Packet forwarding: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:37, 18 September 2005

Revision as of 05:44, 18 September 2005

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''Forwarding'' is the relaying of [[packet|packets]] from one network link to another by [[node (networking)|nodes]]

in a [[packet switching|packet switched]] [[computer network]].

The simplest forwarding model - [[unicast|unicasting]] - involves a packet being

relayingrelayed from link to link along a chain leadleading from the packet's

source to its destination. However, other forwarding strategies

are commonly usingused. ''Broadcasting'' requires a packet to be

duplicated and copies sent on multiple links with the goal

of delivering a copy to every device on the network.

Less common than broadcasting, but perhaps of greater

utility and theoricaltheoretical signicicance is [[multicast|multicasting]],

where a packet is selectively duplicated and copies

delivered to each of a set of recipients.

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a major limiting factor in the overall performance

of a packet-switched network.

Much of the design effort of high-speed [[routers]]

has been focused on making rapid forwarding decisions

for large numbers of packets.

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on the network, or bridging, which makes no

assumptions about where addresses are located and

depends heavily on [[broadcasting]] to located unknown

addresses. The heavy overhead of broadcasting has

led to the dominance of [[routing]] in large networks,