Chapter 7

Packet-Switching
Networks
Shortest Path Routing

Shortest Paths & Routing

Many possible paths connect any given
source and to any given destination

Routing involves the selection of the path to
be used to accomplish a given transfer

Typically it is possible to attach a cost or
distance to a link connecting two nodes

Routing can then be posed as a shortest path
problem

1
Routing Metrics
Means for measuring desirability of a path

Path Length = sum of costs or distances

Possible metrics

Hop count: rough measure of resources used

Reliability: link availability; BER

Delay: sum of delays along path; complex & dynamic

Bandwidth: “available capacity” in a path

Load: Link & router utilization along path

Cost: $$$

Shortest Path Approaches

Distance Vector Protocols

Neighbors exchange list of distances to destinations

Best next-hop determined for each destination

Ford-Fulkerson (distributed) shortest path algorithm

Link State Protocols

Link state information flooded to all routers

Routers have complete topology information

Shortest path (& hence next hop) calculated

Dijkstra (centralized) shortest path algorithm

2
Distance Vector
Do you know the way to San Jose?

Sa
n Jo San Jose 392
se
29
4

San Jose 596

Sa
n
Jo
s e
25
0

Distance Vector
Local Signpost Table Synthesis

Direction
Neighbors exchange

Distance table entries

Determine current best

Routing Table next hop

For each destination list:
Inform neighbors

Periodically

Next Node

After changes

Distance dest next dist

3
 Shortest Path to SJ
Focus on how nodes find their shortest
path to a given destination node, i.e. SJ San
Jose

Dj
Cij
j
i
Di If Di is the shortest distance to SJ from i
and if j is a neighbor on the shortest path,
then Di = Cij + Dj

But we don’t know the shortest

paths

i only has local info

from neighbors San
Dj' Jose
j'
Cij'
Dj
Cij j
i
Cij” Pick current
Di j"
Dj" shortest path

4
Bellman-Ford Algorithm

Consider computations for one destination d

Initialization

Each node table has 1 row for destination d

Distance of node d to itself is zero: Dd=0

Distance of other node j to d is infinite: Dj=∝, for j≠ d

Next hop node nj = -1 to indicate not yet defined for j ≠ d

Send Step

Send new distance vector to immediate neighbors across local link

Receive Step

At node j, find the next hop that gives the minimum distance to d,

Minj { Cij + Dj }

Replace old (nj, Dj(d)) by new (nj*, Dj*(d)) if new next node or distance

Go to send step

Bellman-Ford Algorithm

Now consider parallel computations for all destinations d

Initialization

Each node has 1 row for each destination d

Distance of node d to itself is zero: Dd(d)=0

Distance of other node j to d is infinite: Dj(d)= ∝ , for j ≠ d

Next node nj = -1 since not yet defined

Send Step

Send new distance vector to immediate neighbors across local link

Receive Step

For each destination d, find the next hop that gives the minimum
distance to d,

Minj { Cij+ Dj(d) }

Replace old (nj, Di(d)) by new (nj*, Dj*(d)) if new next node or distance
found

Go to send step

5
Iteration Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4 Node 5

Initial (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞)

1
2
3

Table entry Table entry

@ node 1 @ node 3
for dest SJ for dest SJ
2 3
1 1 San
5 2
4
Jose
3 1 3 6

2
2 5
4

Iteration Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4 Node 5

Initial (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞)

1 (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (6,1) (-1, ∞) (6,2)
2
3

D3=D6+1
n3=6
D6=0
2 3 1
1 1
5 2
0
4 San
3 1 3 6
Jose
2 5 2
4
2
D5=D6+2 D6=0
n5=6

6
Iteration Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4 Node 5

Initial (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞)

1 (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (6, 1) (-1, ∞) (6,2)
2 (3,3) (5,6) (6, 1) (3,3) (6,2)
3

3 1
2 3
1 1
5 2
3 0
4 San
3 1 3 6
Jose
2 2
5
4
6 2

Iteration Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4 Node 5

Initial (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞)

1 (-1, ∞) (-1, ∞) (6, 1) (-1, ∞) (6,2)
2 (3,3) (5,6) (6, 1) (3,3) (6,2)
3 (3,3) (4,4) (6, 1) (3,3) (6,2)

1
3 2 3
1 1
5 2
3 0
4 San
3 1 3 6
Jose
2
2 5
4
6 4 2

7
Iteration Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4 Node 5

Initial (3,3) (4,4) (6, 1) (3,3) (6,2)

1 (3,3) (4,4) (4, 5) (3,3) (6,2)
2
3

1 5
3 2 3
1 1
5 2
3 0
4 San
3 1 3 6
Jose
2
2 5
4 4
2
Network disconnected; Loop created between nodes 3 and 4

Link-State Algorithm

Basic idea: two step procedure

Each source node gets a map of all nodes and link metrics
(link state) of the entire network

Find the shortest path on the map from the source node to
all destination nodes

Broadcast of link-state information

Every node i in the network broadcasts to every other node
in the network:

ID’s of its neighbors: Ni=set of neighbors of i

Distances to its neighbors: {Cij | j ∈Ni}

Flooding is a popular method of broadcasting packets

8
 Dijkstra Algorithm: Finding
shortest paths in order
Find shortest paths from Closest node to s is 1 hop away
source s to all other
destinations 2nd closest node to s is 1 hop
away from s or w”
3rd closest node to s is 1 hop
w' away from s, w”, or x

w z
x
s z'
w"
x'

Dijkstra’s algorithm

N: set of nodes for which shortest path already found

Initialization: (Start with source node s)

N = {s}, Ds = 0, “s is distance zero from itself”

Dj=Csj for all j ≠ s, distances of directly-connected neighbors

Step A: (Find next closest node i)

Find i ∉ N such that

Di = min Dj for j ∉ N

Add i to N

If N contains all the nodes, stop

Step B: (update minimum costs)

For each node j ∉ N
Minimum distance from s to

Dj = min (Dj, Di+Cij)
j through node i in N

Go to Step A

9
Execution of Dijkstra’s algorithm
2 2 
1 3 1 1 3 1
6 6 
5 2 5 2
3 3
1 4 1 4 2
2
3 3
2 2
 4 5 4 5

Iteration N D2 D3 D4 D5 D6
Initial {1} 3 2 5 ∝ ∝
1 {1,3} 3 2 4 ∝ 3
2 {1,2,3} 3 2 4 7 3 
3 {1,2,3,6} 3 2 4  5 3
4 {1,2,3,4,6} 3 2 4 5  3
5 {1,2,3,4,5,6} 3 2 4 5 3

Shortest Paths in Dijkstra’s

Algorithm
2 3 1 2 3 1
1 1
6 6
5 2 5 2
3 3
1 4 2 1 4 2
3 3
2 2
4 5 4 5
2 3 1 2 3 1
1 1
6 6
5 2 5 2
3 3
1 4 2 1 4 2
3 3
2 2
4 5 4 5

2 3 1 2 3 1
1 1
6 6
5 2 5 2
3 3
1 4 2 1 4 2
3 3
2 2
4 5 4 5

10
Reaction to Failure

If a link fails,

Router sets link distance to infinity & floods the
network with an update packet

All routers immediately update their link database &
recalculate their shortest paths

Recovery very quick

But watch out for old update messages

Add time stamp or sequence # to each update
message

Check whether each received update message is new

If new, add it to database and broadcast

If older, send update message on arriving link

Why is Link State Better?

Fast, loopless convergence

Support for precise metrics, and multiple
metrics if necessary (throughput, delay, cost,
reliability)

Support for multiple paths to a destination

algorithm can be modified to find best two paths

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