[ih] "The First Router" on Jeopardy

[Steve Crocker]

The words “protocol knowledge” suggest to me the routing decision depends on which protocol the packet is part of.  That goes a step further than I think is necessary.  Generally, all of the data packets are viewed as belonging to a single protocol.  In the case of the Internet, the protocol is IP.  For example, I wouldn’t expect  TCP packets to be routed differently from UDP packets.

This implies the routing algorithm is tied to a specific protocol layer.  Or to put this another way, the IP layer includes the IP protocol itself and the routing algorithm(s) and protocols at that layer.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 23, 2021, at 12:37 PM, Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:
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>> On Tue, Nov 23, 2021 at 12:31 PM Steve Crocker <steve at shinkuro.com> wrote:
>> Clem,
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>> Interesting set of distinctions.  For me, a key attribute of a router is that it chooses which path to send the packet, ie, it *routes* packets.
> Agreed.  Maybe an additional attribute that I am leaving out is that the router may have more than one output and must have protocol knowledge to decide which interface to direct (route) the information.