Routing is the process of selecting a path for traffic in a network or between or across multiple networks. Broadly, routing is performed in many types of networks, including circuit-switched networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN), and computer networks, such as the Internet.
Intermediate System to Intermediate System is a routing protocol designed to move information efficiently within a computer network, a group of physically connected computers or similar devices. It accomplishes this by determining the best route for data through a packet switching network.
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a routing protocol for Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It uses a link state routing (LSR) algorithm and falls into the group of interior gateway protocols (IGPs), operating within a single autonomous system (AS).
A distance-vector routing protocol in data networks determines the best route for data packets based on distance. Distance-vector routing protocols measure the distance by the number of routers a packet has to pass; one router counts as one hop. Some distance-vector protocols also take into account network latency and other factors that influence traffic on a given route. To determine the best route across a network, routers using a distance-vector protocol exchange information with one another, usually routing tables plus hop counts for destination networks and possibly other traffic information. Distance-vector routing protocols also require that a router inform its neighbours of network topology changes periodically.
A stub network, or pocket network, is a somewhat casual term describing a computer network, or part of an internetwork, with no knowledge of other networks, that will typically send much or all of its non-local traffic out via a single path, with the network aware only of a default route to non-local destinations. As a practical analogy, think of an island which is connected to the rest of the world through a bridge and no other path is available either through air or sea. Continuing this analogy, the island might have more than one physical bridge to the mainland, but the set of bridges still represents only one logical path.
A mesh network is a local area network topology in which the infrastructure nodes connect directly, dynamically and non-hierarchically to as many other nodes as possible and cooperate with one another to efficiently route data to and from clients.
The Optimized Link State Routing Protocol (OLSR) is an IP routing protocol optimized for mobile ad hoc networks, which can also be used on other wireless ad hoc networks. OLSR is a proactive link-state routing protocol, which uses hello and topology control (TC) messages to discover and then disseminate link state information throughout the mobile ad hoc network. Individual nodes use this topology information to compute next hop destinations for all nodes in the network using shortest hop forwarding paths.
The OrderOne MANET Routing Protocol is an algorithm for computers communicating by digital radio in a mesh network to find each other, and send messages to each other along a reasonably efficient path. It was designed for, and promoted as working with wireless mesh networks.
A path-vector routing protocol is a network routing protocol which maintains the path information that gets updated dynamically. Updates that have looped through the network and returned to the same node are easily detected and discarded. This algorithm is sometimes used in Bellman–Ford routing algorithms to avoid "Count to Infinity" problems.
The Hazy-Sighted Link State Routing Protocol (HSLS) is a wireless mesh network routing protocol being developed by the CUWiN Foundation. This is an algorithm allowing computers communicating via digital radio in a mesh network to forward messages to computers that are out of reach of direct radio contact. Its network overhead is theoretically optimal, utilizing both proactive and reactive link-state routing to limit network updates in space and time. Its inventors believe it is a more efficient protocol to route wired networks as well. HSLS was invented by researchers at BBN Technologies.
Flooding is used in computer network routing algorithms in which every incoming packet is sent through every outgoing link except the one it arrived on.
A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers or wireless access points. Instead, each node participates in routing by forwarding data for other nodes. The determination of which nodes forward data is made dynamically on the basis of network connectivity and the routing algorithm in use.
The Wireless Routing Protocol (WRP) is a proactive unicast routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs).
Routing in delay-tolerant networking concerns itself with the ability to transport, or route, data from a source to a destination, which is a fundamental ability all communication networks must have. Delay- and disruption-tolerant networks (DTNs) are characterized by their lack of connectivity, resulting in a lack of instantaneous end-to-end paths. In these challenging environments, popular ad hoc routing protocols such as AODV and DSR fail to establish routes. This is due to these protocols trying to first establish a complete route and then, after the route has been established, forward the actual data. However, when instantaneous end-to-end paths are difficult or impossible to establish, routing protocols must take to a "store and forward" approach, where data is incrementally moved and stored throughout the network in hopes that it will eventually reach its destination. A common technique used to maximize the probability of a message being successfully transferred is to replicate many copies of the message in hopes that one will succeed in reaching its destination.
Topology control is a technique used in distributed computing to alter the underlying network to reduce the cost of distributed algorithms if run over the resulting graphs. It is a basic technique in distributed algorithms. For instance, a (minimum) spanning tree is used as a backbone to reduce the cost of broadcast from O(m) to O(n), where m and n are the number of edges and vertices in the graph, respectively.
The Private Network-to-Network Interface (PNNI) is a link-state routing protocol used in Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. PNNI is similar to the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) used for IP routing.
IEEE 802.1aq is an amendment to the IEEE 802.1Q networking standard which adds support for Shortest Path Bridging (SPB). This technology is intended to simplify the creation and configuration of Ethernet networks while enabling multipath routing.
IP routing is the application of routing methodologies to IP networks. This involves not only protocols and technologies but includes the policies of the worldwide organization and configuration of Internet infrastructure. In each IP network node, IP routing involves the determination of a suitable path for a network packet from a source to its destination in an IP network. The process uses static configuration rules or dynamically obtained from routing protocols to select specific packet forwarding methods to direct traffic to the next available intermediate network node one hop closer to the desired final destination, a total path potentially spanning multiple computer networks.
Fisheye State Routing (FSR) is a proposal for an implicit hierarchical routing protocol targeted to ad hoc networks. The basic principles of FSR are shared with other proactive, link-state routing protocols. In proactive link-state protocols every network node constantly updates a topology map that makes it possible to compute the shortest path to any destination in the network. The originality of FSR is inspired by the "fisheye" technique to reduce the size of information required to represent graphical data: The eye of a fish captures with high detail the pixels near the focal point, while the detail decreases as the distance from the focal point increases.
