Basics of Networking and Routing
Basics of Networking and Routing
Basics of Networking and Routing
Types of Networks
There are two basic types of networks currently in existence:
A Local Area Network (LAN)
A Wide Area Network (WAN)
Local Area
Networks
(LAN) A Local Area Network (LAN) is a group of computers and network
communication devices within a limited geographic area, such as
an office building. No third party involvement here.
They are characterized by the following:
•High data transfer speeds
•Generally less expensive technologies
•Limited geographic area
Wide Area
Networks
(WAN) A Wide Area Network (WAN) interconnects LANs. It is not
restricted to a particular geographic area and may be
interconnected around the world. Third party network is involved.
They are characterized by the following:
•Multiple interconnected LANs
•Generally more expensive technology
•More sophisticated to implement than LANs
•Exist in an unlimited geographic area
•Less error resistance due to transmission travel distances
Common LAN Topologies
Ring Architecture
•In a ring topology:
oUnidirectional links connect the
transmit side of one device to the
receive side of another device.
oDevices transmit frames to the
next device (downstream member) in
the ring.
Star Topology
Unicast Transmission
In unicast transmissions, a single data packet is sent from a source to a
single destination on the network.
Unicast Process
Multicast Process
Broadcast Tranmission
In multicast transmissions, a single data packet is copied and sent to specific
destinations on the network
Broadcast Process
•Repeaters
•Bridges
•Hubs
•Switches
•Routers
Repeaters
Repeaters, located within the physical layer of a network, regenerate and
propagate signals from one to another. They do not change any information
being transmitted, and they cannot filter any information. Repeaters help to
extend the distances of networks by boosting weak signals.
Bridges
Bridges are intelligent repeaters. They regenerate
transmitted signals, but unlike repeaters, they can also
determine destinations.
Hubs
Hubs connect all computer LAN connections into one
device. They are nothing more than multiport repeaters.
Hubs cannot determine destinations; they merely transmit
to every line attached in a half-duplex mode.
Routers Routers are a step up from bridges. They are able to route
and filter information to different networks. Some routers
can automatically detect problems and redirect information
around the problem area. These are called "intelligent
routers."
Switches
WAN
WAN Infrastructure
As with LANs, there are numerous devices associated with data information flo
across a WAN. Together, these devices create the infrastructure of a functional
WAN. These devices include:
•Router
•ATM Switch
•Modem and CSU/DSU
•Communication Server
•Multiplexer
•X.25/Frame Relay Switches
ATM Switches
ATM Switches provide high-speed transfer
between both LANs and WANs.
Modems convert digital and analog signals. At the source, modems convert
digital signals to a form suitable for transmission over analog communication
facilities (public telephone lines). At the destination, modems convert the signal
back to a digital format.
Communication Servers
Communication Servers are typically dial in/out servers that allow users
to dial in from remote locations and attach to the LAN.
•Coaxial
•Fiber Optic
Coaxial Cables
A coaxial cable consists of:
•a single copper conductor
•a layer of shielding with a
ground wire
•an outer jacket
The Ethernet LAN protocol was originally developed to operate over coaxial
cables. 10Base5 / Thicknet cable:
•was the original Ethernet cable.
•is no longer in use in modern LANs. 10Base2 / Thinnet cable:
has a smaller diameter than Thicknet.
•replaced Thicknet.
•is no longer recommended, but is still used in some very small LANs.
Unshielded Twisted Pair
Basic Operation
Ethernet and IEEE 802.3 operation involves three basic components:
•Transmission
•Media access
•Collision handling
Media Access
The Ethernet media access uses the following process:
•Any station on a LAN can access the network at any time.
•Before sending data, stations listen for traffic on the network.
•A station waits until it detects no traffic before it transmits data.
Collision handling
Ethernet is a "first come, first serve" environment. In such an environment,
any station on the network can transmit whenever the network is quiet. A
collision occurs when two stations listen for traffic, hear none, and then
transmit data at the same time. Both transmissions are damaged, and the
stations must retransmit at a later time.
CSMA / CD
Ehernet Cabling
Striaght Through cable: used to connect
•Host to switch or hub
•Router to switch or hub
Four wires are used in straight-through cable to connect Ethernet devices.
11
22
3 3 Through cable: used to connect
Striaght
66 •switch to switch
•Router direct to host
•hub to hub
•Host to host
Four wires are used as in straight-through cable to connect Ethernet devices.
11
22
33
66
Rolled cable
11
22
33
44
55
66
77
88
The layers of the OSI model are divided into two groups: the upper layer and
lower layer. The upper layers focus on user applications and how files are
represented on the computers prior to transport. For the most part, network
engineers are more concerned with the lower layers. It's the lower layers that
concentrate on how the communication across a network actually occurs.
Data Representation
Session Layer
•Half-duplex
•Full-
duplex.
Transport Layer
Flow Control Once the connection has occurred and transfer is in progress,
congestion of the data flow can occur at a destination for a variety of reasons.
Possible options include:
The destination can become overwhelmed if multiple devices are trying to
send it data at the same time.
It may become overwhelmed if the source is sending faster than it can
physically receive.
Congestion Prevention
The Transport Layer is responsible for providing flow control to alleviate the
issue of congestion and provide reliability in the data transfer. Two main
methods for flow control include
•Buffering
•Windowing
Buffering
Buffering is a form of data flow control regulated by the Transport Layer. It is
responsible for ensuring that sufficient buffers are available in the destination
for the processing of data and that is data transmitted at a rate that does not
exceed what the buffer can handle.
Windowing
Windowing is a flow control scheme in which the source computer will monitor
and make adjustments to the amount of information sent based on successful,
reliable receipt of data segments by the destination computer. The size of the
data transmission, called the "window size", is negotiated at the time of
connection establishment. It is determined by the amount of memory or buffer
that is available.
The Physical Layer is the lowest layer in the OSI model and is concerned
with how the physical structure of the network enables transmission of
data. It is responsible for defining the mechanical and electrical
specifications for the transmission medium within a connection, as well as
the transformation or encoding of data into “bits”.
Examples:EIA/TIA-232, V.35, EIA/TIA-449, RJ-45, Ethernet, 802.3
Protocols
TCP Segment
UDP Segment
IP provides connectionless, best-
effort delivery routing of
datagrams. It is not concerned
with the content of the
datagrams. Instead, it looks for a
way to move the datagrams to
their destination.
IP Datagram
The term local ARP is used to describe resolving an address when both the
requesting host and the destination host share the same media or wire.
Reverse ARP
Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) relies on the presence of a
RARP server with a table entry or other means to respond to these requests.
ARP and RARP are implemented directly on top of the data link layer
IP Address
When IP was first developed, there were no classes of addresses. Now, for
ease of administration, the IP addresses are broken up into classes.
•Flash is primarily used to contain the IOS software image. Some routers
run the IOS image directly from Flash and do not need to transfer it to RAM.
Router#setup
First, would you like to see the current interface summary? [yes]:
Setup Initial
Global Parameters
Configuring global parameters:
You can change the default configuration register setting with the enabled
config-mode config-register command.
Examining the IOS Copy Command
Router#show flash
System flash directory:
File Length Name/status
1 10084696 c2500-js-l_120-3.bin
[10084760 bytes used, 6692456 available, 16777216
total]
16384K bytes of processor board System flash (Read
ONLY)
Router#copy tftp flash
Address or name of remote host? 10.1.1.1
Source filename? c2500-js-l_120-3.bin
Accessing tftp://10.1.1.1/c2500-js-l_120-3.bin...
Erase flash befor copying? [Enter]
Erasing the flash filesystem will remove all files! Continue?
[Enter]
Erasing device... eeeee(output omitted) ...erased
Erase of flash: complete
Loading c2500-js-l_120-3.bin from 10.1.1.1 (via
Ethernet0): !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(output omitted)
[OK - 10084696/20168704 bytes]
Verifying checksum... OK (0x9AA0)
10084696 bytes copied in 309.108 secs (32636 bytes/sec)
Router#
The following example demonstrates the sequence of commands you would
enter to configure various passwords on a router with the following
characteristics:
Console password is cisco
Telnet password is cisco
Privileged Mode password is cisco
Secret password is cisco
Router(config)#line console 0
Router(config-line)#login
Router(config-line)#password cisco
Router(config-line)#exit
Router(config)#line vty 0 4
Router(config-line)#login
Router(config-line)#password cisco
Router(config-line)#exit
Router(config)#enable password ccna
Router(config)#enable secret cisco
Router(config)#service password-encryption
Destination Address - What is the destination (or address) of the item that
needs to be routed?
Identifying sources of information - From which source (other routers) can the
router learn the paths to given destinations?
Discovering routes - What are the initial possible routes, or paths, to the
intended destinations?
Selecting routes - What is the best path to the intended destination?
Maintaining routing information - A way of verifying that the known paths to
destinations are the most current.
•Routed protocols - Any network protocol that provides enough
information in its network layer address to allow a packet to be forwarded
from host to host based on the addressing scheme. Routed protocols
define the format and use of the fields within a packet. Packets generally
are conveyed from end system to end system. The Internet protocol IP is
an example of a routed protocol.
Static Routing
In the image, Cisco B is configured to forward all frames for which the
destination network is not explicitly listed in its routing table to Cisco A.
Dynamic Routing
Routes dynamically learned by the router after an administrator configures
a routing protocol that helps determine routes. Unlike static routes, once
the network administrator enables dynamic routing, route knowledge is
automatically updated by a routing process whenever new topology
information is received from the internetwork.
Router Metrics
Routing metrics are used by routing algorithms to determine the desirability
of a given route to a destination network. Different routing protocols
implement different routing metrics. Routing metrics represent network
characteristics. Metric information is stored in routing tables. There are a
number of commonly used routing metrics, including:
•Path
length
•Reliabilit
y
•Delay
•Bandwid
th
•Load
Hop•Cost
count is a value that counts the number of intermediate systems (such as
routers) through which a packet must pass to travel from the source to the
destination. The path length is the sum of all the hops in the path.
The reliability routing metric can be based on any of a number of network
characteristics. These include:
•Bit-error rate (the ratio of received bits that contain errors)
•How often each network link fails, and, once down, how quickly each network
link can be repaired.
The delay routing metric is based on the length of time required to move a packet
from the source to a destination through the internetwork.
Bandwidth
The bandwidth routing metric is based solely on the available traffic capacity
of each network link. However, routes through links with greater bandwidth
do not necessarily provide better routes than routes through slower links.
Load
The load routing metric is based on the degree to which a network resource
(such as a router) is busy. Load is calculated according to such factors as:
•CPU utilization
•Packets processed per second
Cost
The cost routing metric is based on the monetary cost of using each network
link. For example, a slower company-owned link can be configured as
preferable over faster public links that cost money for usage time.
Routing protocols are used between routers to determine paths and maintain
routing tables. Dynamic routing relies on a routing protocol to disseminate
knowledge.
Autonomous Systems
An autonomous system is a collection of networks under a common administrative
domain
Adminstrative Distance
Multiple routing protocols and static routes may be used at the same time. If
there are several sources for routing information, an administrative distance
value is used to rate the trustworthiness of each routing information source.
IGRP 100
Route Source Default Distance
OSPF 110
Connected interface 0
RIP 120
Static route address 1
External EIGRP 170
EIGRP 90 Unknown / Unbelievable 255 (Will not be
Distance Vector Protocols
Distance vector routing protocols
require routers to periodically send
all (or a significant portion) of their
routing table in routing updates, but
only to neighboring routers.
Routing Loop
Routing loops are, simply, the continuous forwarding of packets due to some
fault in a network. Packets are continuously looped throughout a particular
network or segment.
What Causes Routing Loops?
Routing loops can occur when routing decisions are based on incorrect information,
resulting in packets taking paths that return them to already visited routers. They
are created due to a variety of circumstances
Split Horizon
The rule of split horizon is that it is never useful to send information about a
route back in the direction from which the original packet came.
Route Poisoning
With this technique, the router sets a table entry that keeps the network state
consistent while other routers gradually converge correctly on the topology
change. Used with hold-down timers, which are described soon, route
poisoning is a solution to long loops.
Hold-Down
RIP, or Routing Information Protocol, is a routing protocol located within IP. There
are two versions of RIP supported by Cisco. RIP version 1 and an enhanced
version RIPv2, a classless routing protocol.
Characteristics of RIP
•It is a distance vector routing protocol.
•Hop count is used as the metric for path selection.
•The maximum allowable hop count is 15.
•Routing updates are broadcast every 30 seconds by default.
•RIP is capable of load balancing over up to six equal cost paths (4 paths is
the default).
•RIPv1 requires that for each major classful network number being
advertised, only one network mask is used per network number. The mask is a
fixed length subnet mask.
•RIPv2 permits variable-length subnet masks on the internetwork. (RIPv1
does not do triggered updates but RIPv2 does do triggered updates.)
Procedure for Configuring RIP
1.Select RIP as the routing protocol using the router rip global
configuration command.
Router(config)#router rip
3.Display network information associated with the entire router using the
show ip protocol privileged command.
Router#show ip protocols
4. Display RIP routing updates as they are sent and received using the debug
ip rip privileged command.
Router#debug ip rip
IGRP
Characteristics of IGRP
Increased scalability - Improved for routing in larger size networks compared to
networks that use RIP.
Sophisticated metric - IGRP uses a composite metric that provides significant
route selection flexibility. Internetwork delay and bandwidth by default, and
optionally reliability, and load are all factored into the routing decision. IGRP can
be used to overcome RIP's 15-hop limit. IGRP has a default maximum hop count
of 100 hops, configurable to a maximum of 255 hops.
Multiple paths - IGRP can maintain up to six nonequal paths between a network
source and destination; the paths do not mandate equal costs like with RIP.
Multiple paths can be used to increase available bandwidth or for route
redundancy.
Procedure for Configuring RIP
1.Define IGRP as the IP routing protocol using the router igrp
autonomous-system global configuration command.
Router(config)#router igrp 100
5.Display network information associated with the entire router using the
show ip protocol privileged command.
Router#show ip protocols
6. Display the contents of the IP routing table using the show ip route privileged
command.
Router#show ip route
Using the ping and trace Commands
Router###ping 10.1.1.10
Router#trace 192.168.101.101