IP Routing Protocols Decide How Data Moves Across the Intern

IP Routing Explained: How Routers Direct Network Traffic

Introduction

Every time you send a message, visit a website, or query a cloud service, your data travels a complex path from source to destination. That path is determined by IP routing—the process of deciding where packets go based on their destination IP address.

Whether you’re a network engineer, DevOps practitioner, or developer working with distributed systems, understanding how IP routing works is essential for diagnosing issues, securing traffic, and optimizing performance.

In this guide, we’ll explain what IP routing is, how routers make decisions, how static and dynamic routes work, and how noBGP reimagines routing for the modern era.

What is IP Routing?

IP routing is the process of forwarding data packets from one network to another using destination IP addresses and routing tables.

Key Roles of IP Routing:

• Determines next hop for every packet
• Uses routing tables to decide path
• Happens at Layer 3 (Network layer) of the OSI model

Routers make decisions based on:

• Destination IP
• Subnet masks
• Administrative distance and metrics

Types of IP Routing

Routing Table Example

A routing table is a database of possible paths. Here’s a simplified view:

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The router selects the most specific match (longest prefix) or the lowest metric when multiple routes match.

How Routing Works (Simplified)

1. You send a packet to 10.0.0.25
2. The router checks its table and finds a matching entry
3. It forwards the packet to the next hop
4. Each router along the path repeats the process until the packet arrives

Diagram: IP Routing Path

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Static vs Dynamic Routing‍

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Common Routing Protocols

Policy-Based Routing (PBR)

In addition to standard IP routing, Policy-Based Routing allows routing decisions based on:

• Source IP
• Port or protocol
• Application identity
• Interface

PBR is common in SD-WAN, cloud firewalls, and enterprise edge appliances to enforce custom routing behavior.

IP Routing in Cloud Environments

Cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP rely heavily on routing—but abstract much of it:

• You define route tables per subnet
• Static routing with gateways (IGW, NAT, VPN)
• No direct access to dynamic protocols like BGP (except for edge cases like Direct Connect)

Limitations include:

• Manual coordination of CIDRs and peering
• Conflicting routes in overlapping VPCs
• Hard to troubleshoot black holes and NAT rules

How noBGP Redefines IP Routing

IP routing is powerful—but flawed in multi-cloud, dynamic, and ephemeral environments. Routing tables are hard to audit, NAT breaks visibility, and BGP is unpredictable.

noBGP removes the complexity of traditional IP routing by introducing a new model based on service-level identity and deterministic paths.

Key Benefits of noBGP:

• No routing tables to manage
• You define connections between services, not IP blocks.
• Network Sovereignty via deterministic paths without BGP
• Traffic always takes the path you specify via policy—latency, bandwidth, region, etc.
• No subnet collisions
• Overlapping CIDRs? No problem. Routing is identity-based.
• Private by design
• No public IPs or exposed routing infrastructure. End-to-end encryption is default.
• Works across all environments
• Connect Kubernetes to AWS to on-prem—without worrying about IP routes or NAT.

Summary: Traditional IP Routing vs noBGP

Final Thoughts

IP routing is the invisible force that powers internet and cloud communication. But in its traditional form—especially when combined with BGP—it’s complex, opaque, and hard to control.

noBGP offers a new model: where paths are predictable, connections are private, and you never have to touch a route table again.

It’s not just faster networking—it’s better control, simpler configuration, and true sovereignty over your traffic.

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