Flooding is the static routing algorithm. In this algorithm, every incoming packet is sent on all outgoing lines except the line on which it has arrived.
One major problem of this algorithm is that it generates a large number of duplicate packets on the network.
Several measures are takes to stop the duplication of packets. These are:
1. One solution is to include a hop counter in the header of each packet. This counter is decremented at each hop along the path. When this counter reaches zero the packet is discarded. Ideally, the hop counter should become zero at the destination hop, indicating that there are no more intermediate hops and destination is reached. This requires the knowledge of exact number of hops from a source to destination.
2. Another technique is to keep the track of the packed that have been flooded, to avoid sending them a second time. For this, the source router put a sequence number in each packet it receives from its hosts. Each router then needs a list per source router telling which sequence numbers originating at that source have already been seen. If an incoming packet is on the list, it is not flooded.
3. Another solution is to use selective flooding. In selective flooding the routers do not send every incoming packet out on every output line. Instead packet is sent only on those lines which are approximately going in the right direction.
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