Lec4: Introduction to
Dynamic Routing
Protocol
Routing Protocols and
Concepts – Chapter 3
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Objectives
Describe the role of dynamic routing protocols and
place these protocols in the context of modern
network design.
Identify several ways to classify routing protocols.
Describe how metrics are used by routing protocols
and identify the metric types used by dynamic routing
protocols.
Determine the administrative distance of a route
and describe its importance in the routing process.
Identify the different elements of the routing table.
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Dynamic Routing Protocols
Advantages of static routing
– It can backup multiple interfaces/networks on a router
– Easy to configure
– No extra resources are needed
– More secure
Disadvantages of static routing
– Network changes require manual reconfiguration
– Does not scale well in large topologies
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Dynamic Routing Protocols
Function(s) of Dynamic Routing Protocols:
– Dynamically share information between routers.
– Automatically update routing table when topology changes.
– Determine best path to a destination.
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Dynamic Routing Protocols
The purpose of a dynamic routing protocol is to:
– Discover remote networks
– Maintaining up-to-date routing information
– Choosing the best path to destination networks
– Ability to find a new best path if the current path is no longer
available
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Dynamic Routing Protocols
Components of a routing protocol
– Algorithm
• In the case of a routing protocol algorithms are used for
facilitating routing information and best path determination
– Routing protocol messages
• These are messages for discovering neighbors and
exchange of routing information
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Classifying Routing Protocols
Dynamic routing protocols are grouped according to
characteristics. Examples include:
– RIP
– IGRP
– EIGRP
– OSPF
– IS-IS
– BGP
Autonomous System is a group of routers and networks under
the control of a single authority.
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Classifying Routing Protocols
Interior Gateway Routing Protocols (IGP)
– Used for routing inside an autonomous system & used to route
within the individual networks themselves
– Examples: RIP, EIGRP, OSPF
Exterior Routing Protocols (EGP)
– Used for routing between autonomous systems
– Example: BGPv4
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Classifying Routing Protocols
Types of routing protocols:
– Interior Gateway Protocols (IGP)
– Exterior Gateway Protocols (EGP)
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Classifying Routing Protocols
IGP: Comparison of Distance Vector & Link State
Routing Protocols
Distance vector
– Routes are advertised as vectors of distance & direction
– Incomplete view of network topology
– Generally, periodic updates
Link state
– Complete view of network topology is created
– Updates are not periodic
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Routes are advertised as vectors of distance and direction.
Distance is defined in terms of a metric, and direction is
simply the next-hop router or exit interface.
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Each router uses the database to construct a complete map of the
topology and computes the best path to each destination network.
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Classifying Routing Protocols
Classful routing
protocols
– Do NOT send subnet mask
in routing updates
Classless routing
protocols
– Do send subnet mask in
routing updates
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Classifying Routing Protocols
Convergence is defined as when all routers’ routing
tables are at a state of consistency
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Routing Protocols Metrics
Metric
– A value used by a routing protocol to determine which
routes are better than others
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Routing Protocols Metrics
Metrics used in IP routing protocols
– Bandwidth
– Cost
– Delay
– Hop count
– Load
– Reliability
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Routing Protocols Metrics
The Metric Field in the
Routing Table
Metric used for each
routing protocol
– RIP - hop count
– IGRP & EIGRP -
Bandwidth (used by
default), Delay (used by
default), Load,
Reliability
– IS-IS & OSPF - Cost,
Bandwidth (Cisco’s
implementation)
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Routing Protocols Metrics
Load balancing
– This is the ability of a router to distribute packets among
multiple same cost paths
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Administrative Distance of a Route
Purpose of a metric
– It’s a calculated value used to determine the best path to a
destination
Purpose of Administrative Distance
– It’s a numeric value that specifies the preference of a particular
route
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Administrative Distance of a Route
Identifying the Administrative Distance (AD) in a
routing table
– It is the first number in the brackets in the routing table
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Administrative Distance of a Route
Dynamic Routing Protocols
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Administrative Distance of a Route
Directly connected routes
– Have a default AD of 0
Static Routes
– Administrative distance of a static route has a default value of
1
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Administrative Distance of a Route
Directly connected routes
– Immediately appear in the routing table as soon as the
interface is configured
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Summary
Dynamic routing protocols fulfill the following functions
– Dynamically share information between routers
– Automatically update routing table when topology changes
– Determine best path to a destination
Routing protocols are grouped as either
– Interior gateway protocols (IGP)Or
– Exterior gateway protocols(EGP)
Types of IGPs include
– Classless routing protocols - these protocols include
subnet mask in routing updates
– Classful routing protocols - these protocols do not include
subnet mask in routing update
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Summary
Metrics are used by dynamic routing protocols to calculate the
best path to a destination
Administrative distance is an integer value that is used to
indicate a router’s “trustworthiness”
Components of a routing table include:
– Route source
– Administrative distance
– Metric
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