IP Routing Basics

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 Foreword
⚫ There are typically multiple IP subnets on a typical data communication network. Layer 3
devices are required to exchange data between these IP subnets. These devices have the
routing capability and can forward data across subnets.
⚫ Routing is the basic element of data communication networks. It is the process of selecting
paths on a network along which packets are sent from a source to a destination.
⚫ This course introduces the basic concepts of routing.

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 Objectives
⚫ On completion of this course, you will be able to:
 Understand the basic principles of routers.
 Know how routers select optimal routes.
 Understand the contents of routing tables.
 Master advanced routing features.

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 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing
▪ Basic Concepts of Routing

▫ Generation of Routing Entries

▫ Optimal Route Selection

▫ Route-based Forwarding

2. Static Routing

3. Dynamic Routing

4. Advanced Routing Features

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 Background: Inter-Subnet Communication

M
• An IP address uniquely identifies a node on a
network. Each IP address belongs to a unique
subnet, and each subnet may belong to a different
area of the network.
N
• To implement IP addressing, subnets in different
areas need to communicate with each other.

How to communicate with

the network M?

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• A unique network node can be found based on a specific IP address. Each IP address belongs to a
unique subnet. These subnets may be distributed around the world and constitute a global
network.

• To implement communication between different subnets, network devices need to forward IP

packets from different subnets to their destination IP subnets.
 Routes
⚫ Routes are the path information used to guide packet forwarding.

⚫ A routing device is a network device that forwards packets to a destination subnet based on routes. The most common routing
device is a router.

⚫ A routing device maintains an IP routing table that stores routing information.

Route-based Packet Forwarding

Router R4

Data R1 R2 R3

N M

Gateway Gateway

Destination-based forwarding

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• A gateway and an intermediate node (a router) select a proper path according to the destination
address of a received IP packet, and forward the packet to the next router. The last-hop router on
the path performs Layer 2 addressing and forwards the packet to the destination host. This
process is called route-based forwarding.

• The intermediate node selects the best path from its IP routing table to forward packets.

• A routing entry contains a specific outbound interface and next hop, which are used to forward IP
packets to the corresponding next-hop device.
 Routing Information

⚫ A route contains the following information:

 Destination: identifies a destination subnet.
[Link]
[Link]/24
 Mask: identifies a subnet together with a destination IP
address.
GE0/0/0
[Link]  Outbound interface: indicates the interface through which a
data packet is sent out of the local router.
 Next hop: indicates the next-hop address used by the router
IP routing table to forward the data packet to the destination subnet.
Outbound
Destination/Mask
Interface
Next Hop ⚫ The information identifies the destination subnet and
[Link]/24 GE0/0/0 [Link] specifies the path for forwarding data packets.

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• Based on the information contained in a route, a router can forward IP packets to the destination
along the required path.

• The destination address and mask identify the destination address of an IP packet. After an IP
packet matches a specific route, the router determines the forwarding path according to the
outbound interface and next hop of the route.

• The next-hop device for forwarding the IP packet cannot be determined based only on the
outbound interface. Therefore, the next-hop device address must be specified.
 IP Routing Table

[Link]/8 Outbound
Destination/Mask Next Hop
Interface
R4
• Routers discover routes using multiple methods.
[Link]/8 [Link] GE0/0
[Link]/30
[Link]/8 [Link] GE0/1 • A router selects the optimal route and installs it in
[Link]/8 [Link] GE0/2 its IP routing table.
…
GE0/2 • The router forwards IP packets based on routes in
[Link]/30 [Link] GE0/2
[Link]/30
[Link]/32 [Link] GE0/2 the IP routing table.
GE0/0 GE0/1
[Link]/30 [Link]/30 • Routers manage path information by managing
R2
their IP routing tables.

[Link]/30 [Link]/30

R1 R3

[Link]/8 [Link]/8

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• A router forwards packets based on its IP routing table.

• An IP routing table contains many routing entries.

• An IP routing table contains only optimal routes but not all routes.

• A router manages routing information by managing the routing entries in its IP routing table.
 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing
▫ Basic Concepts of Routing

▪ Generation of Routing Entries

▫ Optimal Route Selection

▫ Route-based Forwarding

2. Static Routing

3. Dynamic Routing

4. Advanced Routing Features

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 How to Obtain Routing Information
• A router forwards packets based on its IP routing table. To implement route-based packet forwarding, the router needs to
obtain routes. The following describes the common methods of obtaining routes.

Direct Routes Static Routes Dynamic Routes

• Direct routes are automatically generated by • Static routes are manually configured by network • Dynamic routes are learned by dynamic routing
devices and point to local directly connected administrators. protocols running on routers.
networks. [Link]/24

GE0/0/0
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
GE0/0/1
[Link]/24

GE0/0/1
Dynamic routing
protocol
GE0/0/2 OSPF

Outbound
Protocol Destination/Mask
Interface Outbound Outbound
Protocol Destination/Mask Protocol Destination/Mask
Direct [Link]/24 GE0/0/0 Interface Interface
Direct [Link]/24 GE0/0/1 Static [Link]/24 GE0/0/1 OSPF [Link]/24 GE0/0/2

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• Direct routes are the routes destined for the subnets to which directly connected interfaces
belong. They are automatically generated by devices.

• Static routes are manually configured by network administrators.

• Dynamic routes are learned by dynamic routing protocols, such as OSPF, IS-IS, and BGP.
 Direct Routes (1)
Direct Routes
• A direct route is automatically generated by a device
and points to a local directly-connected network.
GE0/0/0 • When a router is the last hop router, IP packets to be
[Link]/24
[Link]/24
GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 forwarded will match a direct route and the router will
RTB [Link]/24 directly forward the IP packet to the destination host.

• When a direct route is used for packet forwarding, the

destination IP address of a packet to be forwarded and
Direct routes in the IP routing table of RTB the IP address of the router‘s outbound interface are in
Destination/Ma Outbound the same subnet.
Protocol Next Hop
sk Interface

[Link]/24 Direct [Link] GE0/0/0

[Link]/24 Direct [Link] GE0/0/1

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• When a packet matches a direct route, a router checks its ARP entries and forwards the packet to
the destination address based on the ARP entry for this destination address. In this case, the
router is the last hop router.

• The next-hop address of a direct route is not an interface address of another device. The
destination subnet of the direct route is the subnet to which the local outbound interface
belongs. The local outbound interface is the last hop interface and does not need to forward the
packet to any other next hop. Therefore, the next-hop address of a direct route in the IP routing
table is the address of the local outbound interface.

• When a router forwards packets using a direct route, it does not deliver packets to the next hop.
Instead, the router checks its ARP entries and forwards packets to the destination IP address
based on the required ARP entry.
 Direct Routes (2)
Direct routes

GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
• Not all the direct routes generated for interfaces are
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
RTA [Link]/24 RTB [Link]/24 RTC installed in the IP routing table. Only the direct routes of
which the physical status and protocol status of
interfaces are up are installed in the IP routing table.

Direct routes in the IP routing table of RTB

Outbound
Destination/Mask Protocol Next Hop
Interface
[Link]/24 Direct [Link] G0/0/1

• When GE0/0/0 goes down, the direct route for this interface is not
installed in the IP routing table.

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 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing
▫ Basic Concepts of Routing

▫ Generation of Routing Entries

▪ Optimal Route Selection

▫ Route-based Forwarding

2. Static Routing

3. Dynamic Routing

4. Advanced Routing Features

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 Examining the IP Routing Table
<Quidway> display ip routing-table
Route Flags: R - relay, D - download to fib
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Routing Tables: Public
Destinations : 6 Routes : 6

Destination/Mask Proto Pre Cost Flags NextHop Interface

[Link]/32 Static 60 0 D [Link] NULL0

[Link]/32 Static 60 0 D [Link] Vlanif100
[Link]/24 Direct 0 0 D [Link] Vlanif100
[Link]/32 Direct 0 0 D [Link] Vlanif100
[Link]/8 Direct 0 0 D [Link] InLoopBack0
[Link]/32 Direct 0 0 D [Link] InLoopBack0

Destination/Mask Protocol Flag Next-hop Outbound

address interface
Route Cost
preference (Metric)

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 Fields in the IP Routing Table
⚫ Destination/Mask: indicates the destination network address and mask of a specific route. The subnet address of a destination host
or router is obtained through the AND operation on the destination address and mask. For example, if the destination address is
[Link] and the mask is [Link], the IP address of the subnet to which the host or router belongs is [Link].
⚫ Proto (Protocol): indicates the protocol type of the route, that is, the protocol through which a router learns the route.
⚫ Pre (Preference): indicates the routing protocol preference of the route. There may be multiple routes to the same destination,
which have different next hops and outbound interfaces. These routes may be discovered by different routing protocols or be
manually configured. A router selects the route with the highest preference (with the lowest preference value) as the optimal route.
⚫ Cost: indicates the cost of the route. When multiple routes to the same destination have the same preference, the route with the
lowest cost is selected as the optimal route.
⚫ NextHop: indicates the local router’s next-hop address of the route to the destination network. This field specifies the next-hop
device to which packets are forwarded.
⚫ Interface: indicates the outbound interface of the route. This field specifies the local interface through which the local router
forwards packets.

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• The Preference field is used to compare routes from different routing protocols, while the Cost
field is used to compare routes from the same routing protocol. In the industry, the cost is also
known as the metric.
 Route Preference - Basic Concepts
Comparing Route Preferences • When a router obtains routes to the same destination
subnet from different routing protocols (these routes
Routes have the same destination network address and mask),
the router compares the preferences of these routes and

Different
prefers the route with the lowest preference value.
Destination Installed in the IP
subnet/mask routing table
• A lower preference value indicates a higher preference.
Same
• The route with the highest preference is installed in the IP
Higher Preference routing table.
Preference

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 Route Preference - Comparison Process
Comparing Route Preferences

Dynamic routing
protocol [Link]/30 • RTA discovers two routes to [Link]/30, one is an
OSPF
[Link]/30
[Link]/30
OSPF route and the other a static route. In this case,
RTA compares the preferences of the two routes and
RTA
[Link]/30 [Link]/30 selects the route with the lowest preference value.

• Each routing protocol has a unique preference.

IP routing table of RTA • OSPF has a higher preference. Therefore, the OSPF
route is installed in the IP routing table.
Destination/Mask Protocol Preference Next Hop

[Link]/30 Static 60 [Link] Installed in

the IP
[Link]/30 OSPF 10 [Link] routing
table

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• RTA learns two routes to the same destination, one is a static route and the other an OSPF route.
It then compares the preferences of the two routes, and prefers the OSPF route because this
route has a higher preference. RTA installs the OSPF route in the IP routing table.
 Metric - Comparison Process
Metric comparison

Dynamic routing • RTA learns two routes with the same destination
protocol [Link]/30
OSPF address ([Link]/30) and preference through OSPF.
Cost=10 Cost=10 [Link]/30
[Link]/30 In this case, RTA needs to compare the metrics of
Cost=10
RTA the two routes.
[Link]/30 [Link]/30
• The two routes have different metrics. The OSPF
route with the next hop being [Link] has a lower
metric (with the cost 10), so it is installed in the IP
IP routing table of RTA
routing table.
Destination/Mask Protocol Cost Next Hop
[Link]/30 OSPF 20 [Link] Installed in
the IP
[Link]/30 OSPF 10 [Link] routing
table

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 Route Preference - Common Default Values
⚫ The following table lists the default preference values of common route types:

Protocol Route Type Default Preference

Direct Direct route 0

Static Static route 60

OSPF internal route 10

Dynamic routing protocol
OSPF external route 150

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• The table lists the preferences of some common routing protocols. Actually, there are multiple
types of dynamic routes. We will learn these routes in subsequent courses.
 Metric - Basic Concepts
Comparing Metrics • When a router discovers multiple routes to the same

Routes
destination network through the same routing
protocol, the router selects the optimal route based on
the metrics of these routes if these routes have the
Different
Installed in the IP
Destination/mask routing table same preference.

Same • The metric of a route indicates the cost of reaching the

destination address of the route.
Higher preference
Preference • Common metrics include the hop count, bandwidth,
delay, cost, load, and reliability.
Same preference
• The route with the lowest metric is installed in the IP
Lower metric
routing table.
Metric

• The metric is also known as the cost.

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 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing
▫ Basic Concepts of Routing

▫ Generation of Routing Entries

▫ Optimal Route Selection

▪ Route-based Forwarding

2. Static Routing

3. Dynamic Routing

4. Advanced Routing Features

Page 21 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Longest Matching
⚫ When a router receives an IP packet, it compares the destination IP address of the packet with all routing entries in
the local routing table bit by bit until the longest matching entry is found. This is the longest matching mechanism.

Bit-by-bit matching
Destination IP address
[Link]
172. 16. 00000010 00000001

[Link] 172. 16. 00000001 xxxxxxxx

Routing entry 1
[Link]

[Link] 172. 16. 00000010 xxxxxxxx

Routing entry 2
[Link]

[Link] 172. 16. xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx

Routing entry 3
[Link]

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 Example of Longest Matching (1)
Example of Longest Matching

Destination IP [Link]/30
address:
• There are two routes to [Link] in the IP routing
[Link]
RTA
table of RTA, one has the 16-bit mask and the other has
[Link]/30 the 24-bit mask. According to the longest matching
DATA rule, the route with the 24-bit mask is preferred to
guide the forwarding of packets destined for
[Link]/30
[Link].
IP routing table of RTA
Destination/Mask Next Hop
[Link]/16 [Link]
[Link]/24 [Link] Match
[Link]/24 [Link]

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 Example of Longest Matching (2)
Example of Longest Matching

Destination IP [Link]/30
address:
[Link]
RTA
[Link]/30
• According to the longest matching rule, only the route to
Data
[Link]/24 in the IP routing table matches the
destination IP address [Link]. Therefore, this route is
[Link]/30
IP routing table of RTA used to forward packets destined for [Link].
Destination/Mask Next Hop
[Link]/16 [Link]
[Link]/24 [Link]
[Link]/24 [Link] Match

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 Route-based Forwarding Process
Outbound
Destination/Mask Next Hop
Interface
Destination IP [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0
address:
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/1
[Link]
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/1
IP routing table of R2
Data
Gateway Gateway
GE0/1 GE0/0 GE0/0 GE0/1 GE0/0 GE0/1
[Link]/24 [Link]/24 [Link]/24 [Link]/24
[Link] [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link]
R1 R2 R3

IP routing table of R1 IP routing table of R3

Outbound Outbound
Destination/Mask Next Hop Destination/Mask Next Hop
Interface Interface
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/1 [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/1
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0 [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0 [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0 [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0

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• The IP packets from [Link]/24 need to reach [Link]/24. After receiving these packets, the
gateway R1 searches its IP routing table for the next hop and outbound interface and forwards
the packets to R2. After the packets reach R2, R2 forwards the packets to R3 by searching its IP
routing table. Upon receipt of the packets, R3 searches its IP routing table, finding that the
destination IP address of the packets belongs to the subnet where a local interface resides.
Therefore, R3 directly forwards the packets to the destination subnet [Link]/24.
 Summary of the IP Routing Table
• When a router obtains routes to the same destination subnet with the same mask from different routing protocols,
the router prefers the route with the lowest preference value of these routing protocols. If these routes are learned
from the same routing protocol, the router prefers the route with the lowest cost. In summary, only the optimal
route is installed in the IP routing table.

• When a router receives a packet, it searches its IP routing table for the outbound interface and next hop based on
the destination IP address of the packet. If it finds a matching routing entry, it forwards the packet according to the
outbound interface and next hop specified by this entry. Otherwise, it discards the packet.

• Packets are forwarded hop by hop. Therefore, all the routers along the path from the source to the destination must
have routes destined for the destination. Otherwise, packet loss occurs.

• Data communication is bidirectional. Therefore, both forward and backward routes must be available.

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 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing

2. Static Routing

3. Dynamic Routing

4. Advanced Routing Features

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 Application Scenarios of Static Routes
Static Routes • Static routes are manually configured by network
administrators, have low system requirements, and apply
to simple, stable, and small networks.
Destined for
[Link]/24 GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1 • The disadvantage of static routes is that they cannot
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
automatically adapt to network topology changes and so
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
RTA [Link]/24 RTB [Link]/24 RTC require manual intervention.

• RTA needs to forward the packets with the destination

address [Link]/24. However, the IP routing table of RTA
Destination Protocol Next Hop
[Link] Static [Link] has only one direct route, which does not match
[Link] Direct [Link] [Link]/24. In this case, a static route needs to be
manually configured so that the packets sent from RTA to
[Link]/24 can be forwarded to the next hop [Link].

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 Static Route Configuration
⚫ Specify a next-hop IP address for a static route.
[Huawei] ip route-static ip-address { mask | mask-length } nexthop-address

⚫ Specify an outbound interface for a static route.

[Huawei] ip route-static ip-address { mask | mask-length } interface-type interface-number

⚫ Specify both the outbound interface and next hop for a static route.
[Huawei] ip route-static ip-address { mask | mask-length } interface-type interface-number [ nexthop-address ]

When creating a static route, you can specify both the outbound interface and next hop. Alternatively, you can specify either
the outbound interface or next hop, depending on the interface type:
For a point-to-point interface (such as a serial interface), you must specify the outbound interface.
For a broadcast interface (for example, an Ethernet interface) or a virtual template (VT) interface, you must specify the next
hop.

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 Configuration Example
GE0/0/0 S1/0/0
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
GE0/0/0 S1/0/0 Configure RTA.
RTA [Link]/24 RTB [Link]/24 RTC
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] [Link] [Link]

Destined for Destined for

[Link]/24 [Link]/24
Configure RTC.
• Configure static routes on RTA and RTC for communication between [RTC] ip route-static [Link] [Link] S1/0/0
[Link]/24 and [Link]/24.

• Packets are forwarded hop by hop. Therefore, all the routers along the
path from the source to the destination must have routes destined for
the destination.

• Data communication is bidirectional. Therefore, both forward and

backward routes must be available.

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 Default Routes
• Default routes are used only when packets to be forwarded do not match any routing entry in an IP routing table.

• In an IP routing table, a default route is the route to network [Link] (with the mask [Link]), namely, [Link]/0.

RTA needs to forward packets to

a subnet that is not directly
connected to it and forwards the
packets to [Link].

[Link]/24
RTA RTB [Link]/24
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/0
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
[Link] .
[Link] .
[Link]/24

[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 0 [Link]

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 Application Scenarios of Default Routes
⚫ Default routes are typically used at the egress of an enterprise network. For example, you can configure a default
route on an egress device to enable the device to forward IP packets destined for any address on the Internet.

Enterprise
network RTA
[Link]/24 Internet
GE0/0/1 GE0/0/0 [Link]
PC [Link] [Link]
[Link]
Gateway: [Link]

[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 0 [Link]

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 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing

2. Static Routing

3. Dynamic Routing

4. Advanced Routing Features

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 Overview of Dynamic Routing
Static Routing Dynamic Routing

• To use static routes on any Dynamic routing OSPF • Dynamic routes can be
Static routing device, you must manually automatically discovered
configure them. and learned.
• Static routes cannot adapt • Dynamic routes can adapt
to link changes. to topology changes.

• When the network scale expands, it becomes increasingly complex to • Dynamic routing protocols automatically discover and generate
manually configure static routes. In addition, when the network routes, and update routes when the topology changes. These
topology changes, static routes cannot adapt to these changes in a protocols effectively reduce the workload of network
timely and flexible manner. administrators and are widely used on large networks.

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• The disadvantage of static routes is that they cannot automatically adapt to network topology
changes and so require manual intervention.

• Dynamic routing protocols provide different routing algorithms to adapt to network topology
changes. Therefore, they are applicable to networks on which many Layer 3 devices are deployed.
 Classification of Dynamic Routing Protocols
Classification by the application scope

Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP)

RIP OSPF IS-IS BGP

Classification by working mechanism and routing algorithm

Distance-vector routing protocol Link-state routing protocol

RIP OSPF IS-IS

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• Dynamic routing protocols are classified into two types based on the routing algorithm:

▫ Distance-vector routing protocol

▪ RIP
▫ Link-state routing protocol

▪ OSPF

▪ IS-IS
▫ BGP uses a path vector algorithm, which is modified based on the distance-vector
algorithm. Therefore, BGP is also called a path-vector routing protocol in some scenarios.

• Dynamic routing protocols are classified into the following types by their application scope:

▫ IGPs run within an autonomous system (AS), including RIP, OSPF, and IS-IS.

▫ EGP runs between different ASs, among which BGP is the most frequently used.
 Contents
1. Overview of IP Routing

2. Static Routing

3. Dynamic Routing

4. Advanced Routing Features

Page 36 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Route Recursion (1)

⚫ Route recursion is a recursive search process of the IP routing table where the next-hop IP address is
wanted to route packets towards its destination but when found it is not part of any directly connected
network.
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
[Link]/24
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
RTA [Link]/24 RTB [Link]/24 RTC

[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]

The next hop of the route to [Link]/24 is [Link], which

is not on a directly connected network of RTA. If the IP
routing table does not have a route to [Link], this static
route does not take effect and cannot be installed in the IP
routing table.

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 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Route Recursion (2)

GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
[Link]/24
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
RTA [Link]/24 RTB [Link]/24 RTC

Destination/Ma Outbound
Next Hop
sk Interface
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]
Recursion
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0/0
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0/0
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]

Configure a route to [Link], with the next hop pointing to [Link] on the directly connected network.
In this way, RTA can recurse the route with the destination [Link]/24 to the route with the destination [Link].

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 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Equal-Cost Route
⚫ When there are equal-cost routes in the IP routing table, a router forwards IP packets to be sent to the destination
subnet through all valid outbound interfaces and next hops in the equal-cost routes, achieving load balancing.

RTA GE0/0/0 GE0/0/0 RTB

[Link]/30 Cost=10 [Link]/30
[Link]/30
GE0/0/1 Cost=10 GE0/0/1
[Link]/30 [Link]/30

If there are multiple routes to the same

RTA's IP routing table destination from the same source, with the same
cost, but pointing to different next hops, the
Destination/Mask Next Hop routes are installed in the IP routing table as
[Link] equal-cost routes. Traffic to be sent to the
[Link]/30 destination will be distributed to these equal-cost
[Link]
routes.

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 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Floating Route - Basic Concepts

Floating Route
• Different preferences can be manually configured for

RTB
static routes. Therefore, you can configure two static
routes with the same destination address/mask but
different preferences and next hops to implement
[Link]/30
[Link]/30 backup of forwarding paths.
[Link]/30 • A backup route is known as a floating route, which is
[Link]/30 [Link]/30 used only when the primary route is unavailable. That
RTA RTC
is, a floating route is installed in the IP routing table
only when the next hop of the primary route is
Configure a floating route on RTA.
unreachable.
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 30 [Link]
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 30 [Link] preference 70

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 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Floating Route - Example

Floating Route Switching

RTB RTB

[Link]/30 [Link]/30
[Link]/30 [Link]/30

[Link]/30 [Link]/30

[Link]/30 [Link]/30 [Link]/30 [Link]/30

RTA RTC RTA RTC
Destined for [Link]/24

RTA's IP routing table when the primary link is available RTA's IP routing table when the primary link fails
Destination Next Hop Preference Destination Next Hop Preference
[Link] [Link] 60 [Link] [Link] 70

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• When the link between RTA and RTB is normal, the two routes to [Link]/30 are both valid. In
this case, RTA compares the preferences of the two routes, which are 60 and 70 respectively.
Therefore, the route with the preference value 60 is installed in the IP routing table, and RTA
forwards traffic to the next hop [Link].

• If the link between RTA and RTB is faulty, the next hop [Link] is unreachable, which causes the
corresponding route invalid. In this case, the backup route to [Link]/30 is installed in the IP
routing table. RTA forwards traffic destined for [Link] to the next hop [Link].
 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

CIDR
• Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) uses IP addresses and masks to identify networks and subnets. CIDR replaces the previous
addressing architecture of classful network design (such as classes A, B, and C addresses).

• CIDR is based on variable length subnet mask (VLSM). CIDR uses prefixes of any lengths to divide the address space with continuous
IP addresses. Multiple address segments with continuous prefixes can be summarized into a network, effectively reducing the
number of routing entries.

192. 168. 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [Link]/22

192. 168. 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [Link]/23

[Link]/21
192. 168. 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [Link]/21

192. 168. 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [Link]/23

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 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Background of Route Summarization

• Subnet division and VLSM resolve the problem of address space waste, but also bring a new challenge: increasing
routing entries in the IP routing table.

• Route summarization can minimize routing entries.

[Link]/24 [Link]/24 [Link]/24 [Link]/24

[Link]/24

RTB's IP routing table

RTA
[Link]/24 To route traffic to the directly connected network segments of
[Link]/24
[Link]/24 RTA, RTB must have routes to these network segments. If a
[Link]/24 static route is manually configured for each network segment,
[Link]/24 the configuration workload will be heavy and RTB's IP routing
RTB table will have a large number of routing entries.
[Link]/24
[Link]/24

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• On a large-scale network, routers or other routing-capable devices need to maintain a large

number of routing entries, which will consume a large amount of device resources. In addition,
the IP routing table size is increasing, resulting in a low efficiency of routing entry lookup.
Therefore, we need to minimize the size of IP routing tables on routers while ensuring IP
reachability between the routers and different network segments. If a network has scientific IP
addressing and proper planning, we can achieve this goal by using different methods. A common
and effective method is route summarization, which is also known as route aggregation.
 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Overview of Route Summarization

[Link]/24
[Link]/24
RTA RTB
... • Route summarization is an approach of summarizing routes
[Link] ...
[Link] ... with the same prefix into one summary route to minimize the
[Link]/24
IP routing table size and improve device resource usage.

• Route summarization uses CIDR to summarize network

segments with the same prefix into a single one.
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 16 [Link]
• The routes before being summarized are known as specific
routes, and the routes created after summarization are known
On RTA, configure static routes to the directly as summarized routes or summary routes.
connected network segments [Link]/24,
[Link]/24, ..., and [Link]/24 of RTB, with the
same next hop. Therefore, these routes can be
summarized into one route.

Page 44 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

• To enable RTA to reach remote network segments, we need to configure a specific route to each
network segment. In this example, the routes to [Link]/24, [Link]/24, and [Link]/24 have
the same next hop, that is, [Link]. Therefore, we can summarize these routes into a single one.

• This effectively reduces the size of RTA's IP routing table.

 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Summarization and Calculation

192 168 X 0

[Link]/24 1 1 0 0 00 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[Link]/24 1 1 0 0 00 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[Link]/24 1 1 0 0 00 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Network address Host address

[Link]/22 1 1 0 0 00 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

• To summarize routes to multiple continuous network segments into one summary route that just includes these network
segments, ensure that the mask length of the summary route is as long as possible.

• The key to achieve this is to convert the destination addresses of specific routes into binary numbers and then find out the
identical bits in these binary numbers.

Page 45 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Problems Caused by Route Summarization (1)

Routing Loop

[RTB] ip route-static [Link] 0 [Link] [RTA] ip route-static [Link] 16 [Link]

[Link]/24
[Link]/24 RTB RTA
... [Link] Internet
... [Link]
...
1 2
[Link]/24

RTB receives traffic destined for Routes are summarized on RTA.

[Link]/24 and forwards the Therefore, RTA forwards the traffic back
traffic to RTA according to the to RTB according to the summary route
default route. Loop to [Link]/16.

Page 46 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Problems Caused by Route Summarization (2)

Solution for Preventing Routing Loops

[RTB] ip route-static [Link] 0 [Link] [RTA] ip route-static [Link] 16 [Link]

[Link]/24
[Link]/24 RTB RTA
... [Link] Internet
...
... [Link]
[Link]/24

[RTB] ip route-static [Link] 16 0 NULL0

• Configure a route pointing to Null0 on RTB to prevent

routing loops when summarizing routes.

Page 47 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

• In most cases, both static and dynamic routes need to be associated with an outbound interface.
This interface is the egress through which the device is connected to a destination network. The
outbound interface in a route can be a physical interface such as a 100M or GE interface, or a
logical interface such as a VLANIF or tunnel interface. There is a special interface, that is, Null
interface. It has only one interface number, that is, 0. Null0 is a logical interface and is always up.
When Null0 is used as the outbound interface in a route, data packets matching this route are
discarded, like being dumped into a black-hole. Therefore, such a route is called a black-hole
route.
 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Accurate Route Summarization (1)

RTB [Link]/24
[Link] [Link]/24
...
RTA [Link]/24

[Link]
RTC
[Link]/24
[Link]/24
...
[Link]/24

[RTA] ip route-static 172.16.0 16 [Link]

• To simplify the configuration, an administrator may configure a static summary route on RTA to allow RTA to reach network segments
[Link]/24 to [Link]/24 of RTB. However, this summary route also includes the network segments of RTC. As a result, RTA forwards
the traffic destined for network segments of RTC to RTB, causing data packet loss. This problem is caused by inaccurate route summarization.
To resolve this problem, the summary route must be as accurate as possible; that is, it just covers all specific routes that are to be
summarized, with no extra route included.

Page 48 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Route Recursion Equal-Cost Route Floating Route
Summarization

Accurate Route Summarization (2)

10 1 0 0

[Link]/24 0 0 0 0 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[Link]/24 0 0 0 0 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[Link]/24 0 0 0 0 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

/22
ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]
ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]
ip route-static [Link] 22 [Link]
ip route-static [Link] 24 [Link]

Accurately calculate the summarized network

address and mask to ensure accurate route
summarization.

Page 49 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Quiz
1. How does a router select the optimal route?

2. How do I configure a floating route?

3. What is the summary route for routes to [Link]/24, [Link]/24, and [Link]/24?

Page 50 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. The router first compares preferences of routes. The route with the lowest preference value is
selected as the optimal route. If the routes have the same preferences, the router compares
their metrics. If the routes have the same metric, they are installed in the IP routing table as
equal-cost routes.

2. To configure a floating route, configure a static route with the same destination network
segment and mask as the primary route but a different next hop and a larger preference value.

3. The summary route is [Link]/20.

 Summary
⚫ This section presents the basic concepts of routes, how routes instruct routers to forward IP
packets, common route attributes, and default routes (special static routes).

⚫ In addition, this section describes advanced routing features including route recursion, floating
routes, and equal-cost routes, which are widely used on live networks.

Page 51 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Thank You
[Link]

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