Segment routing, a form of
computer networking
A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...
, is a modern variant of
source routing that is being developed within th
SPRINGand IPv6 working groups of the
IETF
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet standard, Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster ...
. In a
segment routed network, an ingress node may prepend a
header to
packets that contain a list of segments, which are instructions that are executed on subsequent nodes in the network. These instructions may be forwarding instructions, such as an instruction to forward a packet to a specific destination or interface.
Segment routing works either on top of a
MPLS network or on an
IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic ...
network.
In an MPLS network, segments are encoded as MPLS
labels
A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affixed to ...
. Under IPv6, a new header called a Segment Routing Header (SRH) is used. Segments in a SRH are encoded in a list of IPv6 addresses. The ''5f00::/16'' prefix has been allocated for this purpose as part of an Internet-Draft.
See also
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Bang path
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Dynamic Source Routing
Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) is a routing protocol for wireless mesh networks. It is similar to AODV in that it forms a route on-demand when a transmitting node requests one. However, it uses source routing instead of relying on the routing ...
*
Policy-based routing can also be used to route packets using their source addresses.
*
Scalable Source Routing
References
External links
The Segment Routing homepageThe Linux implementation of IPv6 Segment Routing*
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Routing algorithms
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