COMS/CSEE 4140
Networking Laboratory
Lecture 03
Salman Abdul Baset
Spring 2008
Announcements
No prelab due next week. Instead a small
assignment. Due next week for all students.
 Lab 3 will be covered over two weeks.
 Lab 3 (1-4) due next week before your lab slot.

2
Previous lecture…

Data Link Protocols


Topology: bus, ring, star
Ethernet and 802.3 (bus and star topology)




Switch and hub
PPP protocol
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)


CSMA/CD Ethernet/802.3, CSMA/CA 802.11 (WiFi)
Proxy ARP, RARP, ARP cache, vulnerabilities
IP addresses

Structure, classful IP addresses, CIDR, subnetting,
IPv6
3
Agenda
More on CIDR
 Internet Protocol (IP)
 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
 IP forwarding
 Router architecture

4
Classless Inter-domain routing (CIDR)
1993

Full description RFC 1518 & 1519

Network prefix is of variable length

Addresses are allocated hierarchically

Routers aggregate multiple address prefixes into
one routing entry to minimize routing table size
5
CIDR notation

CIDR notation of an IP address:



128.143.137.144/24
/24 is the prefix length. It states that the first 24 bits are the
network prefix of the address (and the remaining 8 bits are
available for specific host addresses)
CIDR notation can nicely express blocks of addresses

An address block
[128.195.0.0, 128.195.255.255]
can be represented by an address prefix
128.195.0.0/16

How many addresses are there in a /x address block?

2 (32-x)
6
CIDR hierarchical address allocation
ISP
128.1.0.0/16
128.2.0.0/16
128.0.0.0/8
128.59.0.0/16
University
Foo.com
Bar.com
Library
128.59.44.0/24





128.59.16.150
CS
128.59.16.0/24
IP addresses are hierarchically allocated.
An ISP obtains an address block from a Regional Internet Registry
An ISP allocates a subdivision of the address block to an organization
An organization recursively allocates subdivision of its address block to
its networks
7
A host in a network obtains an address within the address block
assigned to the network
Regional Internet Registries
(RIRs)



Registration and management of IP address is done by Regional
Internet Registries (RIRs)
Where do RIRs get their addresses from: IANA maintains a high-level
registry that distributes large blocks to RIRs
RIR are administer allocation of:




IPv4 address blocks
IPv6 address blocks
Autonomous system (AS) numbers
There are currently five RIRs worldwide:





APNIC (Asia/Pacific Region),
ARIN (North America and Sub-Sahara Africa),
LACNIC (Latin America and some Caribbean Islands)
RIPE NCC (Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and African countries
located north of the equator).
AfriNIC (Africa) (100,663,296 IP addresses 5% of total IPv4 addresses!) 8
Hierarchical address allocation
128.59.16.[0 – 255]
128.59.16.150
128.59.0.0 – 128.59.255.255
128.0.0.0 - 128.255.255.255




ISP obtains an address block 128.0.0.0/8  [128.0.0.0, 128.255.255.255]
ISP allocates 128.59.0.0/16 ([128.59.0.0, 128.59.255.255]) to the
university.
University allocates 128.59.16.0/24 ([128.59.16.0, 128.59.16.255]) to the
CS department’s network
A host on the CS department’s network gets one IP address 128.59.16.150
9
CIDR allows route aggregation
You can reach 128.0.0.0/8 via ISP1
128.1.0.0/16
Foo.com
ISP3
ISP1
128.2.0.0/16
I
128.0.0.0/8
128.0.0.0/8 ISP1
128.59.0.0/16
Bar.com
University
Library


CS
ISP1 announces one address prefix 128.0.0.0./8 to ISP2
ISP2 can use one routing entry to reach all networks
connected to ISP1
10
What problems CIDR does not solve
You can reach 128.0.0.0/8
And 204.1.0.0/16 via ISP1
ISP1
ISP2
128.0.0.0/8
204.0.0.0/8
ISP3
128.0.0.0/8
204.1.0.0/16
ISP1
204.1.0.0/16 ISP1
Mutil-home.com
204.1.0.0/16

An multi-homing site still adds one entry
into global routing tables
11
Agenda
More on CIDR
 Internet Protocol (IP)
 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
 IP forwarding
 Router architecture

12
IP: The waist of the hourglass




IP is the waist of the
hourglass of the
Internet protocol
architecture
Multiple higher-layer
protocols
Multiple lower-layer
protocols
Only one protocol at the
network layer.
Applications
HTTP FTP SMTP
TCP UDP
IP
Data link layer
protocols
Physical layer
protocols
13
Application protocol

IP is the highest layer protocol which is
implemented at both routers and hosts
Application
Application protocol
Application
TCP
TCP protocol
TCP
IP
Data Link
Host
IP
IP protocol
Data
Link
Data
Link
IP
IP protocol
Data
Link
Router
Data
Link
Data
Link
IP protocol
Data
Link
Router
Data
Link
IP
Network
Access
Host
14
IP Service

Delivery service of IP is minimal

IP provide provides an unreliable connectionless best
effort service (also called: “datagram service”).




Unreliable: IP does not make an attempt to recover lost
packets
Connectionless: Each packet (“datagram”) is handled
independently. IP is not aware that packets between hosts may
be sent in a logical sequence
Best effort: IP does not make guarantees on the service (no
throughput guarantee, no delay guarantee,…)
Consequences:
• Higher layer protocols have to deal with losses or with duplicate
packets
15
• Packets may be delivered out-of-sequence
IP Service

IP supports the following services:



one-to-one
one-to-all
one-to-several
unicast


broadcast
(unicast)
(broadcast)
(multicast)
multicast
IP multicast also supports a many-to-many service.
IP multicast requires support of other protocols (IGMP,
multicast routing)
16
IP Datagram Format
bit # 0
7 8
3 4
version
header
length
15 16
ECN
DS
Identification
time-to-live (TTL)
23
24
31
total length (in bytes)
0
D M
F F
protocol
Fragment offset
header checksum
source IP address
destination IP address
options (0 to 40 bytes)
payload
4 bytes


20 bytes ≤ Header Size < 24 x 4 bytes = 60 bytes
20 bytes ≤ Total Length < 216 bytes = 65536 bytes
17
IP Datagram Format


Question: In which order are the bytes of an IP datagram
transmitted?
Answer:


Transmission is row by row
For each row:
1. First transmit bits 0-7
2. Then transmit bits 8-15
3. Then transmit bits 16-23
4. Then transmit bits 24-31

This is called network byte order or big endian byte
ordering.

Note: Many computers (incl. Intel processors) store 32-bit words in little
endian format. Others (incl. Motorola processors) use big endian.
18
Big endian vs. little endian
• Conventions to store a multibyte data type
• Example: a 4 byte Long Integer
Byte3 Byte2 Byte1 Byte0


Little Endian
Stores the low-order byte at
the lowest address and the
highest order byte in the
highest address.
Base Address+0 Byte0
Base Address+1 Byte1
Base Address+2 Byte2
Base Address+3 Byte3
Intel processors use this order

Big Endian
Stores the high-order byte at
the lowest address, and the
low-order byte at the highest
address.
Base Address+0 Byte3
Base Address+1 Byte2
Base Address+2 Byte1
Base Address+3 Byte0
Motorola processors use big endian.
19
Fields of the IP Header
Version (4 bits): current version is 4, next
version will be 6.
 Header length (4 bits): length of IP header,
in multiples of 4 bytes
 DS/ECN field (1 byte)



This field was previously called as Type-of-Service
(TOS) field. The role of this field has been re-defined,
but is “backwards compatible” to TOS interpretation
Differentiated Service (DS) (6 bits):


Used to specify service level (currently not supported in the
Internet)
Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) (2 bits):

New feedback mechanism used by TCP
20
Fields of the IP Header

Identification (16 bits): Unique identification
of a datagram from a host. Incremented
whenever a datagram is transmitted

Flags (3 bits):
First bit always set to 0
 DF bit (Do not fragment)
 MF bit (More fragments)
Will be explained later Fragmentation

21
Fields of the IP Header

Time To Live (TTL) (1 byte):
Specifies longest paths before datagram is dropped
 Role of TTL field: Ensure that packet is eventually
dropped when a routing loop occurs
Used as follows:
 Sender sets the value (e.g., 64)
 Each router decrements the value by 1
 When the value reaches 0, the datagram is dropped

22
Fields of the IP Header

Protocol (1 byte):


Specifies the higher-layer protocol.
Used for demultiplexing to higher layers.
4 = IP-in-IP
encapsulation
17 = UDP
6 = TCP
2 = IGMP
1 = ICMP
IP

Header checksum (2 bytes): A simple 16-bit
long checksum which is computed for the header
of the datagram.
23
Fields of the IP Header

Options:



Security restrictions
Record Route: each router that processes the packet adds its IP
address to the header. Typically never set. Why?
Timestamp: each router that processes the packet adds its IP
address and time to the header.

(loose) Source Routing: specifies a list of routers that must be
traversed.

(strict) Source Routing: specifies a list of the only routers that can
be traversed.

Padding: Padding bytes are added to ensure
that header ends on a 4-byte boundary
24
Maximum Transmission Unit

Maximum size of IP datagram is 65535, but the data link layer
protocol generally imposes a limit that is much smaller

Example:

Ethernet frames have a maximum payload of 1500 bytes
 IP datagrams encapsulated in Ethernet frame cannot be longer than
1500 bytes

The limit on the maximum IP datagram size, imposed by the
data link protocol is called maximum transmission unit
(MTU)

MTUs for various data link protocols:
Ethernet:
802.3:
802.5:
1500
1492
4464
FDDI:
4352
ATM AAL5: 9180
PPP:
negotiated
25
IP Fragmentation

What if the size of an IP datagram exceeds the
MTU?
IP datagram is fragmented into smaller units.

What if the route contains networks with different
MTUs?
FDDI
Ring
Host A
MTUs:
FDDI: 4352
Ethernet
Router
Host B
Ethernet: 1500
• Fragmentation:
• IP router splits the datagram into several datagram
• Fragments are reassembled at receiver
26
Where is Fragmentation done?
Fragmentation can be done at the sender or at
intermediate routers
 The same datagram can be fragmented several
times.
 Reassembly of original datagram is only done at
destination hosts !!

IP datagram
H
Fragment 2
H2
Fragment 1
Router
27
H1
What’s involved in Fragmentation?

The following fields in the
IP header are involved:
version
header
length
DS
Identification
time-to-live (TTL)
Identification
protocol
total length (in bytes)
ECN
0
DM
F F
Fragment offset
header checksum
When a datagram is fragmented, the
identification is the same in all fragments
Flags
DF bit is set: Datagram cannot be fragmented and must
be discarded if MTU is too small
MF bit set: This datagram is part of a fragment and an
28
additional fragment follows this one
What’s involved in Fragmentation?

The following fields in the
IP header are involved:
version
header
length
DS
Identification
time-to-live (TTL)
Fragment offset
Total length
protocol
total length (in bytes)
ECN
0
DM
F F
Fragment offset
header checksum
Offset of the payload of the current
fragment in the original datagram
Total length of the current fragment
29
Example of Fragmentation

A datagram with size 2400 bytes must be fragmented
according to an MTU limit of 1000 bytes
Header length: 20
Total length:
2400
Identification:
0xa428
DF flag:
0
MF flag:
0
Fragment offset: 0
Header length: 20
Total length:
448
Identification:
0xa428
DF flag:
0
MF flag:
0
Fragment offset: 244
IP datagram
Header length: 20
Header length: 20
Total length:
996
Total length:
996
Identification:
0xa428 Identification:
0xa428
DF flag:
0
DF flag:
0
MF flag:
1
MF flag:
1
Fragment offset: 122
fragment offset: 0
Fragment 3
MTU: 4000
Fragment 2
Fragment 1
MTU: 1000
Router
30
Determining the length of
fragments

To determine the size of the fragments we recall that, since there are
only 13 bits available for the fragment offset, the offset is given as a
multiple of eight bytes. As a result, the first and second fragment
have a size of 996 bytes (and not 1000 bytes). This number is chosen
since 976 is the largest number smaller than 1000–20= 980 that is
divisible by eight. The payload for the first and second fragments is
976 bytes long, with bytes 0 through 975 of the original IP payload
in the first fragment, and bytes 976 through 1951 in the second
fragment. The payload of the third fragment has the remaining 428
bytes, from byte 1952 through 2379. With these considerations, we
can determine the values of the fragment offset, which are 0, 976 / 8
= 122, and 1952 / 8 = 244, respectively, for the first, second and
third fragment.
31
Agenda
More on CIDR
 Internet Protocol (IP)
 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
 IP forwarding
 Router architecture

32
Overview

The IP (Internet Protocol) relies on several other
protocols to perform necessary control and
routing functions:



Control functions (ICMP)
Multicast signaling (IGMP)
Setting up routing tables (RIP, OSPF, BGP, …)
RIP
ICMP
OSPF
IGMP
BGP
PIM
Routing
Control
33
Overview

The Internet Control Message Protocol
(ICMP) is a helper protocol that supports IP
with facility for




Error reporting
Simple queries
defined in RFC 792
ICMP messages are encapsulated as IP
datagrams:
IP header
ICMP message
IP payload
34
ICMP message format
bit # 0
7 8
type
15 16
code
23
24
31
checksum
additional information
or
0x00000000
4 byte header:
 Type (1 byte): type of ICMP message
 Code (1 byte): subtype of ICMP message
 Checksum (2 bytes): similar to IP header checksum.
Checksum is calculated over entire ICMP message
If there is no additional data, there are 4 bytes set to zero.
 each ICMP messages is at least 8 bytes long
35
ICMP Query message
ICMP query:
 Request sent by host to a router or host
 Reply sent back to querying host
36
Example of ICMP Queries
Type/Code:
Description
The ping command
uses Echo Request/
Echo Reply
8/0
0/0
Echo Request
Echo Reply
13/0
14/0
Timestamp Request
Timestamp Reply
10/0
9/0
Router Solicitation
Router Advertisement
37
Example of a Query:
Echo Request and Reply
Ping’s are handled directly by the kernel
 Each Ping is translated into an ICMP Echo
Request
 The Ping’ed host responds with an ICMP Echo
Reply

Host
or
Router
Host
or
router
38
Example of a Query:
ICMP Timestamp



A system (host or router) asks
another system for the current
time.
Time is measured in
milliseconds after midnight UTC
(Universal Coordinated Time) of
the current day
Sender sends a request, receiver
responds with reply
Type
(= 17 or 18)
Sender
Code
(=0)
identifier
Timestamp
Request
Receiver
Timestamp
Reply
Checksum
sequence number
32-bit sender timestamp
32-bit receive timestamp
32-bit transmit timestamp
39
ICMP Error message
ICMP error messages report error
conditions
 Typically sent when a datagram is discarded
 Error message is often passed from ICMP to
the application program

40
ICMP Error message
ICMP Message
from IP datagram that triggered the error
IP header
type
ICMP header
code
IP header
8 bytes of payload
checksum
Unused (0x00000000)

ICMP error messages include the complete IP
header and the first 8 bytes of the payload
(typically: UDP, TCP)
41
Frequent ICMP Error message
Type Code
3
Description
0–15 Destination
unreachable
Notification that an IP datagram could not be
forwarded and was dropped. The code field
contains an explanation.
5
0–3 Redirect
Informs about an alternative route for the
datagram and should result in a routing table
update. The code field explains the reason for
the route change.
11
0, 1 Time
exceeded
Sent when the TTL field has reached zero (Code
0) or when there is a timeout for the reassembly
of segments (Code 1)
12
0, 1 Parameter
problem
Sent when the IP header is invalid (Code 0) or
when an IP header option is missing (Code 1)
42
Some subtypes of the “Destination
Unreachable”
Code
Description
Reason for Sending
0
Network
Unreachable
No routing table entry is available for the
destination network.
1
Host
Unreachable
Destination host should be directly reachable, but
does not respond to ARP Requests.
2
Protocol
Unreachable
The protocol in the protocol field of the IP header
is not supported at the destination.
3
Port
Unreachable
The transport protocol at the destination host
cannot pass the datagram to an application.
4
Fragmentation IP datagram must be fragmented, but the DF bit
Needed
in the IP header is set.
and DF Bit
Set
43
Example: ICMP Port Unreachable

RFC 792: If, in the destination host, the IP module
cannot deliver the datagram because the indicated
protocol module or process port is not active, the
destination host may send a destination unreachable
message to the source host.
 Scenario:
No process
is waiting
at port 80
Client
Server
44
Agenda
More on CIDR
 Internet Protocol (IP)
 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
 IP forwarding
 Router architecture

45
Tenets of end-to-end delivery of
datagrams
The following conditions must hold so that an IP
datagram can be successfully delivered
1.
2.
3.
The network prefix of an IP destination address must
correspond to a unique data link layer network (=LAN or
point-to-point link or switched network).
(The reverse need not be true!)
Routers and hosts that have a common network prefix
must be able to exchange IP datagrams using a data link
protocol (e.g., Ethernet, PPP)
Every data link layer network must be connected to at least
one other data link layer network via a router.
46
Routing tables


Each router and each host keeps a routing table which tells
the router how to process an outgoing packet
Main columns:
1.
2.
3.


Destination address: where is the IP datagram going to?
Next hop: how to send the IP datagram?
Interface: what is the output port?
Next hop and interface column can often be summarized as
one column
Routing tables are set so that datagrams gets closer to the its
Destination
Next
interface
destination
Hop
Routing table of a host or router
IP datagrams can be directly delivered
(“direct”) or is sent to a router (“R4”)
10.1.0.0/24
10.1.2.0/24
10.2.1.0/24
10.3.1.0/24
20.1.0.0/16
20.2.1.0/28
direct
direct
R4
direct
R4
R4
eth0
eth0
serial0
eth1
eth0 47
eth0
Delivery with routing tables
to:
20.2.1.2
48
Delivery of IP datagrams

There are two distinct processes to delivering IP
datagrams:
1. Forwarding: How to pass a packet from an input
interface to the output interface?
2. Routing: How to find and setup the routing tables?

Forwarding must be done as fast as possible:



on routers, is often done with support of hardware
on PCs, is done in kernel of the operating system
Routing is less time-critical

On a PC, routing is done as a background process
49
Processing of an IP datagram in IP
Routing
Protocol
Static
routing
UDP
TCP
Demultiplex
Yes
routing
table
Lookup next
hop
Yes
IP forwarding
enabled?
No
Destination
address local?
No
IP module
Send
datagram
Discard
Input
queue
Data Link Layer
50
IP router: IP forwarding enabled
Host: IP forwarding disabled
Processing of an IP datagram in IP




Processing of IP datagrams is very similar on an IP
router and a host
Main difference:
“IP forwarding” is enabled on router and
disabled on host
IP forwarding enabled
 if a datagram is received, but it is not for the local
system, the datagram will be sent to a different system
IP forwarding disabled
 if a datagram is received, but it is not for the local
system, the datagram will be dropped
51
Processing of an IP datagram at a
router
Receive an
IP datagram
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
IP header validation
Process options in IP header
Parsing the destination IP address
Routing table lookup
Decrement TTL
Perform fragmentation (if necessary)
Calculate checksum
Transmit to next hop
Send ICMP packet (if necessary)
52
Routing table lookup

When a router or host need to
transmit an IP datagram, it
performs a routing table
lookup

Routing table lookup: Use
the IP destination address as a
key to search the routing table.

Result of the lookup is the IP
address of a next hop router,
and/or the name of a network
interface
Destination
address
Next hop/
interface
network prefix
IP address of
or
next hop router
host IP address
or
or
loopback
Name of a
address
network
or
interface
default route
53
Type of routing table entries

Network route



Host route



Destination address is an interface address (e.g., 10.0.1.2/32)
Used to specify a separate route for certain hosts
Default route



Destination addresses is a network address (e.g., 10.0.2.0/24)
Most entries are network routes
Used when no network or host route matches
The router that is listed as the next hop of the default route is the
default gateway (for Cisco: “gateway of last resort)
Loopback address


Routing table for the loopback address (127.0.0.1)
The next hop lists the loopback (lo0) interface as outgoing interface
54
Routing table lookup: Longest
Prefix Match
128.143.71.21

Longest Prefix Match: Search
for the routing table entry that has
the longest match with the prefix of
the destination IP address
Search for a match on all 32 bits
2.
Search for a match for 31 bits
…..
32. Search for a mach on 0 bits
1.
Host route, loopback entry
 32-bit prefix match
Default route is represented as
0.0.0.0/0
 0-bit prefix match
Destination address
Next hop
10.0.0.0/8
128.143.0.0/16
128.143.64.0/20
128.143.192.0/20
128.143.71.0/24
128.143.71.55/32
default
R1
R2
R3
R3
R4
R3
R5
The longest prefix match for
128.143.71.21 is for 24 bits
with entry 128.143.71.0/24
55
Datagram will be sent to R4
Route Aggregation
Longest prefix match algorithm permits to
aggregate prefixes with identical next hop
address to a single entry
 This contributes significantly to reducing the size
of routing tables of Internet routers

Destination
Next Hop
Destination
Next Hop
10.1.0.0/24
10.1.2.0/24
10.2.1.0/24
10.3.1.0/24
20.2.0.0/16
20.1.1.0/28
R3
direct
direct
R3
R2
R2
10.1.0.0/24
10.1.2.0/24
10.2.1.0/24
10.3.1.0/24
20.0.0.0/8
R3
direct
direct
R3
R2
56
How do routing tables get updated?

Adding an interface:


Adding a default gateway:




Configuring an interface eth2
with 10.0.2.3/24 adds a routing
table entry:
Configuring 10.0.2.1 as the
default gateway adds the entry:
Destination
Next Hop/
interface
10.0.2.0/24
eth2
Destination
Next Hop/
interface
0.0.0.0/0
10.0.2.1
Static configuration of network
routes or host routes
Update of routing tables through
routing protocols
ICMP messages
57
Routing table manipulations with
ICMP

When a router detects that an IP datagram
should have gone to a different router, the
router (here R2)



forwards the IP datagram to the correct router
sends an ICMP redirect message to the host
Host uses ICMP message to update its routing
table
(2) IP datagram
(3) ICMP redirect
(1) IP datagram
R1
58
ICMP Router Solicitation
ICMP Router Advertisement



After bootstrapping a R1
host broadcasts an
ICMP router
solicitation.
In response, routers
send an ICMP router
advertisement
message
Also, routers
periodically broadcast
ICMP router
advertisement
R2
ICMP router
advertisement
ICMP router
advertisement
ICMP router
solicitation
Ethernet
H1
59
Agenda
More on CIDR
 Internet Protocol (IP)
 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
 IP forwarding
 Router architecture

60
Router Components

Hardware components of a
router:






Network interfaces
Interconnection network
Processor with a memory and
CPU
PC router:

Processor
Memory
CPU
Interconnection Network
interconnection network is the
(PCI) bus and interface cards are
NICs
All forwarding and routing is done Interface Card
on central processor
Interface Card
Interface Card
Commercial routers:



Interconnection network and
interface cards are sophisticated
Processor is only responsible for
control functions (route
processor)
Almost all forwarding is done on
interface cards
61
Functional Components
routing
protocol
Routing
functions
routing
protocol
routing table
updates
Control
routing
table
Datapath:
routing table
lookup
incoming IP
datagrams
IP
Forwarding
per-packet
processing
outgoing IP
datagrams
62
Routing and Forwarding
Routing functions include:




route calculation
maintenance of the routing table
execution of routing protocols
On commercial routers handled by a single general
purpose processor, called route processor
IP forwarding is per-packet processing
 On high-end commercial routers, IP forwarding is
distributed
 Most work is done on the interface cards
63
Slotted Chassis
R
Pr o u t
oc e
(C esso
PU r
)
e cards
Interfac

Large routers are built as a slotted chassis



Interface cards are inserted in the slots
Route processor is also inserted as a slot
This simplifies repairs and upgrades of components
64
Evolution of Router Architectures


Early routers were essentially general purpose
computers
Today, high-performance routers resemble
supercomputers


Exploit parallelism
Special hardware components

Until 1980s (1st generation): standard computer
Early 1990s (2nd generation): delegate to interfaces
Late 1990s (3rd generation): Distributed architecture

Today: Distributed over multiple racks


65
1st Generation Routers






This architecture is still used in
low end routers
Arriving packets are copied to main
memory via direct memory access
(DMA)
Interconnection network is a
backplane (shared bus)
All IP forwarding functions are
performed in the central processor.
Routing cache at processor can
accelerate the routing table lookup.
Route Processor
CPU
Cache
Memory
Shared Bus
DMA
DMA
DMA
Interface
Card
Interface
Card
Interface
Card
MAC
MAC
MAC
Drawbacks:


Forwarding Performance is
limited by CPU
Capacity of shared bus limits the
number of interface cards that can
be connected
66
2nd Generation Routers


CPU
Interface cards have local route
cache and processing elements
Fast path: If routing entry is found
in local cache, forward packet
directly to outgoing interface
Slow path: If routing table entry is
not in cache, packet must be
handled by central CPU

Route Processor
Keeps shared bus architecture,
but offloads most IP
forwarding to interface cards
Cache
Memory
Shared
Bus
slow path
fast path
DMA
DMA
DMA
Route Cache
Route Cache
Route Cache
Memory
Memory
Memory
MAC
MAC
MAC
Interface
Cards
Drawbacks: Shared bus is still bottleneck
67
nd
2
Another
Generation
Architecture

IP forwarding is done by
separate components
(Forwarding Engines)
Forwarding operations:
1.
Packet received on interface:
2.
3.
Store the packet in local
memory. Extracts IP
header and sent to one
forwarding engine
Forwarding engine does
lookup, updates IP
header, and sends it back
to incoming interface
Packet is reconstructed
and sent to outgoing
interface.
Control Bus
Forwarding Bus
(IP headers only)
Data Bus
Interface
Cards
Forwarding
Engine
Forwarding
Engine
Route Processor
CPU
CPU
CPU
Cache
Cache
Memory
Memory
Memory
IP header
IP datagram
Memory
Memory
Memory
MAC
MAC
MAC
68
3rd Generation Architecture


Interconnection network is a
switch fabric (e.g., a crossbar
switch)
Distributed architecture:



Interface cards operate
independent of each other
No centralized processing for IP
forwarding
These routers can be scaled to
many hundred interface cards and
to aggregate capacity of > 1
Terabit per second
Switch
Fabric
Switch
Fabric
Interface
Switch
Fabric
Interface
Route
Processor
Route
Processing
Route
Processing
CPU
Memory
Memory
Memory
MAC
MAC
69
Basic Architectural Components
Per-packet processing
Routing
Table
Output
Scheduling
Switch Fabric
Routing
Decision
Routing
Table
Forwarding
Decision
Routing
Table
Forwarding
Decision
70
Cisco 2621XM Router
71
Router commands

PDF file
72
Lab this week…


Lab 3 (1-4)
Common errors


How to proceed?






echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
Reboot machines. Wait for graphical system to start before you switch
to other machine.
Connect the cables.
Configure IP addresses and perform the ping test.
Interface does not work: change cable, then try other interface, then ask
TA.
Do not reboot routers in this lab.
Three persons in a group


One person attaches the cables
The other person(s) configure IP addresses / routes on separate
machines
73