Routing & Switching

Routing is the process of assigning network traffic to a path within the network in which it will travel to its destination.

Packet switching is a digital networking communications method that groups all transmitted data - without consideration of content, type, or structure - into suitably-sized blocks, called packets.

In Packet Switching Networks, routing directs packet forwarding, which is the movement of logically addressed packets from their source to their destination through the use of intermediate nodes. Nodes are typically hardware devices such as routers, bridges, gateways, firewalls, or switches. Routing tables are typically used to direct this forwarding process. Routing tables are held in the routers' memory, and maintain a record of the routes to various network destinations, thus being an essential component for efficient routing.