The New Main Function

In Assignment 1, our main() function worked with arrays of fixed size and tracked everything using indices.

But in Assignment 2, we’ve switched over to linked lists, which means we’ve had to rewrite main() to work with dynamic data structures instead.

Let’s go through the changes and the new logic step-by-step so you understand how main() now orchestrates the entire simulation.

Key Changes from Assignment 1 to Assignment 2

• Node Storage

  • Before we were using an Array (rtable_t nodes[NODE_MAX])

  • Now we are using a Linked list (node_t* node_list)

  Invalid Node Storage

  • We did not do this before

  • Now we use another Linked List (invalid_node_t*)

  Route Storage

  • Array inside node structs

  • Linked list inside each node

  Packet Forwarding