefix • A routing table keeps a set of pairs (Network, Path)

10. Next-Hop • Do we need to keep the whole path to a destination address? • Every router only needs to know what is the next router in the path. • This next router is called the next hop.

11. Next-Hop Routing • Each router in a routing table can be reached via a direct connection.

12. Default Routes • Another technique used to hide information: • If the destination network was not in the routing table, use the default route • Example: • For hosts like H that attach to a single network, only one row in the routing table required Routing Table for host H

13. The IP Routing RouteDatagram(Datagram, RoutingTable) • Extract destination IP address in D • Extract the network prefix in N • if N matches any directly connected network • deliver datagram directly to destination D over that network • else if the table contains a host-specific route for D • send datagram to the next-hop specified in the table • else if the table contains a route for network N • send datagram to the next-hop specified in the table • else if the table contains a default route • send datagram to the default router specified • else • declare a routing error!

14. Internet Layer Datagram + The next-hop IP address Network Layer Routing with IP address • IP routing does not alter the original datagram except for: • Decrementing the Time-To-Live • Re-computing the checksum • When IP executes the routing, it selects the next-hop IP address and forwards the datagram to that using the network interface layer. • The network layer then binds the IP address to a physical addressand sends the datagram to its destination in form of frames.

15. Why IP Address? • Converting IP addresses every time routing occurs? Inefficient! • Why not using physical addresses in routing tables? • Routing table provides a clean interface between IP software that routes and high-level software that manipulates routes. • The whole point of IP is to hide the details of the underlying network.

16. Incoming Datagrams • When a router receives a datagram: • If the destination IP is the router’s IP (for each of its network connections), it passes the datagram to higher levels. • Otherwise, it routes the datagram. • Hosts are forbidden from forwarding datagrams that are accidentaly routed to them. • Reasons: • Something has gone wrong! • It will cause unnecessary network traffic • Simple errors can cause chaos. • Routers report errors, while hosts not!

17. Summary • IP uses routing information to route datagrams. • Direct delivery is considered as the final step in routing. • The result of routing is the IP address of the next hop. • Physical address and physical frame vs. IP address and IP datagram • IP routing algorithm is table-driven and in most cases based on the network addresses. • Using a default route keeps the routing tables small.

18. Presented forEngineering Communication Systems a course byDr. Uwe Glaesser School of Computing ScienceSimon Fraser University October 2002