What Is Static Routing In Cisco Networking?

STATIC ROUTING: Definition         

As the name suggest static, meaning stationary or changeless or something which is not capable of doing action on its own. So in this type of routing, all the routes in the routing table are manually configured by the network administrator and hence the routes are hard coded here.

Administrative distance of STATIC routing is '1'.

STATIC ROUTING: Some Important Terms 

ROUTING:-  

The term routing refers to taking packets from one device and sending it through the network to another device on a different Network. (Note here device means Router).

ROUTING TABLE:-  

In computer networking, there is one more term for routing table ie routing information base(RIB). So it is a database stored in a router that lists the routes to the network destination along with the metrics(distance in this case) associated. The main function of this database table is to store and maintain the best path to reach the destination remote networks, which the used by the router to send the data traffic or packets

LOGICAL ADDRESS(IP address):-

IP address is the key in sending the packets through the routed network. As routing cannot be done using Mac- Address, since we all know router only understands IP address.

ADMINISTRATIVE DISTANCE(AD):-

The administrative distance is used for rating the trustworthiness of the routing protocol and its information received from the neighbor router.

AD value ranges from (0-255) in integers. In which 0 is the  most trusted one while the 255 is the least trusted.

Also if there are more then one routing protocols configured on a router, then the protocol  having information with the least AD will be given priority and placed in the routing table.

Static routing has AD '1' and is represented as (S) in the routing table.

STATIC ROUTING: Commands 

This is a configuration command for enabling static routing and it is written in routers CLI

FORMAT:-

# ip route [destination network] [subnet mask] [next hop address or exit interface name] [AD] [Permanent]

SEE THE IMAGE BELOW

EXPLAINING FORMAT:-

IP ROUTE:-

This is command is used to enable static routing protocol.

DESTINATION_NETWORK;-

The network to reach via static routing also it is placed in the routing table.

SUBNET MASK:-

The subnet mask being used on the destination network

NEXT_HOP_ADDRESS:-

This is the ip address of the next hop router port that will receive packets and forward them to the remote network.

EXIT INTERFACE:-

This is used in place of next-hop address, here you will have write the name of the port and it will show up as directly connected route.

ADMINISTRATIVE DISTANCE:-

The default AD of static is 1 if use next hop address method. But you can change the default AD of static by adding the AD weight at the end of the command(see the image to understand).

PERMANENT:-

In case the interface is shut down or for some reason the router is not able to communicate to the next hop router, in that case what happens is, that particular route is automatically discarded from the routing table by default. So choosing Permanent option keeps the entry of the route in the routing table no matter what happen.

STATIC ROUTING: Pros And Cons

PROS of Static Routing:-

• No over head on the router CPU, hence no need to buy heavy duty costly routers, we can make do with cheap routers,than you would otherwise need for dynamic routing
• No Bandwidth Usage between routers, hence saving you money on wan links.
• Very Secure because administrator can be very exclusive on choosing to allow routing access to certain networks

CONS of Static Routing:-

• The network administrator must be well knowledgeable about what he is doing,other wise things might get very messy.This happens because the internet work map may get very confusing and complex when it comes to large network with lots of routers involved.
• If you add  a network to a internet work, you will have to manually type in and configure a route to it on all routers, which is quite a tedious work, also it only gets more insane as the network grows. In other words it becomes very difficult to add network as the network grows.
• Maintenance also becomes very difficult as you will have to hire someone to maintain the network day in day out.