Special Edition Using TCP/IP, Second Edition

Introduction to Routing Mechanisms

Sending letters or gifts by mail is a popular method of greeting and communicating with people. At Christmas time, millions of gifts and cards are delivered across the country and all over the world. To ensure a safe and timely delivery of your greetings, a large network of postal services across the country and around the world works in the background. The postal system is managed by a collection of post offices that act as staging posts where letters and packages are first delivered and sorted before being redirected to their final destination. To ensure safe and smooth communication between computers, the Internet is built on a system of intermediate devices that act as staging posts, similar to the staging ...