INTRODUCTION TO
ROUTING PROTOCOLS
Tools and Topics of Dynamic Routing
Protocols
Why Routing Protocols?
Static routes have too much overhead.
Must be configured manually
Must be configured on all routers that need a route
Does not account for link failure easily
Every new network requires a new static route.
Directly connected routes dont provide full connectivity in
large networks.
Best routes should directly reflect network performance.
Summarizing several routes as a single route would
reduce overhead.
Interior vs. Exterior
Autonomous System (AS): an internetwork under the
control of a single organization.
Interior Gateway Protocol
Used within a single AS.
All protocols we discuss will be IGPs.
Exterior Gateway Protocol
Used to route between Ass.
Only EGP in use is BGP (which we will not discuss).
Visualized
Types of IGPs
Distance Vector
Router knows only distance (hops) and vector (next hop).
Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is the only distance vector
protocol we will discuss.
Link-State
Router knows the state of all links (interfaces) in the internetwork,
and selects the best path.
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is the only link-state protocol we
will discuss.
Balanced Hybrid (Enhanced Distance Vector)
Router uses known topology from neighboring routers (not all
routers) and selects the best path.
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
Classful and Classless RPs
Classful routing protocols assume that every classful
network is contiguous.
They do not care about subnet mask information.
They automatically summarize routes between major networks.
RIPv1 is classful.
Classless routing protocols allow for fine-grained
subnetting.
They send/receive subnet mask information.
Only classful routing protocols support VLSM.
Only classful routing protocols allow manual summarization.
Most dont automatically summarize between major networks.
RIPv2, OSPF, and EIGRP are all classless.
Administrative Distance
Abbr.
Route Type
Admin. Dist.
Directly Connected
Static
BGP (External)
20
EIGRP (Internal)
90
IGRP
100
OSPF
110
IS-IS
115
RIP
120
EIGRP (External)
170
BGP (Internal)
200
Unusable Route
255
Metric
Each routing protocol has its own way to determine the
best path to a network.
RIP: Hop Count
OSPF: Sum of Inverse of Bandwidth (Cost)
EIGRP: Min. Bandwidth + Total Delay
Each metric has certain advantages and disadvantages.
Summary of Routing Protocols
Feature
RIPv1 RIPv2 OSPF EIGRP
Classless
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Distance Vector
Yes
Yes
No
No
Link-State
No
No
Yes
No
Autosummarization
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Manual Summarization
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Cisco Proprietary
No
No
No
Yes
Authentication
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Convergence
Slow
Slow
Fast
V. Fast
Questions
Presentation Licensing
Introduction to Routing Protocols by Ryan Clough is
licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.