IP Routing Basics

age 2 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Forewor
d

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.

age 3 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Objective
s

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.

age 4 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Content
s
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

age 5 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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

How to communicate
each other.
with the network M?

age 6 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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

Gatewa Gateway
y
Destination-based forwarding

age 7 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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.

IP routing table 
Next hop: indicates the next-hop address used
Destination/ Outbound Next by the router to forward the data packet to the
Mask Interface Hop
destination subnet.
[Link]/24 GE0/0/0 [Link]

The information identifies the destination
subnet and specifies the path for forwarding
age 8 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. data packets.
 IP Routing Table

[Link]/8 Destination/
Next Hop
Outbound
Mask Interface
R4
• Routers discover routes using multiple
[Link]/8 [Link] GE0/0
[Link]/3 methods.
0 [Link]/8 [Link] GE0/1
[Link]/8 [Link] GE0/2 • A router selects the optimal route and
…
GE0/2 [Link]/30 [Link] GE0/2
installs it in its IP routing table.
[Link]/3
0 [Link]/32 [Link] GE0/2 • The router forwards IP packets based on
GE0/0 GE0/1 routes in the IP routing table.
[Link]/30 R2 [Link]/3
0 • Routers manage path information by
managing their IP routing tables.
[Link]/3 [Link]/30
0
R1 R3

[Link]/8 [Link]/8

age 9 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Content
s
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

age 10 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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 • Static routes are manually configured by • Dynamic routes are learned by dynamic
generated by devices and point to network administrators. routing protocols running on routers.
local directly connected networks. [Link]/24

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

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

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

age 11 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Direct Routes (1)
Direct Routes
• A direct route is automatically generated by
a device and points to a local directly-
GE0/0/0 connected network.
[Link]/24
[Link]/24
GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 • When a router is the last hop router, IP
RTB [Link]/24
packets to be forwarded will match a direct
route and the router will directly forward the
IP packet to the destination host.
Direct routes in the IP routing table of • When a direct route is used for packet
RTB
Destination Next Outbound forwarding, the destination IP address of a
Protocol
/Mask Hop Interface
packet to be forwarded and the IP address of
[Link]/24 Direct [Link] GE0/0/0
the router‘s outbound interface are in the
[Link]/24 Direct [Link] GE0/0/1
same subnet.

age 12 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Direct Routes (2)
Direct routes

GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
• Not all the direct routes generated for
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
RTA [Link]/24 RTB [Link]/24 RTC interfaces are 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
Direct routes in the IP routing table of RTB
routing table.
Destination/ Outbound
Protocol Next Hop
Mask 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.

age 13 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Content
s
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

age 14 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Examining the IP Routing Table
<Huawei> 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
Destination/ Protocol Flag Next-hop Outbound
[Link]/32
Mask Direct 0 0 D [Link]
address interface
InLoopBack0 Route Cost
preferenc (Metric)
e

age 15 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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.

age 16 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route Preference - Basic Concepts
Comparing Route Preferences • When a router obtains routes to the same
destination subnet from different routing
Routes protocols (these routes have the same
destination network address and mask), the

Different
router compares the preferences of these
Destination Installed in the
subnet/mask IP routing table routes and prefers the route with the lowest
Same preference value.

Higher Preference
• A lower preference value indicates a higher
Preference
preference.
• The route with the highest preference is
installed in the IP routing table.

age 17 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route Preference - Comparison
Process
Comparing Route Preferences

Dynamic
routing [Link]/3 • RTA discovers two routes to [Link]/30, one
protocol0
[Link]/30
OSPF
[Link]/3
is an OSPF route and the other a static
0 route. In this case, RTA compares the
RTA
[Link]/ [Link]/ preferences of the two routes and selects
30 30
the route with the lowest preference value.
• Each routing protocol has a unique
Route entries of RTA
preference.
Destination/
Protocol Preference Next Hop
Mask
Installed • OSPF has a higher preference. Therefore,
[Link]/30 Static 60 [Link] in the IP
routing the OSPF route is installed in the IP routing
[Link]/30 OSPF 10 [Link]
table table.

age 18 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Metric - Comparison Process
Metric comparison

Dynamic • RTA learns two routes with the same

routing [Link]/3
protocol 0 destination address ([Link]/30) and
OSPF
Cost=1 Cost=1 [Link]/30
[Link]/3 0 0 preference through OSPF. In this case, RTA
0 Cost=1
RTA 0 needs to compare the metrics of the two
[Link]/3 [Link]/3
0 0 routes.
• The two routes have different metrics. The
OSPF route with the next hop being
Route entries of RTA
[Link] has a lower metric (with the cost
Destination/ Next
Protocol Cost
Mask Hop Installed 10), so it is installed in the IP routing
[Link]/30 OSPF 20 [Link] in the IP
routing table.
[Link]/30 OSPF 10 [Link] table

age 19 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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

age 20 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Metric - Basic Concepts
Comparing Metrics • When a router discovers multiple routes to

Routes
the same destination network through the
same routing protocol, the router selects the
optimal route based on the metrics of these
Different Installed in
Destination/mask the IP routing routes if these routes have the same
table
preference.
Same
• The metric of a route indicates the cost of
Higher
Preference preference reaching the destination address of the
route.
Same
preference • Common metrics include the hop count,
Lower bandwidth, delay, cost, load, and reliability.
Metric metric
• The route with the lowest metric is installed
in the IP routing table.
age 21 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
• The metric is also known as the cost.
 Content
s
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

age 22 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
[Link] 0000001 0000000
address 172. 16.
0 1
M
is
[Link] 0000000 m
Routing entry 1 172. 16. xxxxx x xatx
1 ch
[Link] Lo
ng
0000001 es
[Link] 172. 16. x x x x x x xt mx
Routing entry 2 0 at
[Link] c h
N
o
lo t t
[Link] 172. 16. xxxxxxxx xx xmx nxgex hxe x
Routing entry 3 at st
[Link] ch

age 23 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Example of Longest Matching (1)
Example of Longest Matching

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

age 24 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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
Data
the route to [Link]/24 in the IP routing
table matches the destination IP address
[Link]/30
IP routing table of [Link]. Therefore, this route is used to
RTA
Destination/Mask Next Hop forward packets destined for [Link].
[Link]/16 [Link]
[Link]/24 [Link]
[Link]/24 [Link] Match

age 25 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route-based Forwarding Process
Destination/ Outbound
Next Hop
Mask Interface
Destination [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0
IP address:
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/1
[Link]
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0
[Link]/24 [Link] GE0/1

IP routing table of R2
Data Gatewa
Gatewa
GE0/1 y GE0/0 GE0/1 GE0/0 y GE0/1
GE0/0
[Link]/24 [Link]/24 [Link]/24 [Link]/24
30.0.1. 30.0.1. 40.0.1.
[Link] [Link] [Link]
1 2 1
R1 R2 R3
IP routing table of IP routing table of
R1 R3
Destination/ Outbound Destination/ Outbound
Next Hop Next Hop
Mask Interface Mask 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

age 26 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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.
age 27 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Content
s
1. Overview of IP Routing
2. Static Routing
3. Dynamic Routing
4. Advanced Routing Features

age 28 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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
Destined for small networks.
[Link]/24 GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 [Link]/2
4
• The disadvantage of static routes is that they
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
RTA [Link]/2 RTB [Link]/2 RTC cannot automatically adapt to network
4 4
topology changes and so require manual
intervention.
Destination Protocol Next Hop
[Link] Static [Link]
• RTA needs to forward the packets with the
[Link] Direct [Link] destination address [Link]/24. However, the
IP routing table of RTA has only one direct
route, which does not match [Link]/24. In
this case, a static route needs to be manually
age 29 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. configured so that the packets sent from RTA
 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.

age 30 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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 [RTC] ip route-static [Link] [Link]
communication between [Link]/24 and [Link]/24. S1/0/0

• 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.

age 31 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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]

age 32 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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]

age 33 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Content
s
1. Overview of IP Routing
2. Static Routing
3. Dynamic Routing
4. Advanced Routing Features

age 34 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Overview of Dynamic Routing
Static Routing Dynamic Routing
• To use static routes • Dynamic routes can
on any device, you Dynamic routing be automatically
Static must manually discovered and
routing configure them. OSPF
learned.
• Static routes cannot • Dynamic routes can
adapt to link adapt to topology
changes. changes.

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

age 35 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 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

age 36 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Content
s
1. Overview of IP Routing
2. Static Routing
3. Dynamic Routing
4. Advanced Routing Features

age 37 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio
Route
n

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.

age 38 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio
Route
n

Route Recursion (2)

GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1
[Link]/24 [Link]/24
[Link]/2
GE0/0/0 GE0/0/1 4
RTA [Link]/24 RTB [Link]/24 RTC

Destination Next Outbound

/Mask Hop Interface
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 24
[Link] [Link]/24 [Link] GE0/0/0
Recursion
[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].

age 39 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio
Route
n

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

If there are multiple routes to the same

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

age 40 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio
Route
n

Floating Route - Basic Concepts

Floating Route
• Different preferences can be manually

RTB configured for static routes. Therefore, you

can configure two static routes with the
same destination address/mask but
[Link]/30
[Link]/30 different preferences and next hops to
[Link]/30 implement backup of forwarding paths.

[Link]/30 [Link]/30 • A backup route is known as a floating route,

RTA RTC
which is used only when the primary route
is unavailable. That is, a floating route is
Configure a floating route on
installed in the IP routing table only when
RTA.
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 30 [Link]
[RTA] ip route-static [Link] 30 [Link] the next hop of the primary route is
preference 70
unreachable.
age 41 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio
Route
n

Floating Route - Example

Floating Route Switching

RTB RTB
. 0/24
. 1
20.1
fo r [Link]/30 [Link]/30
n ed
s ti [Link]/30 [Link]/30
De
[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

age 42 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio
Route
n

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

age 43 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio
Route
n

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]/24192.168.5.0/24 [Link]/24

[Link]/24

[Link]/2
RTB's IP routing
RTA 4 table
[Link]/2 To route traffic to the directly connected network
[Link]/24 segments of RTA, RTB must have routes to these
4
[Link]/2 network segments. If a static route is manually
4 configured for each network segment, the
[Link]/2 configuration workload will be heavy and RTB's IP
RTB routing table will have a large number of routing
4
[Link]/2 entries.
4
[Link]/2
4
age 44 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio
Route
n

Overview of Route Summarization

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

• Route summarization uses CIDR to summarize

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

age 45 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio
Route
n

Summarization and Calculation

192 168 X 0

[Link]/2 11000000 10101000 00000001 00000000

4
[Link]/2 11000000 10101000 00000010 00000000
4
[Link]/2 11000000 10101000 00000011 00000000
4
Network Host
address address

[Link]/2 1 1 0 0 0 0 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
2 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.
age 46 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio

Problems Caused by Route

Route
n

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 Routes are summarized on RTA.

destined for [Link]/24 Therefore, RTA forwards the
and forwards the traffic to traffic back to RTB according to
RTA according to the Loop the summary route to
default route. [Link]/16.
3

age 47 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio

Problems Caused by Route

Route
n

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.

age 48 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio
Route
n

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 [Link] 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.
age 49 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Route
Equal-Cost
Route Recursion Floating Route Summarizatio
Route
n

Accurate Route Summarization (2)

10 1 0 0

[Link]/2 00001010 00000001 00000001 00000000

4
[Link]/2 00001010 00000001 00000010 00000000
4
[Link]/2 0 0 0 010 1 0 00000001 00000011 00000000
4

/22
ip route-static [Link] 24
[Link]
ip route-static [Link] 22 [Link]
ip route-static [Link] 24
[Link]
ip route-static [Link] 24
[Link] Accurately calculate the
summarized network address and
mask to ensure accurate route
summarization.

age 50 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?

age 51 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Summar
y

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.

age 52 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Thank You
[Link]

age 53 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.