Good day all, 

*this is my first question here, be gentle in judgement*

**Background:**

At university, we are covering Network Routing Protocols. Having possibly found 2 issues with current routing protocols, I believe I have a improved solution for routing information to be acquired.

**Question:**

Since DNS server's purpose is to store "names" which correspond to server IP's, thus resolving the DNS name to an IP, how are IP's resolved to their specific node/device.

**More Info:**

We take for granted the fact that the IP 8.8.8.8 will reach Google's DNS server, but how is this actually routed. What routing information will my node/laptop contain for it to be able to send a TCP/ICMP packet to 8.8.8.8.

Does the gateway (my router) determine this, does my exchange/DSLam determine this or the ISP.

*In my case, my Linux distro routes all traffic to the lowest route which is my router. The router will route all traffic to the exchange, from there going to the ISP, from here, how does it reach 8.8.8.8*

**TL;DR**

**How does a packet specified by an IP 8.8.8.8 get routed to the device with the corresponding IP, and how are those "routers" routing information acquired?**