Understanding the network.pdf - Back to Home

Figure 8.3. A route-diverse network.
All the access routers support route diversity because there are at
least two access points to each network. Route redundancy and load
balancing is available between the Washington and Princeton
networks. The single largest advantage in using a dynamic routing
protocol is the gain of route redundancy and load balancing capability.
Without the use of a dynamic routing protocol, neither of these
facilities would be available.
To get a better understanding of how route metrics work, let's take
another look at Figure 8.3. For starters, if the link between F and C is
a 56K line and the link between E and D is a T1, and we want to move
a 4Mb file, we want our data to move across the E and D link. But what
if the link between F and A is a 10Mbps link and the link between A and
C is an OC3 (155Mbps)? Then, we would want our data to move across
the F to A, A to C link.