Chapter 6 EIGRP

Enhanced Interior Gateway

Routing Protocol (EIGRP) is a
Cisco-proprietary routing protocol
based on IGRP.
EIGRP Advantages
 Unlike IGRP, which is a classful routing
protocol, EIGRP is classless.
 EIGRP boasts faster convergence times,
improved scalability, and superior handling of
routing loops.
 EIGRP can replace Novell RIP and AppleTalk
Routing Table Maintenance Protocol (RTMP),
serving both IPX and AppleTalk networks with
powerful efficiency.
EIGRP: Hybrid?
 EIGRP is an advanced distance-vector
routing protocol that relies on features
commonly associated with link-state
protocols.
 OSPF's best traits, such as partial updates
and neighbor discovery, are similarly put to
use by EIGRP.
 OSPF requires mastery of a complex
terminology and command set. However
EIGRP's advanced features can be easily
implemented and maintained.
EIGRP vs IGRP
 Cisco released EIGRP in 1994 as a scalable, improved
version of its proprietary distance-vector routing protocol,
IGRP.
 IGRP and EIGRP are compatible, although EIGRP offers
multiprotocol support and IGRP does not.
 EIGRP uses a metric that is 32 bits long, and IGRP uses
a 24-bit metric. By multiplying or dividing by 256, EIGRP
can easily exchange information with IGRP.
 EIGRP also imposes a maximum hop limit of 224,
slightly less than IGRP's generous 255.
 Redistribution is automatic between IGRP and EIGRP as
long as both processes use the same autonomous
system (AS) number.
EIGRP Fundamentals
 EIGRP routers converge quickly because they rely on a
state-of-the-art routing algorithm called the Diffusing Update
Algorithm (DUAL)
 EIGRP makes efficient use of bandwidth by sending partial,
bounded updates and its minimal consumption of
bandwidth when the network is stable.
 EIGRP offers full support for classless IP by exchanging
subnet masks in routing updates.
 EIGRP supports IP, IPX, and AppleTalk through protocol-
dependent modules (PDMs).
 PDMs protect EIGRP from painstaking revision. Evolution
of a routed protocol, such as IP, may require a new protocol
module, but not necessarily a reworking of EIGRP itself.
EIGRP support for IPX
 Time-driven protocols, IPX RIP and SAP,
generate updates every 60 seconds by
default. These updates can crowd low-speed
WAN links, especially in large internetworks.
 An EIGRP router will receive routing and
service updates and then update other
routers only when changes in the SAP or
routing tables occur. Routing updates occur
as they would in any EIGRP network - using
partial updates, thus conserving bandwidth on
the low-speed WAN links.
EIGRP Terminology
 Neighbor table - Each EIGRP router maintains a neighbor
table listing adjacent routers, comparable to the OSPF
adjacency database.
 Topology table - Every EIGRP router maintains a topology
table for each configured network protocol showing all
learned routes to a destination.
 Routing table - EIGRP chooses the best routes to a
destination from the topology table and places these routes
in the routing table.
 Successor - A successor is a route selected as the primary
route to use to reach a destination. Multiple successors for a
destination can be retained in the routing table.
 Feasible successor - A feasible successor is a backup
route. Multiple feasible successors for a destination can be
retained in the topology table.
Neighbor Discovery and
Recovery
 EIGRP routers actively establish relationships with their
neighbors, much the same way that OSPF routers do.
 EIGRP routers establish adjacencies with neighbor
routers by using small hello packets.
 An EIGRP router assumes that, as long as it is
receiving hello packets from known neighbors, those
neighbors (and their routes) remain viable.
 By forming adjacencies, EIGRP routers dynamically
learn of new routes that join their network, identify
routers that become either unreachable or inoperable
as well as rediscover routers that had previously been
unreachable
Reliable Transport Protocol
 EIGRP is protocol-independent (i.e., it does
not rely on TCP/IP to exchange routing
information the way that RIP, IGRP, and
OSPF do).
 To stay independent of IP, EIGRP uses its
own proprietary transport-layer protocol to
guarantee delivery of routing information:
RTP.
 EIGRP can call on RTP to provide reliable or
unreliable service as the situation warrants.
DUAL Finite State Machine
 The centerpiece of EIGRP is the Diffusing Update Algorithm
finite-state machine, EIGRP's route-calculation engine.
 An FSM is an abstract machine that defines a set of possible
states something can go through, what events cause those
states, and what events result from those states. Designers
use FSMs to describe how a device, computer program, or
routing algorithm will react to a set of input events.
 The DUAL FSM contains all the logic used to calculate and
compare routes in an EIGRP network.
 DUAL tracks all the routes advertised by neighbors and uses
the composite metric of each route to compare them. DUAL
also guarantees that each path is loop-free. Lowest-cost paths
are then inserted by the DUAL protocol into the routing table.
EIGRP Packet Types
The five EIGRP packet types are:
 Hello – used to discover, verify, and rediscover neighbor
routers. EIGRP routers send hellos at a fixed but configurable
interval, called the hello interval. The default hello interval
depends on the bandwidth of the interface, 60 seconds for 1.54
mbps or less and 5 seconds for more than 1.54 mbps. Hellos
are sent multicast to IP address 224.0.0.10.
 Acknowledgment – sent as unicast to indicate receipt of any
EIGRP packet during a "reliable" exchange.
 Update - used when a router discovers a new neighbor or when
a router discovers a topology change. Sent unicast and reliably.
 Query - can be multicast or unicast, used when routers need
specific information from one or all neighbors. Sent reliably.
 Reply - used to respond to a query. Always sent as a unicast.
EIGRP Neighbor Tables
 DUAL selects alternate routes based on the tables kept by
EIGRP, and routers use the tables to track all the routing
information in an AS, not just the "best" routes.
 The most important table in EIGRP is the neighbor table
and relationships tracked in the neighbor table are the basis
for all the EIGRP routing update and convergence activity.
 The neighbor table contains information about adjacent
neighboring EIGRP routers.
 A neighbor table is used to support reliable, sequenced
delivery of packets.
 An EIGRP router can maintain multiple neighbor tables, one
for each PDM running (e.g., IP, IPX, and AppleTalk) routed
protocols.
EIGRP Routing Table
 The routing table contains the routes
installed by DUAL as the best loop-free
paths to a given destination
 EIGRP will maintain up to four routes
per destination. These routes can be of
equal or unequal cost.
 EIGRP routers maintain a separate
routing table for each routed protocol.
EIGRP Topology Table
 EIGRP uses its topology table to store all the information it
needs to calculate a set of distances and vectors to all
reachable destinations.
 EIGRP maintains a separate topology table for each routed
protocol. The topology table is made up of all the EIGRP routing
tables in the autonomous system.
 EIGRP sorts the topology table so that the successor routes are
at the top, followed by feasible successors. At the bottom,
EIGRP lists routes that DUAL believes to be loops in the
topology table.
 Entries in the topology table can be in one of two states: active
or passive.
 A passive route is one that is stable and available for use. An
active route is a route in the process of being recomputed by
DUAL.
Configuring EIGRP
 To enable EIGRP and define the autonomous system: 
router(config)# router eigrp autonomous-system-number
 Indicate which networks are part of the EIGRP
autonomous system on the local router.
router(config-router)# network network-number
 When using serial links, it is important to use the
bandwidth on the interface to change the bandwidth used
for calculating routing metrics. If you do not change the
bandwidth for these interfaces EIGRP assumes the default
bandwidth on the link instead of the true bandwidth.
router(config-if)# bandwidth kilobits
Configuring EIGRP
 Cisco also recommends that you add the following
command to all of your EIGRP configurations:
router(config-if)# eigrp log-neighbor-changes
This command enables the logging of neighbor adjacency
changes to monitor the stability of the routing system and to
help detect problems.

 EIGRP automatically summarizes routes. In most cases,

auto summarization is a good thing; it keeps routing tables
as compact as possible.
To turn off auto-summarization, use the following command:
router(config-router)#no auto-summary