How Routers Work

The article which you are reading just now was transported across a vast interconnected network of computers, which is the Internet. This web page is hosted on a remote server in the USA. Its journey from the server to your computer was made possible because of a host of computer networking devices working in unison. To fully understand how data is accurately sent to millions of computers around the world, you need to understand how routers work. Just like you don't need to know how a car works to drive it, you don't need to know how Internet works, to use it. Still, if you are one of the curious few who wish to understand how data traffic across the Internet is made possible, then you must know the working of a router.

What are Routers?

The Internet is not just a vast array of computers connected to each other. There are a host of networking devices like the router, which control the data traffic between and within networks. A router is a networking device that is designed to control data traffic between different computer networks. It primarily operates on the network layer (Layer 3) of the OSI model, to know what it is all about). Wireless routers installed in homes, provide secure wireless Internet access and provide means to set up a home wireless network. There are various types of routers, which differ in their features according to the scale of computing networks, which they handle.

How Do Routers Work?

To understand the working of routers, you need to understand how data is transported across the Internet. The method of transport is 'Packet Switching'. Every file or piece of data on the Internet is not transported as a single entity. It is broken up into smaller packets and then labeled with sender's address and recipient address. Just like a post office package is sent across a network and then sorted at various post office nodes, until it reaches your door step, data packages are sorted and directed across the Internet. Routers are devices that connect multiple networks together and control what data is sent to and from any computer in those networks.

Using, what is known as a configuration table (that has information about connections and associated network addresses), it reads every data packet that it receives from a network and directs it through the right connection, so that it reaches the right destination. The configuration table stored on a router has information about the IP addresses of all computers in a network. It also has a set of priority rules for data transport, which the router follows.

The router is an intelligent device which calculates the optimum path for the data packet to reach the right destination in shortest time. This calculation and determination of a path is made possible, after the router has evaluated the traffic load across networks. An optimum use of bandwidth and faster data transfer is made possible because of routers.

Packet switching is made possible because of routers, which are analogous to post offices on a snail mail network. Routers also secure a computer network by providing encryption of data.

Routers are silent backstage performers on the Internet, who ensure that data is directed in the right directions and reaches the right destinations, while also protecting networks from unauthorized access.