Difference between Static and Dynamic Routing

Routing is a vital communication mechanism that governs how data packets travel from source to destination. Effective routing ensures that data is transferred across networks in an efficient, reliable, and timely manner. There are two main forms of routing: static and dynamic. In this article, we will discuss the differences between static and dynamic routing.

What is Static Routing?

Static Routing is also known as non-adaptive routing which doesn’t change the routing table unless the network administrator changes or modifies them manually. Static routing does not use complex routing algorithms and It provides higher or more security than dynamic routing. 

Advantages of Static Routing

• No routing overhead for the routerCPU which means a cheaper router can be used to do routing.
• It adds security because only an only administrator can allow routing to particular networks only.
• No bandwidth usage between routers.

Disadvantage of Static Routing

• For a large network, it is a hectic task for administrators to manually add each route for the network in therouting table on each router.
• The administrator should have good knowledge of the topology. If a new administrator comes, then he has to manually add each route so he should have very good knowledge of the routes of the topology.

What is Dynamic Routing?

Dynamic routing is also known as adaptive routing which changes the routing table according to the change in topology. Dynamic routing uses complex routing algorithms and it does not provide high security like static routing. When the network change(topology) occurs, it sends the message to the router to ensure that changes then the routes are recalculated for sending updated routing information. 

Advantages of Dynamic Routing

• Easy to configure.
• More effective at selecting the best route to a destination remote network and also for discovering remote networks.

Disadvantage of Dynamic Routing

• Consumes morebandwidth for communicating with other neighbors.
• Less secure than static routing.

Difference between Static and Dynamic Routing

Conclusion

Routing is crucial that allows every network device across the world to share data with each other across internet. Shortest path is selected by the routing algorithms when routing a data packet. Routing Algorithms select the shortest path based on metrics like – hop count, delay, bandwidth etc. The core network device used in routing is router. Routes are stored in a logical data structure called – ‘Routing Table‘. Static routing is a process in which we have to manually add routes to the routing table while In Dynamic Routing packets are transmitted over a network using various shortest path algorithms and pre-determined metrics.