– CPU – Motherboard – RAM – ROM Routers have network adapters to which IP addresses are assigned. Routers may have the following two kinds of ports: – Console: For the attachment of a terminal used for management – Network: Different LAN or WAN media ports Routers forward packets based upon a routing table.
Directly connected: Router attaches to this network
Static routing: Entered manually by a system administrator Dynamic routing: Learned by exchange of routing information Default route: Statically or dynamically learned; used when no explicit route to network is known
Commonly used routing metrics include bandwidth, delay, hop count,
and cost. Distance vector routing protocols build and update routing tables automatically by sending all or some portion of their routing table to neighbors. The distance vector routing approach determines the direction (vector) and distance to any network in the internetwork. Link-state routing protocols build and update routing tables automatically, running algorithms against the link-state database to determine the best paths, and flood routing information about their own links to all the routers in the network. Cisco developed EIGRP, which combines the best features of the distance vector and link-state routing protocols.