Routing Protocols

Routing Information Protocol (RIP)

RIP (Routing Information Protocol) is a widely-used protocol for managing router information within a self-contained network such as a corporate local area network (LAN) or an interconnected group of such LANs. RIP is classified by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as one of several internal gateway protocols (Interior Gateway Protocol).

Using RIP, a gateway host (with a router) sends its entire routing table (which lists all the other hosts it knows about) to its closest neighbor host every 30 seconds. The neighbor host in turn will pass the information on to its next neighbor and so on until all hosts within the network have the same knowledge of routing paths, a state known as network convergence. RIP uses a hop count as a way to determine network distance. (Other protocols use more sophisticated algorithms that include timing as well.) Each host with a router in the network uses the routing table information to determine the next host to route a packet to for a specified destination.

RIP is considered an effective solution for small homogeneous networks. For larger, more complicated networks, RIP's transmission of the entire routing table every 30 seconds may put a heavy amount of extra traffic in the network.

The major alternative to RIP is the Open Shortest Path First Protocol (OSPF).

OSPF (Open Shortest Path First)

OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) is a router protocol used within larger autonomous system networks in preference to the Routing Information Protocol (RIP), an older routing protocol that is installed in many of today's corporate networks. Like RIP, OSPF is designated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as one of several Interior Gateway Protocols (IGPs).

Using OSPF, a host that obtains a change to a routing table or detects a change in the network immediately multicasts the information to all other hosts in the network so that all will have the same routing table information. Unlike the RIP in which the entire routing table is sent, the host using OSPF sends only the part that has changed. With RIP, the routing table is sent to a neighbor host every 30 seconds. OSPF multicasts the updated information only when a change has taken place.

Rather than simply counting the number of hops, OSPF bases its path descriptions on "link states" that take into account additional network information. OSPF also lets the user assign cost metrics to a given host router so that some paths are given preference. OSPF supports a variable network subnet mask so that a network can be subdivided. RIP is supported within OSPF for router-to-end station communication. Since many networks using RIP are already in use, router manufacturers tend to include RIP support within a router designed primarily for OSPF.

EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol)

EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) is a network protocol that lets routers exchange information more efficiently than with earlier network protocols. EIGRP evolved from IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) and routers using either EIGRP and IGRP can interoperate because the metric (criteria used for selecting a route) used with one protocol can be translated into the metrics of the other protocol. EIGRP can be used not only for Internet Protocol (IP) networks but also for AppleTalk and Novell NetWare networks.

Using EIGRP, a router keeps a copy of its neighbor's routing tables. If it can't find a route to a destination in one of these tables, it queries its neighbors for a route and they in turn query their neighbors until a route is found. When a routing table entry changes in one of the routers, it notifies its neighbors of the change only (some earlier protocols require sending the entire table). To keep all routers aware of the state of neighbors, each router sends out a periodic "hello" packet. A router from which no "hello" packet has been received in a certain period of time is assumed to be inoperative.

EIGRP uses the Diffusing-Update Algorithm (DUAL) to determine the most efficient (least cost) route to a destination. A DUAL finite state machine contains decision information used by the algorithm to determine the least-cost route (which considers distance and whether a destination path is loop-free).

BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)

BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) is a protocol for exchanging routing information between gateway hosts (each with its own router) in a network of autonomous systems. BGP is often the protocol used between gateway hosts on the Internet. The routing table contains a list of known routers, the addresses they can reach, and a cost metric associated with the path to each router so that the best available route is chosen.

Hosts using BGP communicate using the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and send updated router table information only when one host has detected a change. Only the affected part of the routing table is sent. BGP-4, the latest version, lets administrators configure cost metrics based on policy statements. (BGP-4 is sometimes called BGP4, without the hyphen.)

BGP communicates with autonomous (local) networks using Internal BGP (IBGP) since it doesn't work well with IGP. The routers inside the autonomous network thus maintain two routing tables: one for the interior gateway protocol and one for IBGP.

BGP-4 makes it easy to use Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR), which is a way to have more addresses within the network than with the current IP address assignment scheme.

BGP is a more recent protocol than the Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP).