Overview

Many of the scalable design features explored in the first two chapters, such as load balancing and route summarization, work very differently depending on the routing protocol used. Routing protocols are the rules that govern the exchange of routing information between routers. The open architecture and global popularity of TCP/IP has encouraged the development of more than a half-dozen prominent IP routing protocols, each with its unique combination of strengths and weaknesses. Because routing protocols are key to network performance, you must have a clear understanding of each different protocol's attributes: convergence times, overhead, and scalability features.

This chapter explores the routing process including: default routing, floating static routes, convergence, and route calculation.