First let me begin like this: What is Routing actually?
Routing is nothing but transfer of data (referred to as packets for a layer 3 device) from one network to another or we can say that transfer of packets from a source address to a destination address. For this, devices called Routers or Layer 3 switches called Multilayer Switches are used. Some of the Router manufacturing companies are Cisco, Juniper, Huwaei etc.
If routing protocol is not configured in a router then a router will typically contain in its routing table, the next hop ip address, the directly connected networks and static routes if configured.
One more thing about routers is that they work in the Layer 3 of the OSI model and importantly they don't forward broadcast packets. Just imagine, what would happen if a router receives a broadcast packet and then transmits that broadcast packet to the internet and again from the internet, that packet travels to another router and so on... It would create chaos in the internet. However, in some cases the routers sends the broadcast packets received at an interface as unicast packets. It is done using "ip helper-address" for devices (hosts or servers) requesting an ip address or other information from a DHCP server.
Before moving onto the Routing Protocols, I am going to discuss about few things which forms the very basis of Routing & Switching like Administrative Distance, Metric, Routing Table etc.
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