Explain the benefits and drawbacks of static routing

[shalikasenadeera1]

Explain the benefits and drawbacks of static routing

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

here are some good explanations:

http://www.dummies.com/programming/networking/cisco/pros-and-cons-of-static-routing/

http://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=2180210&seqNum=5

[Richard Burts · Accepted solution]

Benefits:

- it is simple to implement. 

- it consumes no bandwidth with updates. 

- if there is only one path to the destination the static route will use the optimum path. 

- if you want to be in charge of how things work in your network then static routes are the ultimate expression on this. 

Drawbacks:

- dynamic routes are more complex  

- static routes require manual effort. 

-  the more routes exist the more manual effort is required  

- if there is more than one path to the destination the static route may use a suboptimal path. 

- if the path used by the static route stops working it will require manual effort to configure a different path. 

- dynamic routes choose the optimal path and dynamically change in reaction to changes in the network. 

HTH

Rick

[Joseph W. Doherty]

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Posting

Rick has already noted the major points.  However, did want to emphasis, the major issue, whether static routing might be used, is often the complexity of the network's topology.  Static routing doesn't "scale".  I.e. static routing is often unmanageable for all but very small and/or "simple" topologies.

However, static routing and dynamic routing are often used together where their pros and cons might be used to offset each other.

For example, an "edge" router, with only locally directly connected networks, might only have a static default for everything non-local.  The "other side" WAN router, would have static routes for the edge site's routes, but it also injects those static routes into its dynamic routing protocol.

The forgoing is commonly used with sites that connect to an ISP.  The edge site doesn't run a dynamic routing protocol with the ISP, but the ISP does advertise the edge's network(s).

[Karsten Iwen]

One more benefit in addition to Ricks and Josephs great list:

• can't be manipulated/exploited from the outside and forced to use additional resources.
  This is sometimes relevant when routing is done on security-devices.