Unit-3

The Network Layer

Introduction
The network layer in the TCP/IP protocol suite is responsible for the host-to-host
delivery of datagrams. It provides services to the transport layer and receives
services from the data-link layer.
Forwarding and Routing
The role of the network layer is to move packets from sending host to a receiving
host. To do these two important network-layer functions can be identified:
• [Link] to the router-local action of transferring a packet from an input
link interface to the appropriate output link interface. When a packet arrives at a
router’s input link, the router must move the packet to the appropriate output link.
• [Link] refers to the network-wide process that determines the end-to-end
paths that packets take from source to destination. The algorithms that calculate
these paths are referred to as routing algorithms.

1. Routing Algorithms(Protocols)
The main function of the network layer is routing packets from the source machine
to the destination machine. The routing algorithm is that part of the network layer
software responsible for deciding which output line an incoming packet should be
transmitted on.

A routing table can be either static or dynamic.

 A static table is one with manual entries.
 A dynamic table, on the other hand, is one that is updated automatically when
there is a change somewhere in the internet.

Adaptive algorithms: change their routing decisions to reflect changes in the

topology, and sometimes changes in the traffic as well. These are dynamic routing
algorithms.
Nonadaptive algorithms: do not base their routing decisions on any
measurements or estimates of the current topology and traffic. This procedure is
sometimes called static routing.

The set of optimal routes from all sources to a given destination form a tree rooted
at the destination. Such a tree is called a sink tree.

Fig: Popular routing protocols

Unicast routing algorithms

Nonadaptive routing algorithms(static)
i) Shortest Path Algorithm: Shortest path routing refers to the process of finding

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paths through a network that have a minimum of distance or other cost metric.
 A technique to study routing algorithms: The idea is to build a graph of the sub
net, with each node of the graph representing a router and each arc of the graph
representing a communication line (often called a link).
 To choose a route between a given pair of routers, the algorithm just finds the
shortest path between them on the graph.
 Dijkstra's algorithm create the shortest path algorithm

ii) Flooding: When a routing algorithm is implemented, each router must make
decisions based on local knowledge, not the complete picture of the network. A
simple local technique is flooding, in which every incoming packet is sent out on
every outgoing line except the one it arrived on.
Flooding obviously generates vast numbers of duplicate packets, in fact, an infinite
number unless some measures are taken to damp the process.

Adaptive algorithms (dynamic)

i) Distance Vector Routing: A distance vector routing algorithm operates by having
each router maintain a table (vector) giving the best known distance to each
destination and which link to use to get there. These tables are updated by
exchanging information with the neighbors. Eventually, every router knows the best
link to reach each destination.
 The distance vector routing algorithm is sometimes called by other names,
most commonly the distributed Bellman-Ford routing algorithm
Distance Vector: Let dx(y) be the cost of the least-cost path from node x to node y.
Then the least costs are related by the celebrated Bellman-Ford equation, namely,
Dx(y) = minv{c(x,v) + Dv(y)} for each node y in N
Where the minv in the equation is taken over all of x’s neighbors. Indeed, after
traveling from x to v, if we then take the least-cost path from v to y, the path cost will
be c(x,v) + dv(y). Since we must begin by traveling to some neighbor v, the least cost
from x to y is the minimum of c(x,v)+ dv(y) taken over all neighbors v.

Figure illustrates the operation of the DV algorithm for the simple three node
network shown at the top of the figure.

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 Fig: Distance-vector (DV) algorithm

RIP: The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is an intra domain routing protocol used
inside an autonomous system. It is a very simple protocol based on distance vector
routing.

ii) Link State Routing

Link-state routing uses link-state routers to exchange messages that allow each
router to learn the entire network topology. Based on this learned topology, each
router is then able to compute its routing table by using a shortest path computation.
 In link state routing, if each node in the domain has the entire topology of the
domain the list of nodes and links, how they are connected including the type,
cost (metric), and condition of the links (up or down)-the node can use
Dijkstra's algorithm to build a routing table.
Let us define the following notation:
• D(v): cost of the least-cost path from the source node to destination v as of this
iteration of the algorithm.
• p(v): previous node (neighbor of v) along the current least-cost path from the
source to v.
• N`: subset of nodes; v is in N` if the least-cost path from the source to v is
definitively known.

Link-State (LS) Algorithm for Source Node u

1 Initialization:
2 N` = {u}
3 for all nodes v
4 if v is a neighbor of u
5 then D(v) = c(u,v)
6 else D(v) = ∞
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8 Loop
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9 find w not in N` such that D(w) is a minimum
10 add w to N`
11 update D(v) for each neighbor v of w and not in N’:
12 D(v) = min( D(v), D(w) + c(w,v) )
13 until N`= N

Fig: Graph model of a computer network

Table: Running the link-state algorithm on the network in Figure

OSPF: The Open Shortest Path First or OSPF protocol is an intra domain routing
protocol based on link state routing. Its domain is also an autonomous system.

iii) Path Vector Routing: Path vector routing proved to be useful for inter domain
routing. The principle of path vector routing is similar to that of distance vector
routing. In path vector routing, we assume that there is one node in each
autonomous system that acts on behalf of the entire autonomous system.
Let us call it the speaker node. The speaker node in an AS creates a routing table
and advertises it to speaker nodes in the neighboring ASs. Only speaker nodes in
each AS can communicate with each other.
Initialization: At the beginning, each speaker node can know only the reachability of
nodes inside its autonomous system. Figure shows the initial tables for each
speaker node in a system made of four ASs.
Node Al is the speaker node for ASl, Bl for AS2, Cl for AS3, and Dl for AS4.

Fig: Initial routing tables in path vector routing

Sharing Just as in distance vector routing, in path vector routing, a speaker in an

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autonomous system shares its table with immediate neighbors.

BGP: Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is an inter domain routing protocol using path
vector routing.

Multicast Routing Protocols

Broadcast Routing: In some applications, hosts need to send messages to many
or all other hosts.
In broadcast communication, the relationship between the source and the
destination is one-to-all. There is only one source, but all the other hosts are the
destinations.
For example, a service distributing weather reports, stock market updates, or live
radio programs might work best by sending to all machines are interested read the
data. Sending a packet to all destinations simultaneously is called broadcasting.

(a) Network (b) The tree built

by reverse path forwarding.

Multicast Routing: Sending a message to such a group is called multicasting,

and the routing algorithm used is called multicast routing.
In multicast communication, there is one source and a group of destinations. The
relationship is one-to-many. In this type of communication, the source address is a
unicast address, but the destination address is a group address, which defines one
or more destinations. The group address identifies the members of the group.

Fig: (a) A network. (b) A spanning tree for the leftmost router.
(c) A multicast tree for group 1. (d) A multicast tree for group 2.

Anycast Routing: In anycast, a packet is delivered to the nearest member of a

group. Schemes that find these paths are called anycast routing.
However, a packet destined for an anycast address is delivered to only one of the
members of the anycast group, the nearest one (the one with the shortest route).

2. Internetworking
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 We have implicitly assumed that there is a single homogeneous network, with
each machine using the same protocol in each layer. Unfortunately, this assumption
is wildly optimistic. Many different networks exist, including LANs, MANs, and WANs.

 The issues that arise when two or more networks are connected to form an
internetwork, or more simply an internet.

How Networks Differ:

 Networks can differ in many ways. Some of the differences, such as different
modulation techniques or frame formats, are internal to the physical and data link
layers.

 We list some of the differences that can be exposed to the network layer.

 It is papering over these differences that makes internetworking more difficult

than operating within a single network.

Fig: Some of the many ways networks can differ

How Networks Can Be Connected:

There are two basic choices for connecting different networks:

1. We can build devices that translate or convert packets from each kind of network
into packets for each other network.

2. We can try to solve the problem by adding a layer of indirection and building a
common layer on top of the different networks.

IP is the foundation of the modern Internet. IP provides a universal packet format

that all routers recognize and that can be passed through almost every network. A
router that can handle multiple network protocols is called a multiprotocol router.

How interconnection with a common network layer can be used to interconnect

dissimilar networks. An internet comprised of 802.11, MPLS, and Ethernet network is
shown in Fig. (a)
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Suppose that the source machine on the 802.11 network wants to send a packet to
the destination machine on the Ethernet network. Since these technologies are
different, and they are further separated by another kind of network (MPLS).

An internet comprised of 802.11, MPLS, and Ethernet networks are shown in Fig.

Fig: (a) A packet crossing different networks. (b) Network and link layer protocol
processing.

Tunneling
The special case that is manageable even for different network protocols. This case
is where the source and destination hosts are on the same type of network, but there
is a different network in between. As an example, think of an international bank with
an IPv6 network in Paris, an IPv6 network in London and connectivity between the
offices via the IPv4 Internet. This situation is shown in Fig.

The solution to this problem is a technique called tunneling. The path through the
IPv4 Internet can be seen as a big tunnel extending from one multiprotocol router to
the other. The IPv6 packet just travels from one end of the tunnel to the other.

Fig: Tunneling a packet from Paris to London.

Internetwork Routing
A two-level routing algorithm. Within each network, an intradomain or interior
gateway protocol is used for routing. Across the networks that make up the internet,
an interdomain or exterior gateway protocol is used. The networks may all use
different intradomain protocols, but they must use the same interdomain protocol.
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In the Internet, the interdomain routing protocol is called BGP (Border Gateway
Protocol).

Packet Fragmentation
Each network or link imposes some maximum size on its packets. These limits have
various causes, among them
1. Hardware (e.g., the size of an Ethernet frame).
2. Operating system (e.g., all buffers are 512 bytes).
3. Protocols (e.g., the number of bits in the packet length field).
4. Desire to reduce error-induced retransmissions to some level. 5. Desire to prevent
one packet from occupying the channel too long.
Solution:
i. The packet size is called the Path MTU (Path Maximum Transmission Unit).
Even if the source did know the path MTU, packets are routed independently in a
connectionless network such as the Internet.
ii. The alternative solution to the problem is to allow routers to break up packets
into fragments, sending each fragment as a separate network layer packet. However,
as every parent of a small child knows, converting a large object into small
fragments is considerably easier than the reverse process.

3. The network layer in the Internet

i) The Internet Protocol(IP): Forwarding and Addressing in the Internet
Internet addressing and forwarding are important components of the Internet
Protocol (IP). There are two versions of IP in use today.
IP version 4 (IPv4) and IP version 6 (IPv6). IP addresses are made up of binary
values and drive the routing of all data over the Internet. IPv4 addresses are 32 bits
long, and IPv6 addresses 128 bits long.

IP version 4 (IPv4): Datagram Format

The Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), is responsible for packetizing, forwarding, and
delivery of a packet at the network layer. The Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the
delivery mechanism used by the TCP/IP protocols.

IPv4 is an unreliable and connectionless datagram protocol-a best-effort delivery

service. IPv4 is also a connectionless protocol for a packet- switching network that
uses the datagram approach. This means that each datagram is handled
independently, and each datagram can follow a different route to the destination.

Packets in the IPv4 layer are called datagrams. A datagram is a variable-length

packet consisting of two parts: header and data. The header is 20 to 60 bytes in
length. The header has a 20-byte fixed part and a variable-length optional part. The
header format is shown in Fig.

Fig: IPv4 Datagram Flags (3 bits)

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 Fig: The IPv4 (Internet Protocol) header

 Version Number. The 4-bit version number (VER) field defines the version of the
IPv4 protocol has the value of 4.

 Header Length. The 4-bit header length (HLEN) field defines the total length of
the datagram header in 4-byte words. The IPv4 datagram has a variable-length
header.
This 4-bit field indicates the number of 4-byte words in the IP header. The length of
the header can be between 20 and 60 bytes. Therefore, the value of this field is
always between 5 (5 × 4 = 20) and 15 (15 × 4 = 60).

 Service Type. In the original design of the IP header, this field was referred to as
type of service (TOS), which defined how the datagram should be handled. The IETF
redefined the field to provide differentiated services.
Precedence is a 3-bit subfield ranging from 0 (000 in binary) to 7 (111 in binary). The
precedence defines the priority of the datagram in issues such as congestion.

Fig: Type of Service

Total Length. This 16-bit field defines the total length (header plus data) of the IP
datagram in bytes. A 16-bit number can define a total length of up to 65,535.

Length of Data =Total Length – (HLEN) x4

 Identification. This 16-bit field identifies a datagram originating from the source
host. The combination of the identification and source IPv4 address must uniquely
define a datagram as it leaves the source host.
To guarantee uniqueness, the IPv4 protocol uses a counter to label the datagrams
and after every label assigning counter is incremented by 1. When datagram is
fragmented, all fragments have the same identification number of the original
datagram.

 Flags. This is a 3-bit field. The first bit is reserved.

The second bit is called the do not fragment bit.
If its value is 1, the machine must not fragment the datagram. If it cannot
pass the datagram, it discards the datagram and sends an ICMP error
message to the source host.
If its value is 0, the datagram can be fragmented if necessary.

The third bit is called the more fragment bit.

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 If its value is 1, it means the datagram is not the last fragment; there are more
fragments after this one.
If its value is 0, it means this is the last or only one datagram.

 Fragmentation Offset. This 13-bit field shows the relative position of this
fragment with respect to the whole datagram.

 Time-to-live. A datagram has a limited lifetime in its travel through an internet.

This field was originally designed to hold a timestamp, which was decremented by
each visited router. The datagram was discarded when the value became zeroand is
supposed to be decremented multiple times when a packet is queued for a long time
in a router.

 Protocol. This 8-bit field defines the higher-level protocol that uses the services
of the IPv4 layer. An IPv4 datagram can encapsulate data from several higher-level
protocols such as TCP, UDP, ICMP, and IGMP. This field specifies the final
destination protocol to which the IPv4 datagram is delivered.

Table: protocol values

 Header checksum. The checksum in the IPv4 packet covers only the header, not
the data.
The implementation of the checksum in the IPv4 packet follows as; first, the value of
the checksum field is set to 0. Then the entire header is divided into 16-bit sections
and added together. The result (sum) is complemented and inserted into the
checksum field.

 Source address. This 32-bit field defines the IPv4 address of the source. This
field must remain unchanged during the time the IPv4 datagram travels from the
source host to the destination host.
 Destination address. This 32-bit field defines the IPv4 address of the destination.
This field must remain unchanged during the time the IPv4 datagram travels from
the source host to the destination host

 Options. A datagram header can have up to 40 bytes of options. Options can be

used for network testing and debugging.

IPV4 Addresses
IPv4 address is a 32-bit address that uniquely and universally defines the connection
of a device (for example, a computer or a router) to the Internet.
 Address space is the total number of addresses used by the protocol.IPv4 uses
32
32-bit addresses: The address space=2 =4,294,967,296 (more than 4 billion).
 Notations: There are two notations to show an IPv4 address
Binary notation: Address is displayed as 32 bits. Each octet is often referred to as
byte.IPv4 address referred to as 32-bit address or 4-byte address
Dotted-decimal notation: More compact and easier to read, Written in decimal form
with a decimal point (dot) separating the bytes.
Example: Each decimal value range from 0 to 255
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 Fig: different notations in IPv4 addressing

Classful addressing: IPv4 addressing used the concept of classes. This

architecture is called classful addressing. In classful addressing, the address space
is divided into five classes: A, B, C, D, and E. Each class occupies some part of the
address space.

Fig: Finding the classes in binary and dotted-decimal notation

Addresses in Classes A, B and C are unicast addresses. Addresses in Class D are for
multicast address and addresses in class E are reserved.

 Classes and Blocks: One problem with classful addressing is that each class is
divided into a fixed number of blocks with each block having a fixed size as shown in
Table.

Table: Number of blocks and block size in classful IPv4 addressing

Class A addresses were designed for large organizations with a large number of
attached hosts or routers. Class B addresses were designed for midsize
organizations with tens of thousands of attached hosts or routers. Class C
addresses were designed for small organizations with a small number of attached
hosts or routers

 Netid and Hostid: In classful addressing, an IP address in class A, B, or C is

divided into netid and hostid.
Note that the concept does not apply to classes D and E. In Class A, one byte defines
the netid and three bytes define the hostid. In Class B, two bytes define the netid and
two bytes define the hostid. In Class C, three bytes define the netid and one byte
defines the hostid.

 Mask: The length of the netid and hostid (in bits) is predetermined in classful
addressing, we can also use a mask (also called the default mask), a 32-bit
number made of contiguous 1s followed by contiguous 0s. The masks for classes A,

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B, and C are shown in Table. The concept does not apply to classes D and E.

Table:Default masks for classful addressing

The last column of Table shows the mask in the form / n where n can be 8, 16, or 24
in classful addressing. This notation is also called slash notation or
Classless Inter domain Routing (CIDR) notation.

 Subnetting: During the era of classful addressing, subnetting was introduced. If

an organization was granted a large block in class A or B, it could divide the
addresses into several contiguous groups and assign each group to smaller
networks (called subnets). Subnetting increases the number of 1s in the mask.

 Supernetting: The size of a class C block with a maximum number of 256

addresses did not satisfy the needs of most organizations. Even a midsize
organization needed more addresses. One solution was supernetting.

In supernetting, an organization can combine several class C blocks to create a large

range of addresses.

 Address Depletion: The flaws in classful addressing scheme combined with the
fast growth of the Internet led to the near depletion of the available addresses. Yet
the number of devices on the Internet is much less than the 232 address space. We
have run out of class A and B addresses, and a class C block is too small for most
midsize organizations. One solution for the problem is the idea of classless
addressing.

Classless Addressing: To overcome address depletion and give more

organizations access to the Internet, classless addressing was designed and
implemented. In this scheme, there are no classes, but the addresses are still
granted in blocks.
 Address Blocks: In classless addressing, when an entity, small or large, needs to
be connected to the Internet, it is granted a block (range) of addresses. The size of
the block (the number of addresses) varies based on the nature and size of the entity.

Restriction: To simplify the handling of addresses, the Internet authorities impose

three restrictions on classless address blocks:
1. The addresses in a block must be contiguous, one after another.
2. The number of addresses in a block must be a power of 2 (1, 2, 4, 8, . . . ).
3. The first address must be evenly divisible by the number of addresses.

Example: Figure shows a block of addresses granted to a small business that needs
16 addresses.

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 Figure: A block of 16 addresses granted to a small organization

We can see that the restrictions are applied to this block. The addresses are
contiguous. The number of addresses is a power of 2 (16 = 24), and the first address
is divisible by 16.

 Mask: A better way to define a block of addresses is to select any address in the
block and the mask. A mask is a 32 bit number in which the n leftmost bits are 1s
and the 32 – n rightmost bits are 0s. However, in classless addressing the mask for
a block can take any value from 0 to 32.

First address: The first address in the block can be found by setting the
rightmost 32 – n bits to 0s.
Last address: The last address in the block can be found by setting the
rightmost 32 − n bits to 1s.
Number of addresses: The number of addresses in the block can be found by
using the formula 232−n

Ex: A block of addresses is granted to a small organization. We know that one of

the addresses is [Link]/28.

First address: The binary representation of the given address is

11001101 00010000 00100101 00100111
If we set 32−28 rightmost bits to 0, we get
11001101 00010000 00100101 00100000
or
[Link]

Last address: The binary representation of the given address is

11001101 00010000 00100101 00100111

If we set 32 − 28 rightmost bits to 1, we get
11001101 00010000 00100101 00101111
or
[Link]
Number of addresses: The value of n is 28, which means that number of addresses
32−28
is 2 or 16.

 Two-Level Hierarchy: No Subnetting: IP addresses can define only two levels of

hierarchy when not subnetted. The n left-most bits of the address x.y.z.t/ n define the
network; the 32- n rightmost bits define the particular host (computer or router) to
the network.

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 Three-Levels of Hierarchy: Subnetting: An organization that is granted a large block of
addresses may want to create clusters of networks (called subnets) and divide the
addresses between the different subnets.

Example, suppose an organization is given the block [Link]/26, which contains

64 addresses. The organization has needs to divide the addresses into three
subblocks of 32, 16, and 16 addresses.
We can find the new masks by using the following arguments:
1. Suppose the mask for the 1st subnet is n1, then 232−n1must be 32, which means
that n1 = 27.
2. Suppose the mask for the second subnet is n2, then 232 −n2must be 16, which
means that n2 = 28.
3. Suppose the mask for the third subnet is n3, then 232−n3must be 16, which means
that n3 = 28.
This means that we have the masks 27, 28, 28 with the organization mask being 26.

IP Version 6
An IPv6 address is 128 bits or 16 bytes (octets) long, four times the address length
in IPv4. The IPV6 address is represented as colon hexadecimal notation (or colon
hex for short) divides the address into eight sections, each made of four
hexadecimal digits separated by colons.
Its major goals were:
1. Support billions of hosts.
2. Reduce the size of the routing tables.
3. Simplify the protocol, to allow routers to process packets faster.
4. Provide better security (authentication and privacy).
5. Pay more attention to the type of service, particularly for real-time data.
6. Aid multicasting by allowing scopes to be specified.
7. Make it possible for a host to roam without changing its address.
8. Allow the protocol to evolve in the future.
9. Better header format

The IPV6 Protocol: The IPv6 packet is shown in Figure. Each packet is composed
of a base header followed by the payload. The base header occupies 40 bytes,
whereas payload can be up to 65,535 bytes of information.

Fig: IPv6 datagram

 Version. The 4-bit version field defines the version number of the IP. For IPv6, the
value is 6.
 Traffic class. The 8-bit traffic class field is used to distinguish different payloads
with different delivery requirements. It replaces the type-of-service field in IPv4.
 Flow label. The flow label is a 20-bit field that is designed to provide special
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handling for a particular flow of data.
 Payload length. The 2-byte payload length field defines the length of the IP
datagram excluding the header In IPv6, the length of the base header is fixed (40
bytes); only the length of the payload needs to be defined.
 Next header. The next header is an 8-bit field defining the type of the first
extension header (if present) or the type of the data that follows the base header in
the datagram.
 Hop limit. The 8-bit hop limit field serves the same purpose as the TTL field in
IPv4. The Hop limit field is used to keep packets from living forever.
 Source and destination addresses. The source address field is a 16-byte (128-bit)
Internet address that identifies the original source of the datagram. The destination
address field is a 16-byte (128-bit) Internet address that identifies the destination of
the datagram.

IPv6 Address
Despite all short-term solutions, address depletion is still a long-term problem for the
Internet. This and still a long-term problem for the Internet. This and other problems
in the IP protocol itself have been the motivation for IPv6.

Structure: An IPv6 address consists of 16 bytes (octets); it is 128 bits long.

 Hexadecimal Colon Notation: To make addresses more readable, IPv6 specifies
hexadecimal colon notation. In this notation, 128 bits is divided into eight sections,
each 2 bytes in length. The address consists of 32 hexadecimal digits, with every
four digits separated by a colon, as shown in Figure.

Fig: IPv6 address in binary and hexadecimal colon notation

 Abbreviation: the IP address even in hexadecimal format, is very long, many of

the digits are zeros. In this case, we can abbreviate the address. The leading zeros of
a section (four digits between two colons) can be omitted.

Fig: Abbreviated IPv6 addresses

Address Space: IPv6 has a much larger address space; 2128 addresses are
available. The designers of IPv6 divided the address into several categories.
ii) Internet Control Protocols
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 ICMP—The Internet Control Message Protocol
ICMP is used by hosts and routers to communicate network-layer information to
each other.
The most typical use of ICMP is for error reporting. The operation of the Internet is
monitored closely by the routers.
When something unexpected occurs during packet processing at a router, the event
is reported to the sender by the ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol).
ICMP is often considered part of IP but architecturally it lies just above IP, as ICMP
messages are carried inside IP datagrams. Each ICMP message type is carried
encapsulated in an IP packet.

Messages: ICMP messages are divided into two broad categories: error-
reporting messages and query messages.
The error-reporting messages report problems that a router or a host (destination)
may encounter when it processes an IP packet.
The query messages, which occur in pairs, help a host or a network manager get
specific information from a router or another host.

Error-Reporting and query Messages:

 The DESTINATION UNREACHABLE message is used when the router cannot

locate the destination
 The TIME EXCEEDED message is sent when a packet is dropped because its TtL
(Time to live) counter has reached zero.
 The PARAMETER PROBLEM message indicates that an illegal value has been
detected in a header field.
 The SOURCE QUENCH (type 4) message, which informs the sender that the
network has encountered congestion and the datagram has been dropped; the
source needs to slow down sending more datagrams.
 The REDIRECT message is used when a router notices that a packet seems to be
routed incorrectly. It is used by the router to tell the sending host to update to a
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better route.
 The ECHO and ECHOREPLY messages are sent by hosts to see if a given
destination is reachable and currently alive. Upon receiving the ECHO message, the
destination is expected to send back an ECHO REPLY message.
 The TIMESTAMPREQUEST and TIMESTAMPREPLY messages are similar, except
that the arrival time of the message and the departure time of the reply are recorded
in the reply. This facility can be used to measure network performance.

IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) - Internet Multicasting

Normal IP communication is between one sender and one receiver. However, for
some applications, it is useful for a process to be able to send to a large number of
receivers simultaneously.
IP supports one-to-many communication, or multicasting, using class D IP addresses.
Each class D address identifies a group of hosts. Twenty-eight bits are available for
identifying groups, so over 250 million groups can exist at the same time.
The range of IP addresses [Link]/24 is reserved for multicast on the local
network. Some examples of local multicast addresses are:
[Link] All systems on a LAN
[Link] All routers on a LAN
[Link] All OSPF routers on a LAN
[Link] All DNS servers on a LAN

The protocol that is used today for collecting information about group membership
is the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP). IGMP is a protocol defined at
the network layer; it is one of the auxiliary protocols, like ICMP, which is considered
part of the IP. IGMP messages are encapsulated in an IP datagram.

Messages There are only two types of messages in IGMP, query and report
messages, as shown in Figure.
A query message is periodically sent by a router to all hosts attached to it to ask
them to report their interests about membership in groups.
A report message is sent by a host as a response to a query message.

Fig: IGMP operation

Query Message The query message is sent by a router to all hosts in each interface
to collect information about their membership. There are three versions of query
messages, as described below:
 A general query message is sent about membership in any group. Note that all
routers attached to the same network receive this message to inform them that this
message is already sent and that they should refrain from resending it.
 A group-specific query message is sent from a router to ask about the
membership related to a specific group.
This is sent when a router does not receive a response about a specific group in the
network.
The group identifier (multicast address) is mentioned in the message. The message
is encapsulated in a datagram with the destination address set to the corresponding
multicast address.
 A source-and-group-specific query message is sent from a router to ask about
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the membership related to a specific group when the message comes from a
specific source or sources.
Again the message is sent when the router does not hear about a specific group
related to a specific host or hosts.

Report Message A report message is sent by a host as a response to a query

message. The message contains a list of records in which each record gives the
identifier of the corresponding group (multicast address) and the addresses of all
sources that the host is interested in receiving messages from.

iii) OSPF and BGP

Autonomous System (AS): Group of networks and routers under the authority of a
single administration.
The routing operations performed inside an autonomous system is known as
intradomain routing or interior gateway routing.
When the routing is performed between two autonomous systems, it is referred to
as interdomain routing or exterior gateway routing.
 Solid lines show the communication between routers that use interior routing
protocols.
 Broken lines show the communication between routers that use an exterior
routing protocol.

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) - An Interior Gateway Routing

Protocol
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is also an intradomain routing protocol but it is
based on the link-state routing protocol. OSPF is an open protocol, which means
that the specification is a public document.
Open shortest path first (OSPF) is a link-state routing protocol which is used to find
the best path between the source and the destination router using its own shortest
path first (SPF) algorithm.

OSPF is developed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as one of the Interior
Gateway Protocol (IGP), i.e, the protocol which aims at moving the packet within a
large autonomous system or routing domain. It is a network layer protocol which
works on the protocol number 89.

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With OSPF, a router constructs a complete topological map (that is, a graph) of the
entire autonomous system. The router then locally runs Dijkstra’s shortest-path
algorithmto determine a shortest-path tree to all subnets, with itself as the root node.

With OSPF, a router broadcasts routing information to all other routers in the
autonomous system, not just to its neighboring routers. A router broadcasts link
state information whenever there is a change in a link’s state. It also broadcasts a
link’s state periodically (at least once every 30 minutes), even if the link’s state has
not changed.

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) - An exterior Gateway Routing

Protocol
The Border Gateway Protocol version 4 (BGP4) is the only interdomain routing
protocol used in the Internet today. BGP4 is based on the path-vector algorithm to
provide information about the reachability of networks in the Internet.
• Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
standard, and the most scalable of all routing protocols.
• BGP is the routing protocol of the global Internet, as well as for Service Provider
private networks. BGP has expanded upon its original purpose of carrying Internet
reachability information, and can now carry routes for Multicast, IPv6, VPNs, and a
variety of other data.
• BGP is most commonly used as an external routing protocol for large networks
with multiple connections to the Internet.
• Companies or institutions that use BGP will have a unique autonomous system
number that is exchanged with other BGP networks to create peering relationships
with other autonomous systems.

As an inter-AS routing protocol, BGP provides each AS a means to

1. Obtain subnet reachability information from neighboring ASs.
2. Propagate the reachability information to all routers internal to the AS.

In BGP, pairs of routers exchange routing information over semipermanent TCP

connections using port [Link] is typically one such BGP TCP connection for each
link that directly connects two routers in two different ASs; thus, in Figure, there is a
TCP connection between gateway routers 3a and 1cand another TCP connection
between gateway routers 1b and 2a.

Fig: eBGP and iBGP sessions

• The TCP connection along with all the BGP messages sent over the
connection is called a BGP session. Furthermore, a BGP session that spans
two AS is called an external BGP (eBGP) session, and a BGP session between
routers in the same AS is called an internal BGP (iBGP) session.

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