Sunday, April 24, 2016

What Are the Differences Between the Tracert Functions of a Network Device and a PC?

The tracert command is used to discover the gateways that packets actually pass through from the source to the destination. The tracert command is used to check the network connectivity and locate network faults.
The process of a tracert command is as follows:
The sender sends a packet with TTL 1. When the TTL expires, the first hot returns an ICMP error message indicating that the message cannot be forwarded anymore.
The sender sends a packet with TTL 2. When the TTL expires, the second hot returns an ICMP error message indicating that the message cannot be forwarded anymore.
The sender sends a packet with TTL 3. When the TTL expires, the third hot returns an ICMP error message indicating that the message cannot be forwarded anymore.
The sender repeats the preceding process by increasing the TTL value until the packet reaches the destination.

  • When performing the tracert operation, a network device sends UDP packets. The UDP port number of the three UDP packets starts from 33434 and is incremented by 1 every time the packets pass a hop. When one node on the path has equal-cost routes, the node performs a hash operation based on flows. Therefore, the UDP packets are distributed to different routes, and a maximum of three IP addresses on the equal-cost routes are shown each time.
    The following figure shows information about tracert packets sent by a network device. The first hop has only one route, so only one next-hop 192.168.2.1 is displayed. The second hop has two next hops (192.168.11.2 and 192.168.21.2), so the three packets are distributed to two links.
  • When performing a tracert operation, a PC sends ICMP packets, which are irrelevant to port numbers. If a network device on the path has equal-cost routes, the ICMP packets are distributed to only one link, and only one next-hop IP address is displayed. However, if the network device performs load balancing based on packets, the ICMP packets are distributed to different links.
    The following figure shows information about the tracert packets sent by a PC. Three packets arrive at each hop together. For example, three packets have TTL 5.

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