What is Routing: Discover the Data Processing

You might be thinking, "what exactly does routing mean?" Well, routing can be defined as the act of determining which system should process a packet based on its destination address. In other words, routing determines the path that data takes between two points in a network.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there, so we're going to clear them up for you in this blog post!

Routing

Routing refers to selecting a road route for data in a network - among several networks. In packet-switched networks, routing is the top-up decision-making directing network packets from their source to their destination. Routing tables maintain records of network travel to several destination networks.

The routing system also allows these machines on the internetwork to keep track of where the information came from to send an acknowledgment back up the line, which will ultimately be received by the original sender who knows their packet made it through successfully.

It defines the path that data takes through a network and determines where packets are sent on their way to a final destination across multiple routed networks.

How Routing Works

The term "routing" comes from "route," meaning a road one travels to get somewhere else - it's like creating directions, so it is just like driving a car wherein you need to choose the best routing for you to reach the destination. Routing is a protocol that uses metrics to determine which path should be followed.

When routers receive packets, they read through the headers of the packets and get the expected destination. It then determines where the packet should be routed based on information in the routing table. As packets travel to their destination, they may be repeatedly routed by several routers. Routers carry hundreds of packets a second.

Routers make decisions on where packets go by routing them through all available routes, in sequence, and if necessary, using default routing when they come across no path matches for their packet (meaning it will search for another router).

When choosing between two paths of equal metric value ("distance"), routers choose the one with fewer hops because this means fewer chances of errors occurring along the way. As long as you have your network designed correctly, routing shouldn't be an issue!

Benefits of routing

• Provides a connection between the networks and enable routing to the internet.
• It can provide efficient use of data bandwidth.
• Ensures the information is delivered without interruption or disturbance so that users don't have to wait for it.
• Chooses the best path across the network to help ensure that routing is done.
• Reduces network traffic and routing can improve network performance.
• It enables routing to be done over any medium or link-layer between routers even if it is not a traditional WAN connection like MPLS, Frame Relay, etc.
• Ensures that routing protocols are used on all the devices in the routing domain so that they're aware of each other and understand how information should get across them.
• Routing ensures that packets/frames find their way from source to destination.

Types of Routing

Routing can perform without interruption through multiple hops. Data would have been lost by an error such as CRC errors or corruption issues which cause dropped frames leading to broken connectivity unless routing protocol is there failure handling.

There are two types of routing - static routing and dynamic routing. Both types would be used depending on your preference. However, here’s the difference to identify which is better:

Static Routing

Static routing is a kind of routing in which a network administrator configures the routes in the routing table that the router will use to deliver packets to a target network.

When to Use Static Routing?

• When reducing the number of routes that a router advertises
• If the main route fails, it creates a backup route
• To connect a gadget to a specific network
• To link a stub router or stub network

Dynamic Routing

Dynamic routing is a routing method in which a router learns about routing information without the assistance of an administrator and stores the optimal path in its routing table. A router saves the best route to its routing database and can also identify an alternate path if the main route fails using a dynamic routing protocol.

Can You Use Both in Your Network?

Yes! Static routing and dynamic routing can work well together. For example, you may have a few static routes for critical systems (such as your management network) that need to be available all the time.

However, most routing is configured dynamically, so if something happens on one router or link that knocks out traffic going across it, other routers will know how to handle this situation automatically.

Why Do I Need to Configure the Route?

Configuring the route is important as it’s how routing information flows from one device to another. The routing table holds a list of networks that should contain data to the next point.

Like when you have multiple devices on your local LAN (local area network) that need access to internet resources, each device needs its own route entry to reach those remote hosts.

It also helps computers discover new routes over time without having any configuration changes made by the administrator. Routing is used within routers and switches across extensive network infrastructure or virtual private networks (VPNs).

Routing Configuration

• Static routes may be configured for every active interface on the appliance, except for N, which is dedicated to Network Agent and cannot be routed.
• On the same module, the same route cannot be added for two separate interfaces.
• If this action is tried, an error message is shown by the appliance.
• Static routes created for a subsequently decommissioned interface remain in the routing table and are shown in gray to indicate that the routes are decommissioned.
• Static routes that become invalid due to a change in the IP address of the interface are deactivated and highlighted in red.
• Static routes may be created and removed but not changed.
• To change a route, remove it and create a new one with the updated values.
• The services associated with the module that handles the given interface must be restarted when a static route is created, imported, or removed.
• For example, if static routes are introduced to interface P1, all Content Gateway services must restart after the changes are complete.
• The static route table may hold up to 5000 entries.

How to Add Static Routes?

1. Select the Configuration > Routing page, select the IPv4 or IPv6 tab, and click Add/Import under Static Routes.
2. To add a single route manually, choose the Add individual route radio button, enter values for all fields, and click Add Route.

To add multiple routes using an import list, you must:

1. Create an import file.
2. See the import file specs section for further information.
3. Click the radio box labeled import route file.
4. Enter the entire path and file name, or use Browse to find the file.

To import the routes defined in the file, click Import Route. Before performing this, you must keep in mind that the import file must be:

1.  The file must be in the form of plain text. (The majority of routers output route tables as plain text files.)
2. The file may include comment lines. "#" denotes the start of a comment line.
3. A route line must contain the four fields listed below in the order displayed.

A space must be used to separate each field.

To export the routing table:

• Click the export table to save the routing table to a text file. 
• To define the file's location and name, use the browse dialog.

After exporting, your files must be:

• All routes in the table are exported, whether enabled or deactivated.
• The file is formatted in the same way as import files are.

Routing and Security- What's the Connection?

Routing has a role in your security. To keep your data safe and avoid any security issues, you need routing knowledge/skills. When problems arise, you would be able to solve them yourself without having to involve an expert.

Knowing about routing would allow you to know whether routing is done correctly or not and if any security issues would impede the flow of information.

Routing Protocols

A routing protocol determines how routers make routing decisions on your network. Routing Protocols also determine which router becomes the master for making routing decisions when two or more routers have conflicting information from each other.

Without a routing protocol in place, such inconsistencies may occur, leading to data loss/delay and possible downtime due to delays. The conflict between multiple paths being routed out through different gateways trying to reach an endpoint at once will cause congestion.

Routing protocols are also used to share routing information between different networks owned by the same organization, and they help you connect your business network with other businesses. That's why a good knowledge of routing protocols could be essential depending on the routing solution you need for your business or even your home.

Routing Categories

•  Interior Gateway Protocols (IGP): These routing protocols work within an autonomous system or domain, allowing communication between routers in a single administrative group of computers that handles traffic flow. An example is Open Shortest Path First (OSPF).
• Exterior Gateway Protocols (EGP): Routing algorithms send messages outside of its network(domain) across distinct domains. Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and EIGRP, which stands for Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol, are examples of exterior gateway routing protocols.

The difference between interior routing protocol (IGP) and exterior routing protocol (EGP) occurs within these routing algorithms: communications arise internally within an autonomous system when using GP while EGP traverses across autonomous systems.

The Main Routing Protocols

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP): The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing protocol is used to notify which networks control which IP addresses and which networks link to one another. BGP is a routing protocol that is used for dynamic routing.

OSPF: The Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol is widely used by network routers to dynamically determine the quickest and shortest available routes for delivering packets to their destination.

RIP: The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) utilizes "hop count" to determine the shortest path from one network to another, where "hop count" refers to the number of routers a packet must travel through on its journey. (A "hop" occurs when a packet travels from one network to another.)

EIGRP (the Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol, mostly used with Cisco routers) and IS-IS are two more interior routing protocols (Intermediate System to Intermediate System). 

Conclusion

It is evident that the critical nature of routing in networks cannot be overstated. Routing protocols are essential for every network administrator to understand and execute appropriately since they provide a more vital, more dependable link between your LAN or WAN nodes. 

Does this article help you? Let others discover this so they can also gain some knowledge about routing!