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Static Routes

Static routing is a foundational network configuration technique that gives administrators precise control over how traffic moves through a network. This content covers the four types of static routes, their advantages and disadvantages, and key configuration options.

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About this video

Static routing provides a straightforward method for directing network traffic along manually defined paths, and it carries several distinct advantages over dynamic routing protocols. Because static routes require no communication between devices and consume minimal router resources, they are well suited to smaller or simpler network environments. They also give administrators precise control over traffic flow, which is valuable in mesh networks where a specific path is required. The primary drawback is their lack of adaptability — static routes do not adjust automatically when network conditions change, making them less practical as networks grow in complexity or introduce redundant links. There are four types of static routes in common use. A standard static route directs traffic toward a specific destination network via a designated next-hop device. A default route acts as a catch-all, forwarding any traffic that does not match a more specific entry in the routing table — commonly used to send outbound traffic toward an ISP or upstream router. A summary route consolidates multiple contiguous networks into a single routing entry, reducing the size of the routing table and simplifying administration. A floating static route is configured with a higher administrative distance than the primary route, keeping it dormant under normal conditions and activating it only as a backup when the preferred route is removed from the routing table, such as when an interface goes down. When configuring a static route, administrators can specify a next-hop IP address, an exit interface, or both. Specifying only the exit interface works reliably on point-to-point connections like HDLC or PPP links, but it is insufficient on shared Ethernet segments where multiple devices may be reachable through the same interface. Specifying only the next-hop IP address resolves the ambiguity on Ethernet networks but introduces a recursive lookup, requiring the router to perform an additional step to identify the correct exit interface. Specifying both the exit interface and the next-hop IP address eliminates the recursive lookup and provides the most complete and efficient routing entry, which is generally the preferred approach when hardware resources are a consideration.

What you'll learn

What's covered

Static Routes

Aligned to

Cisco CCNA
3.3 Configure and verify IPv4 and IPv6 static routing
3.1 Interpret the components of routing table
3.2 Determine how a router makes a forwarding decision by default

Key terms

Router
A network device that forwards data packets between networks based on IP addresses.
Routing Protocol
A protocol used by routers to communicate and share routing information to determine the best path for data.
Static Route
A routing table entry manually configured by an administrator that specifies a fixed path to a destination network and never changes unless the administrator modifies it. Static routes are simple and predictable but do not adapt automatically to network topology changes.
Default Gateway
The router that a device uses to send traffic to destinations outside its local network.
Administrative Distance
A value assigned to a route that indicates its trustworthiness or preference; lower values are preferred when multiple routes to the same destination exist.
Floating Static Route
A static route configured with a higher administrative distance than the primary route, functioning as a backup that activates only when the preferred route is removed from the routing table.
Summary Route
A single static route that represents a range of network addresses, reducing the number of entries in a routing table.
Next Hop
The IP address of the immediately adjacent router that a packet is forwarded to on the way toward its final destination. A router's routing table entry for each network destination includes the next-hop address so the router knows where to send the packet.

Topics

Static Routing Routing Protocols Network Configuration Ip Routing Networking

Transcript

Why a Static Route Solves the Problem

We were on the demo laptop and we were pinging this router right here, and what we had determined was that the packets would go out and this router knew of the network, so it could make it to this destination right here. But this router, when it tried to reply, was not aware of this network that the demo laptop was on, so it couldn't form any kind of packet to send back, because it didn't know how to send it back to the demo laptop.

We could actually implement static routes to do this. It would be really simple to go onto this device right here and create this static route for this VLAN 10 that says, hey, go this direction, this layer 3 switch is your next hop, if you're trying to get to VLAN 10, or if you're trying to get to the 10.1.10.0 network.

Advantages

That is one of the advantages of a static route: it's very simple to implement. All I have to do is go onto this router and type in this simple command, and then it fixes the problem.

Another thing is it's very efficient. There's no communication that has to happen. It doesn't need to talk to other devices, it just knows where it needs to send this data, so that's great as well. It uses up a lot less resources.

It's also a lot of control in how I want things routed. If there is a mesh network and I want things routed a particular way, then it's really easy for me to just set up some static routes so that it routes on that specific path.

Disadvantages and Where to Use Them

So there are a lot of advantages to static routes; however, there are some disadvantages as well. One of the disadvantages of a static route is that once you set it, then that's what it's going to use, and it won't automatically adjust to use other routes.

Because this isn't dynamic and it won't change dynamically, there's a lot of situations where we wouldn't want to use it. We would want to use this if we have smaller networks, or if we have something called a stub network, where we just have this simple network hanging off to the side and there's no mesh network beyond that. That's called a stub network, and those are the situations where we would want to use static routes.

We also may want to use it for something like a default route, the default route that we're going to send things on. So there are a few different situations where we'd actually want to use static routes. As our network grows and gets more complex and we create redundancy with our networks, then we probably want to switch more to a dynamic routing protocol, so that way things can adjust as changes happen.

Types of Static Routes

There are four different types of static routes we would encounter: a standard route, a default route, a floating route, and a summary route.

First of all, a standard route would be one like I just gave an example for. This router right here needs to know how to reach the 10.1.10.0 network, so that way it can reach the different nodes that are on that network. We would enter in a 10.1.10.0 network and it would be sending traffic to this layer 3 switch right here. That would be an example of just a standard static route.

So what is a default route? A default route is where, if you can't find any other ways of sending this, any other networks that are in the routing table, then use the default route. An example of this would be this layer 3 switch. It would want to send out, if it's not connected to this directly connected network, to any of its own VLANs, then it's going to want to send it to this router right here. So we could set up a default route that just says, if you've got anything and you need to send it on, just send it up to this router, to this interface right here. Another example is maybe router 2 here is connected to the internet and it needs to get out to the internet, so we would set up a default route that would point to the internet service provider. Then it would send any traffic that is not within its hierarchy here out to the internet service provider.

Another type is the summary route. One example of this is down here. We've got the 10.1.10.0 network, we've got the 10.1.20.0 network, and we've got the 10.1.30.0 network. Really, just all of the 10.1.0.0 networks are going to be connected to layer 3; that's how we've defined it. So if it's a 10.1.0.0 network, then we want to send it this direction. That is a summary network. So even though not all of them exist - there's not a 10.1.11.0 network down here - what we're going to do is create a summary route that just says, if you're trying to reach 10.1.0.0, go ahead and send it this direction to this router, and this router will send it in this direction, because right here is all the 10.1.0.0. It will summarize it, it will put it all into one summary route. So that is a summary network.

And then we have a floating static route. A floating static route is the same as a regular standard route, but we put it in with a higher administrative distance, so it's not going to prefer that one; it's going to prefer the standard static route. The reason why we would do that is because if something goes down and that route gets taken out of the routing table, then we have a backup route. So a floating route is essentially a backup route that will be used if the other static route goes away. One reason why it would go away is because the interface that it needs to send out goes down, and that would come out of the routing table, and then it would use another route. That would be a floating static route.

Configuration Options

When we put a static route on our routing table, we can either specify an IP address of the next hop, or we can specify the exit interface, or we could specify both. There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these.

If we want to specify just that exit interface, that works out great unless it's a shared network. If this is an Ethernet network, and let's say this layer 3 switch between the layer 3 switch and this router is a shared network, but we have maybe multiple routers that are hanging off of here, it can't just know the exit interface, because then what is it sending it to? Is it sending to this layer 3 switch, or this router over here, or this router over here? So the exit interface works fine on point-to-point networks like HDLC and the Point-to-Point Protocol networks like these, but it doesn't necessarily work in a shared network like Ethernet.

Then we can specify the IP next hop, which works great in situations like when you're working with Ethernet. Then it knows where it needs to go; it knows that it needs to go to this layer 3 switch to get to the 10.1.10.0 network. But the problem with that is it then has to do a recursive lookup to see what exit interface it goes out of, and so it will actually have to take one more step, which could possibly be problematic with your hardware if you're low on resources at all. It has to do an extra lookup to find that exit interface.

So that's one reason why, when I can, I like to configure both the exit interface and the IP address. Then it knows what exit interface to go out of, and it knows the IP address that it needs to hit.

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