NETWORK LAYER




      ROUTING ALGORITHMS



The Network layer [3] is concerned with getting packets from the source all the way to the destination . Getting to the destination may require making many hops at intermediate routers along the way.This function clearly contrasts with that of the data link layer, which has the more modest goal of just moving frames from one end of a wire to the other. Thus the network layer is the lowest layer that deals with end-to-end transmission. Routing of data packets is an important aspect of network design. With reference to the OSI model , it is the network layer that is responsible for routing packets from the source machine to the destination machine. Various algorithms have been developed for this purpose,each one using a different technique to route packets in the most effecient manner possible. Simply put, the routing algorithm decides which output link an incoming packet should be transmitted on . a good routing algorithm should possess the following properties - correctness, simplicity, robustness,stability, fairness,optimality and efficiency.Some of these may conflict,but a routing algorithm must try to achieve as many of these as possible. The following are the 2 main routing algorithms:-



FIXED ROUTING & FLOODING


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