Point to point network

A simple Point to Point Network is a permanent link between two endpoints. A point-to-point connection
provides a dedicated link between two devices. The entire capacity of the link is reserved for transmission
between those two devices. Most point-to-point connections use an actual length of wire or cable to
connect the two ends, but other options, such as microwave or satellite links, are also possible. When you
change television channels by infrared remote control, you are establishing a point-to-point connection
between the remote control and the television's control system.

An example is a telephone call, in which one telephone is connected with one other, and what is said by
one caller can only be heard by the other.

Routing

o A Router is a process of selecting path along which the data can be transferred from
source to the destination. Routing is performed by a special device known as a
router.
o A Router works at the network layer in the OSI model and internet layer in TCP/IP
model
o A router is a networking device that forwards the packet based on the information
available in the packet header and forwarding table.
o The routing algorithms are used for routing the packets. The routing algorithm is
nothing but a software responsible for deciding the optimal path through which
packet can be transmitted.
o The routing protocols use the metric to determine the best path for the packet
delivery. The metric is the standard of measurement such as hop count, bandwidth,
delay, current load on the path, etc. used by the routing algorithm to determine the
optimal path to the destination.
o The routing algorithm initializes and maintains the routing table for the process of
path determination.

Types of Routing
Routing can be classified into three categories:

o Static Routing
o Default Routing
o Dynamic Routing
Static Routing
o Static Routing is also known as Nonadaptive Routing.
o It is a technique in which the administrator manually adds the routes in a routing
table.
o A Router can send the packets for the destination along the route defined by the
administrator.
o In this technique, routing decisions are not made based on the condition or topology
of the networks

Advantages Of Static Routing

Following are the advantages of Static Routing:

o No Overhead: It has ho overhead on the CPU usage of the router. Therefore, the
cheaper router can be used to obtain static routing.
o Bandwidth: It has not bandwidth usage between the routers.
o Security: It provides security as the system administrator is allowed only to have
control over the routing to a particular network.

Disadvantages of Static Routing:

Following are the disadvantages of Static Routing:

o For a large network, it becomes a very difficult task to add each route manually to
the routing table.
o The system administrator should have a good knowledge of a topology as he has to
add each route manually.

Default Routing
o Default Routing is a technique in which a router is configured to send all the packets
to the same hop device, and it doesn't matter whether it belongs to a particular
network or not. A Packet is transmitted to the device for which it is configured in
default routing.
o Default Routing is used when networks deal with the single exit point.
o It is also useful when the bulk of transmission networks have to transmit the data to
the same hp device.
o When a specific route is mentioned in the routing table, the router will choose the
specific route rather than the default route. The default route is chosen only when a
specific route is not mentioned in the routing table.
Dynamic Routing
o It is also known as Adaptive Routing.
o It is a technique in which a router adds a new route in the routing table for each
packet in response to the changes in the condition or topology of the network.
o Dynamic protocols are used to discover the new routes to reach the destination.
o In Dynamic Routing, RIP and OSPF are the protocols used to discover the new
routes.
o If any route goes down, then the automatic adjustment will be made to reach the
destination.

The Dynamic protocol should have the following features:

o All the routers must have the same dynamic routing protocol in order to exchange
the routes.
o If the router discovers any change in the condition or topology, then router
broadcast this information to all other routers.

Advantages of Dynamic Routing:

o It is easier to configure.
o It is more effective in selecting the best route in response to the changes in the
condition or topology.

Disadvantages of Dynamic Routing:

o It is more expensive in terms of CPU and bandwidth usage.
o It is less secure as compared to default and static routing.

Routing Metrics and Costs

Routing metrics and costs are used for determining the best route to the destination. The
factors used by the protocols to determine the shortest path, these factors are known as a
metric.

Metrics are the network variables used to determine the best route to the destination. For
some protocols use the static metrics means that their value cannot be changed and for
some other routing protocols use the dynamic metrics means that their value can be
assigned by the system administrator.

The most common metric values are given below:

o Hop count: Hop count is defined as a metric that specifies the number of passes
through internetworking devices such as a router, a packet must travel in a route to
move from source to the destination.
 o Delay: It is a time taken by the router to process, queue and transmit a datagram to
an interface. The protocols use this metric to determine the delay values for all the
links along the path end-to-end. The path having the lowest delay value will be
considered as the best path.
o Bandwidth: The capacity of the link is known as a bandwidth of the link. The
bandwidth is measured in terms of bits per second. The link that has a higher
transfer rate like gigabit is preferred over the link that has the lower capacity like 56
kb. The protocol will determine the bandwidth capacity for all the links along the
path, and the overall higher bandwidth will be considered as the best route.
o Load: Load refers to the degree to which the network resource such as a router or
network link is busy. A Load can be calculated in a variety of ways such as CPU
utilization, packets processed per second. If the traffic increases, then the load value
will also be increased. The load value changes with respect to the change in the
traffic.
o Reliability: Reliability is a metric factor may be composed of a fixed value. It
depends on the network links, and its value is measured dynamically. Some
networks go down more often than others. After network failure, some network links
repaired more easily than other network links. Any reliability factor can be
considered for the assignment of reliability ratings, which are generally numeric
values assigned by the system administrator.

Congestion Control
What is congestion?
A state occurring in network layer when the message traffic is so heavy that it slows down
network response time.
Effects of Congestion
• As delay increases, performance decreases.
• If delay increases, retransmission occurs, making situation worse.
Congestion control algorithms
• Leaky Bucket Algorithm
Let us consider an example to understand
Imagine a bucket with a small hole in the bottom.No matter at what rate water enters the
bucket, the outflow is at constant rate.When the bucket is full with water additional water
entering spills over the sides and is lost.
Similarly, each network interface contains a leaky bucket and the following steps are
involved in leaky bucket algorithm:
1. When host wants to send packet, packet is thrown into the bucket.
2. The bucket leaks at a constant rate, meaning the network interface transmits
packets at a constant rate.
3. Bursty traffic is converted to a uniform traffic by the leaky bucket.
4. In practice the bucket is a finite queue that outputs at a finite rate.
• Token bucket Algorithm
Need of token bucket Algorithm:-
The leaky bucket algorithm enforces output pattern at the average rate, no matter how
bursty the traffic is. So in order to deal with the bursty traffic we need a flexible algorithm
so that the data is not lost. One such algorithm is token bucket algorithm.
Steps of this algorithm can be described as follows:
1. In regular intervals tokens are thrown into the bucket. ƒ
2. The bucket has a maximum capacity. ƒ
3. If there is a ready packet, a token is removed from the bucket, and the packet is
sent.
4. If there is no token in the bucket, the packet cannot be sent.
Formula: M * s = C + ρ * s
where S – is time taken
M – Maximum output rate
ρ – Token arrival rate
C – Capacity of the token bucket in byte