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 RIP
 Routing Information Protocol (RIP) was originally
specified in RFC 1058. It has the following key
characteristics:
 Hop count is used as the metric for path selection.
 If the hop count for a network is greater than 15, RIP
cannot supply a route to that network.
 Routing updates are broadcast or multicast every 30
seconds, by default.

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 IGRP
 Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP) is a
proprietary protocol developed by Cisco. IGRP has the
following key design characteristics:
 Bandwidth, delay, load and reliability are used to create a
composite metric.
 Routing updates are broadcast every 90 seconds, by
default.
 IGRP is the predecessor of EIGRP and is now obsolete.

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EIGRP
 Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP) is a Cisco proprietary distance
vector routing protocol. EIGRP has these key
characteristics:
 It can perform unequal cost load balancing.
 It uses Diffusing Update Algorithm (DUAL) to calculate
the shortest path.
 There are no periodic updates as with RIP and IGRP.
Routing updates are sent only when there is a change in
the topology.
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 As the name implies, distance vector means that routes are advertised as
vectors of distance and direction. Distance is defined in terms of a metric
such as hop count and direction is simply the next-hop router or exit
interface.
 A router using a distance vector routing protocol does not have the
knowledge of the entire path to a destination network. Instead the router
knows only:
 The direction or interface in which packets should be forwarded and
 The distance or how far it is to the destination network

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 Periodic updates
 Neighbors
 Broadcast updates
 Entire routing table is included with routing update

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 Periodic Updates are sent at regular intervals (30
seconds for RIP and 90 seconds for IGRP). Even if the
topology has not changed in several days, periodic
updates continue to be sent to all neighbors.

 Neighbors are routers that share a link and are

configured to use the same routing protocol. The router
is only aware of the network addresses of its own
interfaces and the remote network addresses it can reach
through its neighbors. Routers using distance vector
routing are not aware of the network topology.
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 Broadcast Updates are sent to 255.255.255.255. Neighboring
routers that are configured with the same routing protocol
will process the updates. Some distance vector routing
protocols use multicast addresses instead of broadcast
addresses.

 Entire Routing Table Updates are sent, with some exceptions

to be discussed later, periodically to all neighbors. Neighbors
receiving these updates must process the entire update to find
pertinent information and discard the rest. Some distance
vector routing protocols like EIGRP do not send periodic
routing table updates.

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 An algorithm is a procedure for accomplishing a certain task, starting at
a given initial state and terminating in a defined end state.
 Different routing protocols use different algorithms to install routes in
the routing table, send updates to neighbors, and make path
determination decisions.

 The algorithm processes:

 Mechanism for sending and receiving routing information.
 Mechanism for calculating the best paths and installing routes in the
routing table.
 Mechanism for detecting and reacting to topology changes.

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 Cold Start
 When a router cold starts or powers up, it knows nothing about the
network topology. It does not even know that there are devices on
the other end of its links. The only information that a router has is
from its own saved configuration file stored in NVRAM

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 R1 adds the 10.1.0.0 network available through interface FastEthernet 0/0 and 10.2.0.0
is available through interface Serial 0/0/0.
 R2 adds the 10.2.0.0 network available through interface Serial 0/0/0 and 10.3.0.0 is
available through interface Serial 0/0/1.
 R3 adds the 10.3.0.0 network available through interface Serial 0/0/1 and 10.4.0.0 is
available through interface FastEthernet 0/0.
 R1
 Sends an update about network 10.1.0.0 out the Serial0/0/0 interface
 Sends an update about network 10.2.0.0 out the FastEthernet0/0 interface
 Receives update from R2 about network 10.3.0.0 with a metric of 1
 Stores network 10.3.0.0 in the routing table with a metric of 1
 R2
 Sends an update about network 10.3.0.0 out the Serial 0/0/0 interface
 Sends an update about network 10.2.0.0 out the Serial 0/0/1 interface
 Receives an update from R1 about network 10.1.0.0 with a metric of 1
 Stores network 10.1.0.0 in the routing table with a metric of 1
 Receives an update from R3 about network 10.4.0.0 with a metric of 1
 Stores network 10.4.0.0 in the routing table with a metric of 1
 R3
 Sends an update about network 10.4.0.0 out the Serial 0/0/1 interface
 Sends an update about network 10.3.0.0 out the FastEthernet0/0
 Receives an update from R2 about network 10.2.0.0 with a metric of 1
 Stores network 10.2.0.0 in the routing table with a metric of 1
R1:
 Sends an update about network 10. 1. 0. 0 out the Serial 0/0/0 interface
 Sends an update about networks 10. 2. 0. 0 and 10. 3. 0. 0 out the FastEthernet0/0 interface
 Receives an update from R2 about network 10. 4. 0. 0 with a metric of 2
 Stores network 10. 4. 0. 0 in the routing table with a metric of 2
 Same update from R2 contains information about network 10. 3. 0. 0 with a metric of 1.
There is no change; therefore, the routing information remains the same
 R2:
 Sends an update about networks 10. 3. 0. 0 and 10. 4. 0. 0 out of Serial 0/0/0 interface
 Sends an update about networks 10. 1. 0. 0 and 10. 2. 0. 0 out of Serial 0/0/1 interface
 Receives an update from R1 about network 10. 1. 0. 0. There is no change; therefore, the
routing information remains the same.
 Receives an update from R3 about network 10. 4. 0. 0. There is no change; therefore, the
routing information remains the same.
 R3
 Sends an update about network 10. 4. 0. 0 out the Serial 0/0/1 interface
 Sends an update about networks 10. 2. 0. 0 and 10. 3. 0. 0 out the FastEthernet0/0 interface
 Receives an update from R2 about network 10. 1. 0. 0 with a metric of 2
 Stores network 10. 1. 0. 0 in the routing table with a metric of 2
 Same update from R2 contains information about network 10. 2. 0. 0 with a metric of 1. There is no
change; therefore, the routing information remains the same.
 The routing table can be maintained when there is a topology change.
Changes may occur for several reasons, including:
 Failure of a link
 Introduction of a new link
 Failure of a router
 Change of link parameters

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 In addition to the update timer, the IOS implements three additional timers
for RIP: Invalid - Flush - Holddown
 Invalid Timer. If an update has not been received to refresh an existing
route after 180 seconds (the default), the route is marked as invalid by
setting the metric to 16. The route is retained in the routing table until the
flush timer expires.
 Flush Timer. By default, the flush timer is set for 240 seconds, which is
60 seconds longer than the invalid timer. When the flush timer expires, the
route is removed from the routing table.

 Holddown Timer. This timer stabilizes routing information and helps prevent
routing loops during periods when the topology is converging on new
information. Once a route is marked as unreachable, it must stay in holddown
long enough for all routers in the topology to learn about the unreachable
network. By default, the holddown timer is set for 180 seconds.

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 EIGRP does not send periodic updates. Instead, EIGRP sends bounded updates
about a route when a path changes or the metric for that route changes. When a
new route becomes available or when a route needs to be removed, EIGRP
sends an update only about that network instead of the entire table.
 EIGRP uses updates that are:
 Non-periodic because they are not sent out on a regular basis.
 Partial updates sent only when there is a change in topology that influences routing
information.
 Bounded, meaning the propagation of partial updates are automatically bounded so that only
those routers that need the information are updated.

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 Conditions in which triggered updates are sent :
 Interface changes state
 Route becomes unreachable
 Route is placed in routing table

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 Using only triggered updates would be sufficient if there were a
guarantee that the wave of updates would reach every appropriate
router immediately. However, there are two problems with
triggered updates:
 Packets containing the update message can be dropped or
corrupted by some link in the network.
 The triggered updates do not happen instantaneously. It is
possible that a router that has not yet received the triggered
update will issue a regular update at just the wrong time, causing
the bad route to be reinserted in a neighbor that had already
received the triggered update.

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  A routing loop is a condition in which a packet is continuously
transmitted within a series of routers without ever reaching its intended
destination network.
 Routing loops may be caused by:
 Incorrectly configured static routes
 Incorrectly configured route redistribution
 Inconsistent routing tables not being updated due to slow convergence in a changing
network
 Incorrectly configured discard routes

 Routing loops can create the following issues

 Link bandwidth will be used for traffic looping back and forth between the routers in a
loop.
 A router's CPU will be strained due to looping packets.
 Network convergence is Slow
 Routing updates may be lost or not processed in a timely manner 35
• The FastEthernet 0/0 link on router R3 is going down, so it will change its
routing table. Its status went from 0 to Down.
• Every 30 seconds our routers send a full copy of their routing table to their
neighbours and it just happens to be that it’s time for router R2 to send a copy.
Router R2 sends his full routing table towards router R3. What do you think
will happen?
• Router R3 gets the routing table from router R2 and will see that router R2 is
advertising the 10.4.0.0 network with a hop count of 1.
• R3 thinks….a hop count of 1 is better than having a network that is down.
Router R3 will add this information to its routing table.
 It time for R3 to send its routing table to its neighbour router R2.
 Router R2 will think: “I can reach 10.4.0.0 by going to router R3 and my hop count used to
be 1. I’m receiving a routing table from router R3 now and it now says that the hop count is
2…I need to update myself to include this change”.
 The hop count on router R2 is now 3, it received 2 from router R3 plus it adds the hop
towards router R3.
 Router R2 will also send a copy of its routing table towards router R1 who will update
itself as well.
 There are a number of mechanisms available to eliminate routing loops,
primarily with distance vector routing protocols. These mechanisms
include:
 Defining a maximum metric to prevent count to infinity
 Holddown timers
 Split horizon
 Route poisoning
 Poison reverse
 IP and TTL

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 To prevent routers continue updating their routing table over and over
again we have a Maximum count. RIP defines infinity as 16 hops - an
"unreachable" metric. Once the routers "count to infinity," they mark
the route as unreachable.
 Holddown timers instruct routers to hold any changes that might affect routes for
a specified period of time. If a route is identified as down or possibly down, any
other information for that route containing the same status, or worse, is ignored
for a predetermined amount of time (the holddown period).
 Holddown timers work in the following way:
 1. A router receives an update from a neighbor indicating that a network that
previously was accessible is now no longer accessible.
 2. The router marks the network as possibly down and starts the holddown timer.
 3. If an update with a better metric for that network is received from any neighboring
router during the holddown period, the network is reinstated and the holddown timer
is removed.
 4. If an update from any other neighbor is received during the holddown period with
the same or worse metric for that network, that update is ignored.
 5. Routers still forward packets to destination networks that are marked as possibly
down.. If the destination network truly is unavailable and the packets are forwarded,
black hole routing is created and lasts until the holddown timer expires.
Step 1

Step 2
Step 3

Step 4
Step 5
 The split horizon rule says that a router should not advertise a network
through the interface from which the update came.
Applying split horizon to the previous example of route 10.4.0.0 produces the
following actions:
 R3 advertises the 10.4.0.0 network to R2.
 R2 receives the information and updates its routing table.
 R2 then advertises the 10.4.0.0 network to R1 out S0/0/0. R2 does not advertise
10.4.0.0 to R3 out S0/0/1, because the route originated from that interface.
 R1 receives the information and updates its routing table.
 Because of split horizon, R1 also does not advertise the information about
network 10.4.0.0 back to R2.
 Route poisoning is used to mark the route as unreachable in a routing
update that is sent to other routers.
Applying route poisoning to the previous example of route 10.4.0.0 produces the
following actions:
 Network 10.4.0.0 becomes unavailable due to a link failure.
 R3 poisons the metric with a value of 16 and then sends out a triggered update
stating that 10.4.0.0 is unavailable.
 R2 processes that update. Because the metric is 16, R2 invalidates the routing
entry in its routing table.
 R2 then sends the poison update to R1, indicating that route is unavailable, again
by setting the metric value to 16.
 R1 processes the update and invalidates the routing entry for 10.4.0.0 in its
routing table.
 The rule for split horizon with poison reverse states when sending updates out a
specific interface, designate any networks that were learned on that interface as
unreachable.

 The concept of split horizon with poison reverse is that explicitly telling a router to
ignore a route is better than not telling it about the route in the first place.

Applying split horizon with poison reverse to the previous example of route 10.4.0.0
produces the following actions:
 Network 10.4.0.0 becomes unavailable due to a link failure.
 R3 poisons the metric with a value of 16 and then sends out a triggered update
stating that 10.4.0.0 is unavailable.
 R2 processes that update, invalidates the routing entry in its routing table, and
immediately sends a poison reverse back to R3.
Contents of the IPv4 packet header
 Time to Live (TTL) is an 8-bit field in the IP header that limits the
number of hops a packet can traverse through the network before it
is discarded. The purpose of the TTL field is to avoid a situation in
which an undeliverable packet keeps circulating on the network
endlessly.