CST 311 Week 5

CST 311 Week 5

This week was all about the Network Layer of the Internet Protocol stack. The concepts of routing and forwarding were discussed and contrasted. I learned about a router's forwarding table and how it uses the longest prefix matching rule to determine the link interface from a packet's destination IP address. We then delved deep into the inner workings of a router. IP datagrams and IP addressing were also analyzed in depth. The concepts of how DHCP is used to obtain a host IP address were explored and analyzed during our lab in which we were able to see the DHCP messages that were used for a host to obtain an IP address. The DHCP discover, offer, request, and ACK are part of this 4 way process for a host to obtain an IP address. Finally NAT or Network Address Translation was explored in how it allows for an internal network to hide details of its network with the outside world. NAT is also controversial.

This week was filled with a ton of  new information and I feel I will have to revisit it again thoroughly before our next final.