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Table of content
Dynamic routing
Static routing which was described in the Static routing article has the following critical disadvantages:
- scalability: adding a new router in the network requires changing the configuration of all existing nodes;
- operation: changes in the network will require updating the routing information on all network nodes;
- speed: device or link failures require changes to the routing tables of the devices, which must be performed manually.
Dynamic routing protocols are free from all mentioned disadvantages of the static routing. Besides that, some of them have the following additional benefits:
- traffic balancing: if there are several paths towards the same destination, the router balances the data between the communication channels, ensuring an even distribution of the devices and of the channels utilization;
- fault tolerance: automatic transition to the backup infrastructure in case of failure of the main one.
Dynamic routing protocols exchange routing information and update it automatically. Despite their basic functionality being similar, the protocols can be classified in the following way:
- By the application area:
- internal: dynamic routing protocols used within an autonomous system, i.e. a set of devices and communication channels under common management (for example, ODR, RIP, OSPF);
- external: dynamic routing protocols used to exchange routing information between autonomous systems (for example, BGP).
- By the operational principles:
- distance-vector: exchange the routing tables, network nodes operate only with information about their direct neighbors and only with routing information received from them (for example RIP, ODR);
- link state: exchange the whole topology tables, each network node operates with information about the structure of the entire network and can reproduce the entire scheme (for example, OSPF).
Dynamic routing protocols are supported by the InfiNet devices of the InfiLINK 2x2 and of the InfiMAN 2x2 families. All further examples will be provided for the devices of these families.
In general, a separate module in the device's architecture is responsible for the operation of each dynamic routing protocol, however, for the operation of the RIP and OSPF protocols an ARDA module has been added (см. ARDA (Aqua Router Daemon)), which performs a coordination function and integration with the general system (Figure 1). OSPF and RIP configurations are performed via ARDA.
Figure 1 - Internal architecture of the dynamic routing modules in the InfiLINK 2x2 and InfiMAN 2x2 devices
Description of the dynamic routing protocols
The attached documents contain a description of the dynamic routing protocols: ODR, RIP, OSPF. There are child pages with device configuration examples for each protocol:
Additional materials
Online courses
Webinars
- Typical scenario of routing setting using Infinet Wireless devices. Part I.
- Typical scenario of routing setting using Infinet Wireless devices. Part II