Question

Describe all the steps a router goes through while deciding where to send the a packet. Explain why a router would choose one route over another. Maximum number of characters (including HTML tags added by text editor): 32,000

Answer 1

The router receives the packet from its port connected to the source host (the port serves as the default gateway) and compares the destination IP address on the packet header with the IP addresses in its routing table. If the address is in its table, it sends the packet to the port leading to the network address to receive the packet.

Step-by-step explanation:

A network router is a packet-switching device used to transfer packets from source host to destination host using a routing table. The router ANDs the IP address of the received packet to get its network address and searches for it in its routing table and sends the packet to the port with the shortest or efficient path to the network. But if the network address is not found, the packet is sent to a default route.