Routing To be able to communicate between networks, it is necessary to maintain a system of knowledge about how to reach one network from another. This is known as routing. As it requires far too much processing power for an ordinary host on one network to know the location of all other hosts it needs to communicate with on other networks, routing is performed by specialized devices known as routers.Wherever two networks meet, a router must be placed. Thus, hosts that wish to communicate with hosts on other networks only have to know the location of the nearest router (default gateway).
