Chapter 4: Interdomain Routing Basics

I. Overview of Routers and Routing

1. The steps for basic routing are as follows
1. Routers run programs referred to as routing protocols to both transmit and
receive route information to and from other routers in the network.
2. Routers use this information to populate routing tables that are associated with
each particular routing protocol.
3. Routers scan the routing tables from the different routing protocols (if more than
one routing protocol is running) and select the best path(s) to each destination
4. Routers associate with that destination the next-hop device's attached data link
layer address and the local outgoing interface to be used when forwarding
packets to the destination. Note that the next-hop device could be another router,
or perhaps even the destination host.
5. The next-hop device's forwarding information (data link layer address plus
outgoing interface) is placed in the router's forwarding table.
6. When a router receives a packet, the router examines the packet's header to
determine the destination address.
7. The router consults the forwarding table to obtain the outgoing interface and
next-hop address to reach the destination.
8. The router performs any additional functions required (such as IP TTL
decrement or manipulating IP TOS settings) and then forwards the packet on to
the appropriate device.
9. This continues until the destination host is reached. This behavior reflects the
hop-by-hop routing paradigm that's generally used in packet-switching networks.
2. EGPs such as BGP were introduced because IGPs don't scale well beyond enterprise
networks with hundreds of thousands of routes.

2. Basic Routing Example

II. Routing Protocol Concepts
1. Distance Vector Routing Protocols
2. Link-State Routing Protocols

III. Segregating the World into Autonomous Systems

1. Static Routing, Default Routing, and Dynamic Routing
1. Basic terminology and concepts of routing
1. Static routing refers to routes to destinations being listed manually, or statically,
as the name implies, in the router. Network reachability in this case is not
dependent on the existence and state of the network itself. Whether a destination
is active or not, the static routes remain in the routing table, and traffic is still
sent toward the specified destination.
2. Default routing refers to a "last resort" outlet. Traffic to destinations that is
unknown to the router is sent to that default outlet. Default routing is the easiest
form of routing for a domain connected to a single exit point.
3. Dynamic routing refers to routes being learned via an interior or exterior routing
protocol. Network reachability is dependent on the existence and state of the
network. If a destination is down, the route disappears form the routing table,
and traffic is not sent toward that destination.

2. Autonomous Systems
1. AS is a group of routers using one IGP or multiple IGPs working together within the
AS for internal routing. The AS viewed from outside the network is viewed as a
single entity. An AS number is assigned by an Internet Registry or by a provider for
the instance of private ASs. Routing exchanged between ASs using an EGP (BGP).
2. Segregating the world into administrations is the capability to have one large
network (in the sense that the Internet could have been one huge OSPF or IS-IS
network) divided into smaller and more manageable networks. These networks,
represented as ASs, can now implement their own set of rules and policies that will
uniquely distinguish their networks and associated service offerings from other
networks. Each AS can now run its own set of IGPs, independent of IGPs in other
ASs.
2. Stub AS
1. Single Homed = Stub AS (Single connection to a single ISP)
1. If the customer has a number of contiguous subnets the ISP could use static
aggregate routes to the customer and then use BGP to advertise to the rest of the
internet. However if the customer has many noncontiguous subnets then static
routes becomes inefficient.
2. Uncommon, but can use IGPs between the customer and the ISP making the
advertisement of noncontiguous more efficient. However IGPs don't scale well
because customer link instability can result in IGP instabilities.
3. BGP - Although it may be hard to get a public AS from an IRR because the
customers routing policies are an extension of the ISP's. The provider could
however use private ASs (65412-65535), assuming that the provider's routing
policies have provisioned support for using private AS space with customers.
3. Multihomed Nontransit AS
1. Multihomed = a connected to two providers (or multiple connections to one
provider).
2. In order to ensure non-transit AS status, the customer would need to ensure to
advertise only it's local routes to both providers, and filter any other routes learned
from the providers from being advertised to the other provider. The ISPs could force
outside traffic by using a default route, however you can take precautions against
this by filtering all traffic destined to a subnet not of the local ASs.
3. Multihomed topologies does not need to use BGP although most providers will
require it, and BGP is recommended for this sort of topology.
4. Multihomed Transit AS
1. Multihomed Transit AS is when the local AS receives routes from one AS and
advertises them to another AS.
2. Routers internal to the same AS are iBGP neighbors (AKA transit routers)
3. Routers in separate ASs are eBGP neighbors.
4. Nontransit routers internal to the AS don't have to run BGP, could use an IGP or
static routing, normally providers have all routers running BGP however.