Faculty of Engineering

Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering

Fall, 2024

COMPUTER NETWORKS

Lec. 11

Prof. Ahmed Salah EL-Din Mohamed Ali

Routing in Switched Networks
 Routing

The routing function seeks to design

routes through the network for
individual pairs of communicating
end nodes such that the network is
used efficiently.
 Routing in Packet Switched
Network
The primary function of a packet-
switching network is to accept packets
from a source station and deliver them to
a destination station. To accomplish this,
a path or route through the network
must be determined; generally, more
than one route is possible. Thus, a
routing function must be performed.
 Routing in Packet Switched
Network
 Key design issue for (packet) switched networks
 Select route across network between end nodes
 Characteristics required:
 Correctness

 Simplicity

 Robustness (Localized failures and

overloads).
 Stability

 Fairness (Nearby and distant stations)

 Optimality

 Efficiency (Overheads)
 Routing in Packet Switched Network

Robustness has to do with the ability of the network to

deliver packets via some route in the face of localized
failures and overloads. The designer who seeks
robustness must cope with the competing requirement
for stability.
A tradeoff also exists between fairness and optimality.
Some performance criteria may give higher priority to
the exchange of packets between nearby stations
compared to an exchange between distant stations. This
policy may maximize average throughput but will
appear unfair to the station that primarily needs to
communicate with distant stations.
 Routing in Packet Switched
Network

Finally, any routing technique involves some

processing overhead at each node and often a
transmission overhead as well, both of which
impair network efficiency. The penalty of such
overhead needs to be less than the benefit
accrued based on some reasonable metric, such
as increased robustness or fairness.
 Performance Criteria
The selection of a route is generally based on some
performance criterion. The simplest criterion is to
choose the minimum-hop route (one that passes
through the least number of nodes) through the
network. This is an easily measured criterion and
should minimize the consumption of network
resources. A generalization of the minimum-hop
criterion is least-cost routing. In this case, a cost is
associated with each link, and, for any pair of
attached stations, the route through the network
that accumulates the least cost is sought.
 Performance Criteria

 Used for selection of route.

 Simplest is “minimum hop”.

 Can be generalized as “least cost”.

Example
The previous figure illustrates a network in
which the two arrowed lines between a pair of
nodes represent a link between these nodes,
and the corresponding numbers represent the
current link cost in each direction.

The shortest path (fewest hops) from node 1

to node 6 is 1-3-6 (cost = 5 + 5 = 10).

But the least-cost path is 1-4-5-6 (cost = 1 + 1

+ 2 = 4).
Costs are assigned to links to support one or
more design objectives. For example, the cost
could be inversely related to the data rate
(i.e., the higher the data rate on a link, the
lower the assigned cost of the link) or the
current queuing delay on the link. In the first
case, the least-cost route should provide the
highest throughput. In the second case, the
least-cost route should minimize delay.
 Decision Time and Place

 Routing decisions are made on the

basis of some performance criterion.
Two key characteristics of the decision
are the time and place that the decision
is made.
 Decision Time and Place
 Time
 Packet (datagram) or Session (virtual
circuit) basis.
 Fixed or dynamically changing.

 Place
 Distributed - made by each node.
 Centralized – central node.
 Source – Originating node.
 Decision Time

 Time

 Packet (datagram) or Session (virtual

circuit) basis.

 Fixed or dynamically changing.

 Decision Time
Decision time is determined by whether the routing
decision is made on a packet or virtual circuit basis.
When the internal operation of the network is
datagram, a routing decision is made individually for
each packet. For internal virtual circuit operation, a
routing decision is made at the time the virtual circuit
is established. In the simplest case, all subsequent
packets using that virtual circuit follow the same route.
In more sophisticated network designs, the network
may dynamically change the route assigned to a
particular virtual circuit in response to changing
conditions (e.g., overload or failure of a portion of the
network).
 Decision Place

 Place

 Distributed - made by each node.

 Centralized – central node.

 Source – Originating node.

 Decision Place
The term decision place refers to which node or
nodes in the network are responsible for the
routing decision. Most common is distributed
routing, in which each node has the responsibility
of selecting an output link for routing packets as
they arrive.
For centralized routing, the decision is made by
some designated node, such as a network control
center. The danger of this latter approach is that
the loss of the network control center may block
operation of the network. The distributed approach
is perhaps more complex but is also more robust.
 Decision Place

A third alternative, used in some networks, is

source routing. In this case, the routing decision is
actually made by the source station rather than by
a network node and is then communicated to the
network. This allows the user to dictate a route
through the network that meets criteria local to
that user.
 Network Information Source

Routing decisions usually based on knowledge

of network (not always).

 Distributed routing
• Using local knowledge, info from adjacent
(directly connected) nodes, info from all
nodes on a potential route.

 Central routing
• Collect info from all nodes
 Network Information Source
 Most routing strategies require that decisions be based on
knowledge of the topology of the network, traffic load, and
link cost.
 With distributed routing, in which the routing decision is
made by each node, the individual node may make use of
only local information, such as the cost of each outgoing link.
Each node might also collect information from adjacent
(directly connected) nodes, such as the amount of congestion
experienced at that node. Finally, there are algorithms in
common use that allow the node to gain information from all
nodes on any potential route of interest. In the case of
centralized routing, the central node typically makes use of
information obtained from all nodes.
 Update Timing
 A related concept is that of information update timing,
which is a function of both the information source and
the routing strategy. Clearly, if no information is used
(as in flooding), there is no information to update.
 If only local information is used, the update is essentially
continuous.
 For all other information source categories (adjacent
nodes, all nodes), update timing depends on the routing
strategy.
 For a fixed strategy, the information is never updated.
 For an adaptive strategy, information is updated from
time to time to enable the routing decision to adapt to
changing conditions.
 Update Timing

 Issue of update timing:

 When is network info held by nodes

updated.

 Fixed - never updated.

 Adaptive - regular updates.

Information and Update Timing

 As you might expect, the more

information available, and the more
frequently it is updated, the more likely
the network is to make good routing
decisions. On the other hand, the
transmission of that information
consumes network resources.
 Routing Strategies

A large number of routing strategies have

evolved for dealing with the routing
requirements of packet-switching networks,
we survey four key strategies: fixed, flooding,
random, and adaptive.
 Routing Strategies

 Fixed routing.

 Flooding.

 Random routing.

 Adaptive routing.
 Routing Strategies
1- Fixed Routing
 Use a single permanent route for each
source to destination pair.
 Determined using a least cost algorithm.
 route is fixed.
 At least until a change in network topology.
 Hence cannot respond to traffic changes.

 Advantage is simplicity.
 Disadvantage is lack of flexibility, it does not
react to network congestion or failures.
 Routing Strategies
1- Fixed Routing
A central routing matrix is created, to be
stored perhaps at a network control center.
The matrix shows, for each source-
destination pair of nodes, the identity of the
next node on the route.

 Notethat it is not necessary to store the

complete route for each possible pair of
nodes. Rather, it is sufficient to know, for
each pair of nodes, the identity of the first
node on the route.
Example
 Fixed
Routing
Tables
 Fixed Routing
 In the previous example, the route from node 1 to
node 6 begins by going through node 4. Again
consulting the matrix, the route from node 4 to node
6 goes through node 5. Finally, the route from node 5
to node 6 is a direct link to node 6. Thus, the
complete route from node 1 to node 6 is 1-4-5-6.

 From this overall matrix, routing tables can be

developed and stored at each node. From the
reasoning in the preceding paragraph, it follows that
each node need only store a single column of the
routing directory. The node's directory shows the
next node to take for each destination.
 Routing Strategies
2- Flooding
 No network info required.
 Packet sent by node to every neighbor.
 At each node, an incoming packet is retransmitted
on all outgoing links except for the link on which it
arrived.
 Eventually multiple copies arrive at destination.
 Each packet is uniquely numbered so duplicates
can be discarded.
 Need some way to limit incessant retransmission.
 Nodes can remember packets already forwarded to keep
network load in bounds.
Flooding
Example
In the previous example the label on each packet in
the figure indicates the current value of the hop
count field in that packet. A packet is to be sent
from node 1 to node 6 and is assigned a hop count
of 3. On the first hop, three copies of the packet are
created, and the hop count is decrement to 2. For
the second hop of all these copies, a total of nine
copies are created. One of these copies reaches node
6, which recognizes that it is the intended
destination and does not retransmit.
However, the other nodes generate a total of 22 new
copies for their third and final hop. Each packet
now has a hope count of 1. Note that if a node is not
keeping track of packet identifier, it may generate
multiple copies at this third stage. All packets
received from the third hop are discarded, because
the hop count is exhausted. In all, node 6 has
received four additional copies of the packet.
 Properties of Flooding
 All possible routes are tried
 Very robust

 At least one packet will have taken

minimum hop count route.
 Can be used to set up virtual circuit.

 All nodes are visited

 Useful to distribute information.
 Disadvantage is high traffic load generated
 Routing Strategies
3- Random Routing
 Random routing has the simplicity and
robustness of flooding with far less traffic load.
 Node selects one outgoing path for
retransmission of incoming packet.
 Selection can be random or round robin.
 A refinement is to select outgoing path based
on probability calculation.
 No network info needed.
 But a random route is typically neither least
cost nor minimum hop. Thus, the network must
carry a higher than optimum traffic load,
although not nearly as high as for flooding.
 Routing Strategies
4- Adaptive Routing
 In virtually all packet-switching networks, some sort of
adaptive routing technique is used. That is, the routing
decisions that are made change as conditions on the
network change. The principal conditions that influence
routing decisions are:
 • Failure: When a node or link fails, it can no longer be
used as part of a route.
 • Congestion: When a particular portion of the network
is heavily congested, it is desirable to route packets
around rather than through the area of congestion.
 Routing Strategies
4- Adaptive Routing
 Used by almost all packet switching networks.
 Routing decisions change as conditions on the
network change due to failure or congestion.
 Requires info about network.

 Disadvantages:
 Decisions more complex.
 Tradeoff between quality of network info and overhead.
 Reacting too quickly can cause oscillation.
 Reacting too slowly means info may be irrelevant.
 Adaptive Routing
Advantages

 Improved performance.

 Aid congestion control (Balance loads).

 But since is a complex system, may not

realize theoretical benefits.
 Classification of Adaptive
Routing Strategies
 Based on information sources:

 Local (isolated)
• Route to outgoing link with shortest queue.
• Can include bias for each destination.
• Rarely used - does not make use of available
info.
 Adjacent nodes
• Takes advantage on delay / outage info.
• Distributed or centralized.
 All nodes
• Like adjacent
Isolated Adaptive Routing
As an example, at a certain point in time, Node 4
has links to four other nodes. A fair number of
packets have been arriving and a backlog has built
up, with a queue of packets waiting for each of the
outgoing links. A packet arrives from node 1
destined for node 6. To which outgoing link should
the packet be routed? Based on current queue
lengths and the values of bias (B6) for each
outgoing link, the minimum value of Q + B6 is 4, on
the link to node 3. Thus, node 4 routes the packet
through node 3.