Static vs. Dynamic Routing

 

STATIC

Static routing is not really a protocol, simply the process of manually entering routes into the routing table via a configuration file that is loaded when the routing device starts up. As an alternative, these routes can be enterd by a network administrator who configures the routes. Since these routes don't change after they are configured (unless a human changes them) they are called 'static' routes.

Static routing is the simplest form of routing, but it is a manual process and does not work well when the routing information has to be changed frequently or needs to be configfured on a large number of routing devices (routers). Static routing also does not handle outages or down connections well because any route that is configured manually must be reconfigured manually to fix or repair any lost connectivity.

 

DYNAMIC

Dynamic routing protocols are software applications that dynamically discover network destinations and how to get to them.

A router will 'learn' routes to all directly connected networks first. It will then learn routes from other routers that run the same routing protocol. The router will then sort through it's list of routes and select one or more 'best' routes for each network destination it knows or has learned.

Dynamic protocols will then distribute this 'best route' information to other routers running the same routing protocol, thereby extending the information on what networks exist and can be reached. This gives dynamic routing protocols the ability to adapt to logical network topology changes, equipment failures or network outages 'on the fly'.

 

 

 

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