Chapter 3. Static Routing

This chapter covers the following subjects:

• Route Table

• Configuring Static Routes

• Troubleshooting Static Routes

An important observation from Chapter 1, "TCP/IP Review," is that the data link/physical layers and the transport/network layers, as defined by the OSI model, perform very similar duties: They provide the means for conveying data from a source to a destination across some path. The difference is that the data link/physical layers provide communications across a physical path, whereas the transport/network layers provide communications across a logical or virtual path made up of a series of data links.

Further, Chapter 1 showed that for communications to take place across a physical path, certain information about data-link identifiers and encapsulations must be acquired and stored in a database such as the ARP cache. Similarly, information that the transport/network layers require to do their job must also be acquired and stored. This information is stored in the route table, also known as the routing information database (RIB).

This chapter examines what sort of information is required to route a packet, how that information is stored in the route table, how to enter the information into the database, and some techniques for building a routed network by entering the proper information into the proper routers' route tables.