Types of Routing

Routing is typically of 2 types, each serving its purpose and offering different functionalities.

1. Static Routing

Static routing is also called as “non-adaptive routing”. In this, routing configuration is done manually by the network administrator. Let’s
say for example, we have 5 different routes to transmit data from one node to another, so the network administrator will have to
manually enter the routing information by assessing all the routes.

Advantages of Static Routing

No routing overhead for the router CPU 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 the routing 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.

2. Dynamic Routing

Dynamic routing makes automatic adjustments of the routes according to the current state of the route in the routing table. Dynamic
routing uses protocols to discover network destinations and the routes to reach them. RIP and OSPF are the best examples of dynamic
routing protocols. Automatic adjustments will be made to reach the network destination if one route goes down. A dynamic protocol has
the following features:

The routers should have the same dynamic protocol running in order to exchange routes.

When a router finds a change in the topology then the router advertises it to all other routers.

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 more bandwidth for communicating with other neighbors.

Less secure than static routing.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network management protocol used to dynamically assign an IP address to nay device,
or node, on a network so they can communicate using IP (Internet Protocol). DHCP automates and centrally manages these
configurations. There is no need to manually assign IP addresses to new devices. Therefore, there is no requirement for any user
configuration to connect to a DHCP based network.

DHCP does the following:

DHCP manages the provision of all the nodes or devices added or dropped from the network.

DHCP maintains the unique IP address of the host using a DHCP server.

It sends a request to the DHCP server whenever a client/node/device, which is configured to work with DHCP, connects to a network. The
server acknowledges by providing an IP address to the client/node/device.

DHCP is also used to configure the proper subnet mask, default gateway and DNS server information on the node or device.

DHCP runs at the application layer of the TCP/IP protocol stack to dynamically assign IP addresses to DHCP clients/nodes and to allocate
TCP/IP configuration information to the DHCP clients. Information includes subnet mask information, default gateway, IP addresses and
domain name system addresses.

DHCP is based on client-server protocol in which servers manage a pool of unique IP addresses, as well as information about client
configuration parameters, and assign addresses out of those address pools.

Components of DHCP

When working with DHCP, it is important to understand all of the components. Following are the list of components:

DHCP Server: DHCP server is a networked device running the DCHP service that holds IP addresses and related configuration information.
This is typically a server or a router but could be anything that acts as a host, such as an SD-WAN appliance.

DHCP client: DHCP client is the endpoint that receives configuration information from a DHCP server. This can be any device like
computer, laptop, IoT endpoint or anything else that requires connectivity to the network. Most of the devices are configured to receive
DHCP information by default.

IP address pool: IP address pool is the range of addresses that are available to DHCP clients. IP addresses are typically handed out
sequentially from lowest to the highest.

Subnet: Subnet is the partitioned segments of the IP networks. Subnet is used to keep networks manageable.

Lease: Lease is the length of time for which a DHCP client holds the IP address information. When a lease expires, the client has to renew
it.

DHCP relay: A host or router that listens for client messages being broadcast on that network and then forwards them to a configured
server. The server then sends responses back to the relay agent that passes them along to the client. DHCP relay can be used to centralize
DHCP servers instead of having a server on each subnet.

Benefits of DHCP

There are following benefits of DHCP:

Centralized administration of IP configuration: DHCP IP configuration information can be stored in a single location and enables that
administrator to centrally manage all IP address configuration information.

Dynamic host configuration: DHCP automates the host configuration process and eliminates the need to manually configure individual
host. When TCP/IP (Transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) is first deployed or when IP infrastructure changes are required.

Seamless IP host configuration: The use of DHCP ensures that DHCP clients get accurate and timely IP configuration IP configuration
parameter such as IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, IP address of DND server and so on without user intervention.

Flexibility and scalability: Using DHCP gives the administrator increased flexibility, allowing the administrator to move easily change IP
configuration when the infrastructure changes.

IEEE 802

The IEEE 802 family of standards is a set of networking protocols defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for
local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN), and other networks. These standards cover various aspects of networking,
from media access control (MAC) protocols to physical layer specifications, ensuring interoperability and communication across different
devices and systems.

Here’s an overview of some of the key IEEE 802.x standards in computer networks:

1. IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet)

Purpose: Defines the standard for Ethernet, the most widely used technology for wired LANs.

Key Features:

Uses Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) for managing data collisions.

Defines both the MAC layer and physical layer for Ethernet.

Covers various Ethernet speeds:

Ethernet (10 Mbps)

Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps)

Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbps)

10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 Gbps) and beyond.

Specifies wiring types, including twisted pair, fiber optics, and coaxial cables.

2. IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi)

Purpose: Specifies standards for wireless local area networks (WLANs), commonly known as Wi-Fi.

Key Features:

Operates in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands.

Various versions like:

802.11a: Operates in 5 GHz with up to 54 Mbps.

802.11b/g: Operates in 2.4 GHz with 11 Mbps (802.11b) and 54 Mbps (802.11g).

802.11n: Provides speeds up to 600 Mbps using MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology.

802.11ac: Supports gigabit speeds, enhanced MIMO, and operates primarily in 5 GHz.

802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6): Latest iteration offering faster speeds, better spectrum efficiency, and reduced latency.

3. IEEE 802.1 (Bridging and Network Management)

Purpose: Covers standards for network bridging, virtual LANs (VLANs), and network management.

Key Features:

802.1D: Defines the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), which prevents loops in network topologies by selectively blocking some paths.

802.1Q: Introduces VLAN tagging, allowing the creation of multiple virtual networks on a single physical network.

802.1X: A standard for port-based network access control, commonly used for network authentication and security in wired and wireless
networks (often part of enterprise Wi-Fi security).

4. IEEE 802.2 (Logical Link Control - LLC)

Purpose: Defines the Logical Link Control (LLC) protocol, which operates on top of the MAC (Media Access Control) layer, ensuring that
network protocols can operate over various media types.

Key Features:

Provides flow and error control for network communications.

Works alongside IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) and other MAC protocols.

Allows different higher-layer protocols (such as IP, IPX, or others) to operate over the same network hardware.

5. IEEE 802.15 (Wireless Personal Area Networks - WPANs)

Purpose: Specifies standards for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs), which cover short-range wireless communication.

Key Features:

802.15.1 (Bluetooth): A standard for wireless communication over short distances (up to 100 meters), widely used in personal devices like
smartphones, tablets, and peripherals.

802.15.4 (Low-Rate WPANs): Provides the basis for wireless sensor networks and the Internet of Things (IoT), including protocols like
Zigbee.

6. IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX)

Purpose: Defines standards for Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs), commonly known as WiMAX.

Key Features:
 Designed for broadband wireless access over large areas, often covering entire cities.

Provides an alternative to traditional broadband (DSL, cable) by offering wireless high-speed internet access.

Supports both fixed and mobile broadband applications.

7. IEEE 802.17 (Resilient Packet Ring - RPR)

Purpose: Specifies standards for Resilient Packet Ring (RPR), used in metropolitan area networks (MANs).

Key Features:

Optimized for high-speed data transmission in fiber optic rings.

Provides fault tolerance and ensures that data can still travel even when part of the ring fails, enhancing reliability in MANs.

8. IEEE 802.20 (Mobile Broadband Wireless Access - MBWA)

Purpose: Specifies standards for Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA).

Key Features:

Aimed at providing high-speed mobile data services for vehicles moving at high speeds (up to 250 km/h).

Designed to support mobile broadband data services, competing with technologies like LTE.

Network Layer Protocols

TCP/IP supports the following protocols:

ARP

o ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol.

o It is used to associate an IP address with the MAC address.

Each device on the network is recognized by the MAC address imprinted on the NIC. Therefore, we can say that devices need the MAC
address for communication on a local area network. MAC address can be changed easily. For example, if the NIC on a particular machine
fails, the MAC address changes but IP address does not change. ARP is used to find the MAC address of the node when an internet
address is known.

Note: MAC address: The MAC address is used to identify the actual device.
IP address: It is an address used to locate a device on the network.

How ARP works

If the host wants to know the physical address of another host on its network, then it sends an ARP query packet that includes the IP
address and broadcast it over the network. Every host on the network receives and processes the ARP packet, but only the intended
recipient recognizes the IP address and sends back the physical address. The host holding the datagram adds the physical address to the
cache memory and to the datagram header, then sends back to the sender.
 Steps taken by ARP protocol

If a device wants to communicate with another device, the following steps are taken by the device:

o If ARP cache is empty, then device broadcast the message to the entire network asking each device for a matching MAC address.

o The device that has the matching IP address will then respond back to the sender with its MAC address

o Once the MAC address is received by the device, then the communication can take place between two devices.

There are two types of ARP entries:

o Dynamic entry: It is an entry which is created automatically when the sender broadcast its message to the entire network. Dynamic
entries are not permanent, and they are removed periodically.

o Static entry: It is an entry where someone manually enters the IP to MAC address association by using the ARP command utility.

RARP

o RARP stands for Reverse Address Resolution Protocol.

o If the host wants to know its IP address, then it broadcast the RARP query packet that contains its physical address to the entire network.
A RARP server on the network recognizes the RARP packet and responds back with the host IP address.

o The protocol which is used to obtain the IP address from a server is known as Reverse Address Resolution Protocol.
o The message format of the RARP protocol is similar to the ARP protocol.

o Like ARP frame, RARP frame is sent from one machine to another encapsulated in the data portion of a frame.

ICMP

o ICMP stands for Internet Control Message Protocol.

o The ICMP is a network layer protocol used by hosts and routers to send the notifications of IP datagram problems back to the sender.

o ICMP uses echo test/reply to check whether the destination is reachable and responding.

o ICMP handles both control and error messages, but its main function is to report the error but not to correct them.

o An IP datagram contains the addresses of both source and destination, but it does not know the address of the previous router through
which it has been passed. Due to this reason, ICMP can only send the messages to the source, but not to the immediate routers.

o ICMP protocol communicates the error messages to the sender. ICMP messages cause the errors to be returned back to the user
processes.

o ICMP messages are transmitted within IP datagram.

 The Format of an ICMP message

o The first field specifies the type of the message.

o The second field specifies the reason for a particular message type.

o The checksum field covers the entire ICMP message.

Error Reporting

ICMP protocol reports the error messages to the sender.

Five types of errors are handled by the ICMP protocol:

o Destination unreachable

o Source Quench

o Time Exceeded

o Parameter problems

o Redirection

o Destination unreachable: The message of "Destination Unreachable" is sent from receiver to the sender when destination cannot be
reached, or packet is discarded when the destination is not reachable.

o Source Quench: The purpose of the source quench message is congestion control. The message sent from the congested router to the
source host to reduce the transmission rate. ICMP will take the IP of the discarded packet and then add the source quench message to
the IP datagram to inform the source host to reduce its transmission rate. The source host will reduce the transmission rate so that the
router will be free from congestion.

o Time Exceeded: Time Exceeded is also known as "Time-To-Live". It is a parameter that defines how long a packet should live before it
would be discarded.
 There are two ways when Time Exceeded message can be generated:

Sometimes packet discarded due to some bad routing implementation, and this causes the looping issue and network congestion. Due to
the looping issue, the value of TTL keeps on decrementing, and when it reaches zero, the router discards the datagram. However, when
the datagram is discarded by the router, the time exceeded message will be sent by the router to the source host.

When destination host does not receive all the fragments in a certain time limit, then the received fragments are also discarded, and the
destination host sends time Exceeded message to the source host.

o Parameter problems: When a router or host discovers any missing value in the IP datagram, the router discards the datagram, and the
"parameter problem" message is sent back to the source host.

o Redirection: Redirection message is generated when host consists of a small routing table. When the host consists of a limited number of
entries due to which it sends the datagram to a wrong router. The router that receives a datagram will forward a datagram to a correct
router and also sends the "Redirection message" to the host to update its routing table.

IGMP

o IGMP stands for Internet Group Message Protocol.

o The IP protocol supports two types of communication:

o Unicasting: It is a communication between one sender and one receiver. Therefore, we can say that it is one-to-one communication.

o Multicasting: Sometimes the sender wants to send the same message to a large number of receivers simultaneously. This process is
known as multicasting which has one-to-many communication.

o The IGMP protocol is used by the hosts and router to support multicasting.

o The IGMP protocol is used by the hosts and router to identify the hosts in a LAN that are the members of a group.

IGMP is a part of the IP layer, and IGMP has a fixed-size message.

The IGMP message is encapsulated within an IP datagram.

 The Format of IGMP message

Type: It determines the type of IGMP message. There are three types of IGMP message: Membership Query, Membership Report and
Leave Report.

Maximum Response Time: This field is used only by the Membership Query message. It determines the maximum time the host can send
the Membership Report message in response to the Membership Query message.

Checksum: It determines the entire payload of the IP datagram in which IGMP message is encapsulated.

Group Address: The behavior of this field depends on the type of the message sent.

o For Membership Query, the group address is set to zero for General Query and set to multicast group address for a specific query.

o For Membership Report, the group address is set to the multicast group address.

o For Leave Group, it is set to the multicast group address.

IGMP Messages

Membership Query message

o This message is sent by a router to all hosts on a local area network to determine the set of all the multicast groups that have been joined
by the host.
o It also determines whether a specific multicast group has been joined by the hosts on a attached interface.

o The group address in the query is zero since the router expects one response from a host for every group that contains one or more
members on that host.

Membership Report message

o The host responds to the membership query message with a membership report message.

o Membership report messages can also be generated by the host when a host wants to join the multicast group without waiting for a
membership query message from the router.

o Membership report messages are received by a router as well as all the hosts on an attached interface.

o Each membership report message includes the multicast address of a single group that the host wants to join.

o IGMP protocol does not care which host has joined the group or how many hosts are present in a single group. It only cares whether one
or more attached hosts belong to a single multicast group.

o The membership Query message sent by a router also includes a "Maximum Response time". After receiving a membership query
message and before sending the membership report message, the host waits for the random amount of time from 0 to the maximum
response time. If a host observes that some other attached host has sent the "Maximum Report message", then it discards its
"Maximum Report message" as it knows that the attached router already knows that one or more hosts have joined a single multicast
group. This process is known as feedback suppression. It provides the performance optimization, thus avoiding the unnecessary
transmission of a "Membership Report message".

Leave Report
When the host does not send the "Membership Report message", it means that the host has left the group. The host knows that there
are no members in the group, so even when it receives the next query, it would not report the group.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM):

It is an International Telecommunication Union- Telecommunications Standards Section (ITU-T) efficient for
call relay and it transmits all information including multiple service types such as data, video, or voice which
is conveyed in small fixed-size packets called cells. Cells are transmitted asynchronously and the network is
connection-oriented.

ATM is a technology that has some event in the development of broadband ISDN in the 1970s and 1980s,
which can be considered an evolution of packet switching. Each cell is 53 bytes long – 5 bytes header and 48
bytes payload. Making an ATM call requires first sending a message to set up a connection.

Subsequently, all cells follow the same path to the destination. It can handle both constant rate traffic and
variable rate traffic. Thus it can carry multiple types of traffic with end-to-end quality of service. ATM is
independent of a transmission medium, they may be sent on a wire or fiber by themselves or they may also
be packaged inside the payload of other carrier systems. ATM networks use “Packet” or “cell” Switching with
virtual circuits. Its design helps in the implementation of high-performance multimedia networking.

o ATM Cell Format –

As information is transmitted in ATM in the form of fixed-size units called cells. As known already each cell is
53 bytes long which consists of a 5 bytes header and 48 bytes payload.
 ATM Layers:

1. ATM Adaption Layer (AAL) –

It is meant for isolating higher-layer protocols from details of ATM processes and prepares for conversion of user data into cells and
segments it into 48-byte cell payloads. AAL protocol excepts transmission from upper-layer services and helps them in mapping
applications, e.g., voice, data to ATM cells.

2. Physical Layer –
It manages the medium-dependent transmission and is divided into two parts physical medium-dependent sublayer and transmission
convergence sublayer. The main functions are as follows:

 It converts cells into a bitstream.

 It controls the transmission and receipt of bits in the physical medium.

 It can track the ATM cell boundaries.

 Look for the packaging of cells into the appropriate type of frames.

3. ATM Layer –
It handles transmission, switching, congestion control, cell header processing, sequential delivery, etc., and is responsible for
simultaneously sharing the virtual circuits over the physical link known as cell multiplexing and passing cells through an ATM network
known as cell relay making use of the VPI and VCI information in the cell header.
IPv4 Datagram Header
Characteristics of IPv4

 IPv4 could be a 32-Bit IP Address.

 IPv4 could be a numeric address, and its bits are separated by a dot.

 The number of header fields is twelve and the length of the header field is twenty.

 It has Unicast, broadcast, and multicast style of addresses.

 IPv4 supports VLSM (Virtual Length Subnet Mask).

 IPv4 uses the Post Address Resolution Protocol to map to the MAC address.

 RIP may be a routing protocol supported by the routed daemon.

 Networks ought to be designed either manually or with DHCP.

 Packet fragmentation permits from routers and causing host.

IPv4 Datagram Header

 VERSION: Version of the IP protocol (4 bits), which is 4 for IPv4

 HLEN: IP header length (4 bits), which is the number of 32 bit words in the header. The minimum value for this field is
5 and the maximum is 15.

 Type of service: Low Delay, High Throughput, Reliability (8 bits)

 Total Length: Length of header + Data (16 bits), which has a minimum value 20 bytes and the maximum is 65,535
bytes.

 Identification: Unique Packet Id for identifying the group of fragments of a single IP datagram (16 bits)

 Flags: 3 flags of 1 bit each : reserved bit (must be zero), do not fragment flag, more fragments flag (same order)

 Fragment Offset: Represents the number of Data Bytes ahead of the particular fragment in the particular Datagram.
Specified in terms of number of 8 bytes, which has the maximum value of 65,528 bytes.

 Time to live: Datagram’s lifetime (8 bits), It prevents the datagram to loop through the network by restricting the
number of Hops taken by a Packet before delivering to the Destination.

 Protocol: Name of the protocol to which the data is to be passed (8 bits)

 Header Checksum: 16 bits header checksum for checking errors in the datagram header

 Source IP address: 32 bits IP address of the sender

 Destination IP address: 32 bits IP address of the receiver

 Option: Optional information such as source route, record route. Used by the Network administrator to check
whether a path is working or not.

IPv4 Datagram Header