Routing And Switching Questions
The process of routing table lookup involves the following steps:
1. When a packet arrives at a router, the router examines the destination IP address of the packet.
2. The router then checks its routing table, which is a database that contains information about the network topology and the best path to reach different networks.
3. The router performs a longest prefix match on the destination IP address. This means it looks for the most specific match in the routing table by comparing the destination IP address with the network addresses in the routing table.
4. If a match is found, the router selects the corresponding next hop or outgoing interface from the routing table entry.
5. The router then forwards the packet to the next hop or outgoing interface based on the information obtained from the routing table.
6. If no match is found in the routing table, the router will either drop the packet or send it to a default gateway, depending on the configuration.
Overall, the routing table lookup process helps the router determine the best path for forwarding packets based on the destination IP address.