D-Link DFL-2500 User Guide - Page 89

Routing Hierarchy

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70 Chapter 10. Routing fields, such as Interface, Network, Gateway, Destination, etc. When a packet arrives at a router, it refers to the routing table to make path determination. The router compares the destination address of the packet with the entries it has in the routing table, and finds out the associated interface and next hop from the matching route to forward the packet. The paths stored in the table are computed by certain routing algorithm defined for the router, which always tries to make the "best" choice. The "best" means a path selection having the "least cost" for transporting. In practice, the concern of "cost" are normally the bandwidth, path length(hops), average delay, and etc., which are introduced in 10.3.2 Routing metrics. Routing algorithm is also responsible for keeping the routing table up to date, so that the router can obtain correct path information for every decision. The two most prevalent classes of routing algorithms are covered in the next section. Packet switching After a path is chosen, the packet switching function takes control of how the packet is actually moved. According to the information of the selected route, the firewall/router rewrites the physical address of the packet to the address of the next hop, and forwards the packet to the next hop with the destination IP address unchanged. In a real-life scenario, many firewalls/routers may come into play during the packet forwarding process, each of them delivers the packet to its nearby neighbor until the packet finally arrives at the receiving host. 10.2 Routing Hierarchy In a complex network environment, as the number of routers becomes large, the domain of routing is often divided into different areas to provide better scalability. Routers reside under the same administrative control are aggregated into one region called "autonomous system (AS)". An AS can be, for example, all computer networks owned by a university or a company's private network. The organization is able to run and administer its network with its own policies and preferable routing algorithm independently, while still being able to connect to the "outside" D-Link Firewalls User's Guide

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70
Chapter 10. Routing
fields, such as
Interface
,
Network
,
Gateway
,
Destination
, etc.
When a packet arrives at a router, it refers to the routing table to
make path determination. The router compares the destination
address of the packet with the entries it has in the routing table, and
finds out the associated interface and next hop from the matching
route to forward the packet. The paths stored in the table are
computed by certain
routing algorithm
defined for the router, which
always tries to make the ”best” choice. The ”best” means a path
selection having the ”least cost” for transporting. In practice, the
concern of ”cost” are normally the
bandwidth
,
path length(hops)
,
average delay
, and etc., which are introduced in
10.3.2 Routing
metrics
.
Routing algorithm is also responsible for keeping the routing table up
to date, so that the router can obtain correct path information for
every decision. The two most prevalent classes of routing algorithms
are covered in the next section.
Packet switching
After a path is chosen, the packet switching function takes control of
how the packet is actually moved. According to the information of
the selected route, the firewall/router rewrites the physical address of
the packet to the address of the next hop, and forwards the packet to
the next hop with the destination IP address unchanged. In a real-life
scenario, many firewalls/routers may come into play during the
packet forwarding process, each of them delivers the packet to its
nearby neighbor until the packet finally arrives at the receiving host.
10.2
Routing Hierarchy
In a complex network environment, as the number of routers becomes large,
the domain of routing is often divided into different areas to provide better
scalability. Routers reside under the same administrative control are
aggregated into one region called ”
autonomous system (AS)
”.
An
AS
can be, for example, all computer networks owned by a university
or a company’s private network. The organization is able to run and
administer its network with its own policies and preferable routing
algorithm independently, while still being able to connect to the ”outside”
D-Link Firewalls User’s Guide