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The network layer provides the means of transferring variable-length network packets from a source to a destination host via one or more networks. Within the service layering semantics of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) network architecture, the network layer responds to service requests from the transport layer and issues service requests to the data link layer.
A forwarding information base (FIB), also known as a forwarding table or MAC table, is most commonly used in network bridging, routing, and similar functions to find the proper output network interface controller to which the input interface should forward a packet. It is a dynamic table that maps MAC addresses to ports.
Routing protocols, according to the OSI routing framework, are layer management protocols for the network layer, regardless of their transport mechanism: IS-IS runs on the data link layer (Layer 2) Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is encapsulated in IP, but runs only on the IPv4 subnet, while the IPv6 version runs on the link using only link ...
L2F Layer 2 Forwarding Protocol; L2TP Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol; LLDP Link Layer Discovery Protocol; LLDP-MED Link Layer Discovery Protocol - Media Endpoint Discovery; MAC Media Access Control; Q.710 Simplified Message Transfer Part; Multi-link trunking Protocol; NDP Neighbor Discovery Protocol; PAgP - Cisco Systems proprietary link ...
IP forwarding algorithms in most routing software determine a route through a shortest path algorithm. In routers, packets arriving at an interface are examined for source and destination addressing and queued to the appropriate outgoing interface according to their destination address and a set of rules and performance metrics.
The forwarding decision is generally made using one of two processes: routing, which uses information encoded in a device's address to infer its location on the network, or bridging, which makes no assumptions about where addresses are located and depends heavily on broadcasting to locate unknown addresses.
The payload of an IPv6 packet is typically a datagram or segment of the higher-level transport layer protocol, but may be data for an internet layer (e.g., ICMPv6) or link layer (e.g., OSPF) instead. IPv6 packets are typically transmitted over the link layer (i.e., over Ethernet or Wi-Fi ), which encapsulates each packet in a frame .
Packet forwarding is the transit of network packets from one network interface to another. Intermediate nodes are typically network hardware devices such as routers, gateways, firewalls, or switches. General-purpose computers also forward packets and perform routing, although they have no specially optimized hardware for the task.