Operation Manual – Routing Protocol 
Quidway S3900 Series Ethernet Switches-Release 1510  Chapter 1  IP Routing Protocol Overview
 
Huawei Technologies Proprietary 
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Chapter 1  IP Routing Protocol Overview 
 
  Note: 
When running a routing protocol, the Ethernet switch also functions as a router. The 
word “router” and the router icons covered in the following text represent routers in 
common sense and Ethernet switches running a routing protocol. To improve 
readability, this will not be mentioned again in this manual.  
This manual deals with the S3900-EI series switches. The ospf,  ospf-ase, and 
ospf-nssa commands are supported by the S3900-EI series, but not supported by 
the S3900-SI series. This will not be mentioned again in this manual. 
 
1.1  Introduction to IP Route and Routing Table 
1.1.1  IP Route and Route Segment 
Routers are used for route selection on the Internet. As a router receives a packet, it 
selects an appropriate route (through a network) according to the destination address 
of the packet and forwards the packet to the next router. The last router on the route is 
responsible for delivering the packet to the destination host. 
A route segment is a common physical network interconnecting two nodes, which are 
deemed adjacent on the Internet. That is, two routers connected to the same physical 
network are adjacent to each other. The number of route segments between a router 
and any host on the local network is zero. In the following figure, the bold arrows 
represent route segments. A router is not concerned about which physical links 
compose a route segment. As shown in 
Figure 1-1, a packet sent from Host A to Host 
C travels through two routers over three route segments (along the broken line).