A bridging mechanism that routes frames through a multi-LAN network by specifying in the frame which route it travels.

The practice of specifying the list of networks or routers in the network layer header to forward a packet along a specific path in an internetwork.

IEEE standard for 802.5 Token Ring environments from an IBM development. A workstation (source) determines the router through the LAN internetwork. It sends a "discovery" or explorer packet along all active paths in the network, eventually reaching the destination host. Once received, the packet is sent back to the originator. Along the way, each bridge traversed adds its designator to the discovery packet. When it arrives at the originator, it contains complete routing information and the originator can send its data with that information attached. SR-compliant bridges generally need less processing power since most of the work is done by the originating workstation. A liability of SR is that the number of discovery packets traversing the network increases dramatically as the number of Token Ring LAN segments and internetworking devices between the stations grows.

A routing technique that causes some or all intermediate routing points to be represented directly in the data packet to be forwarded. This is in contrast to the typical situation in which intermediate routers rely on acquired routing state information to forward incoming packets.

A method of routing data across bridges.

The forwarding of a message unit along a particular path through a network based on parameters specified by a command.

Source routing is a method of directing data from its source to its destination in computer networking and the Internet.