Chapter 4 Notes

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.

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.

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.

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

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. It has
no broader knowledge of the network topology. Routers using distance vector routing are not aware of the network
topology.
Broadcast Updates are sent to 255.255.255.255. Neighboring routers that are configured with the same routing
protocol will process the updates. All other devices will also process the update up to Layer 3 before discarding it. 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.

Routing protocols can be compared based on the following characteristics:

 Time to Convergence - Time to convergence defines how quickly the routers in the network topology share
routing information and reach a state of consistent knowledge. The faster the convergence, the more preferable
the protocol. Routing loops can occur when inconsistent routing tables are not updated due to slow
convergence in a changing network.
 Scalability - Scalability defines how large a network can become based on the routing protocol that is deployed.
The larger the network is, the more scalable the routing protocol needs to be.
 Classless (Use of VLSM) or Classful - Classless routing protocols include the subnet mask in the updates. This
feature supports the use of Variable Length Subnet Masking (VLSM) and better route summarization. Classful
routing protocols do not include the subnet mask and cannot support VLSM.
 Resource Usage - Resource usage includes the requirements of a routing protocol such as memory space, CPU
utilization, and link bandwidth utilization. Higher resource requirements necessitate more powerful hardware to
support the routing protocol operation in addition to the packet forwarding processes.
 Implementation and Maintenance - Implementation and maintenance describes the level of knowledge that is
required for a network administrator to implement and maintain the network based on the routing protocol
deployed.

Distance vector routing protocols typically implement a technique known as split horizon. Split horizon prevents
information from being sent out the same interface from which it was received.

The speed of achieving convergence consists of:

 How quickly the routers propagate a change in the topology in a routing update to its neighbors.
 The speed of calculating best path routes using the new routing information collected.

A network is not completely operable until it has converged, therefore, network administrators prefer routing protocols
with shorter convergence times.

The age of routing information in a routing table is refreshed each time an update is received. This way information in
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
RIP Timers

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 hold down long
enough for all routers in the topology to learn about the unreachable network. By default, the hold down timer is set for
180 seconds.

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.

Collisions are only an issue with hubs and not with switches.

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. A routing loop can occur when two or more routers have routing information
that incorrectly indicates that a valid path to an unreachable destination exists.

The loop may be a result of:

 Incorrectly configured static routes

 Incorrectly configured route redistribution (redistribution is a process of handing the routing information from
one routing protocol to another routing protocol and is discussed in CCNP-level courses)
 Inconsistent routing tables not being updated due to slow convergence in a changing network
 Incorrectly configured or installed discard routes

A routing loop can have a devastating effect on a network, resulting in degraded network performance or even a
network downtime.
A routing loop can create the following conditions:

 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.
 A router's CPU will be burdened with useless packet forwarding that will negatively impact the convergence of
the network.
 Routing updates may get lost or not be processed in a timely manner. These conditions would introduce
additional routing loops, making the situation even worse.
 Packets may get lost in "black holes."

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

 Hold down timers

 Split horizon
 Route poisoning or poison reverse
 Triggered updates

Count to infinity is a condition that exists when inaccurate routing updates increase the metric value to "infinity" for a
network that is no longer reachable. The animation shows what happens to the routing tables when all three routers
continue to send inaccurate updates to each other.

To eventually stop the incrementing of the metric, "infinity" is defined by setting a maximum metric value. For
example, RIP defines infinity as 16 hops - an "unreachable" metric. Once the routers "count to infinity," they mark the
route as unreachable.

Another method used to prevent routing loops caused by slow convergence of a distance vector routing
protocol is split horizon. The split horizon rule says that a router should not advertise a network through the interface
from which the update came.

Split horizon can be disabled by an administrator. Under certain conditions, this has to be done to achieve the proper
routing. These conditions are discussed in later courses.

Route poisoning is yet another method employed by distance vector routing protocols to prevent routing loops. Route
poisoning is used to mark the route as unreachable in a routing update that is sent to other routers. Unreachable is
interpreted as a metric that is set to the maximum. For RIP, a poisoned route has a metric of 16.

Poison reverse can be combined with the split horizon technique. The method is called split horizon with poison reverse.
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.

Split horizon is enabled by default. However split horizon with poison reverse may not be the default on all IOS
implementations.

For distance vector routing protocols, there really are only two choices: RIP or EIGRP. The decision about which
routing protocol to use in a given situation is influenced by a number of factors including:
  Size of the network
 Compatibility between models of routers
 Administrative knowledge required

Features of RIP:

 Supports split horizon and split horizon with poison reverse to prevent loops.
 Is capable of load balancing up to six equal cost paths .
 The default is four equal cost paths.

RIPv2 introduced the following improvements to RIPv1:

 Includes the subnet mask in the routing updates, making it a classless routing protocol.
 Has authentication mechanism to secure routing table updates.
 Supports variable length subnet mask (VLSM).
 Uses multicast addresses instead of broadcast.
 Supports manual route summarization.

EIGRP features include:

 Triggered updates (EIGRP has no periodic updates).

 Use of a topology table to maintain all the routes received from neighbors (not only the best paths).
 Establishment of adjacencies with neighboring routers using the EIGRP hello protocol.
 Support for VLSM and manual route summarization. These allow EIGRP to create hierarchically structured large
networks.

Advantages of EIGRP:

 Although routes are propagated in a distance vector manner, the metric is based on minimum bandwidth and
cumulative delay of the path rather than hop count.
 Fast convergence due to Diffusing Update Algorithm (DUAL) route calculation. DUAL allows the insertion of
backup routes into the EIGRP topology table, which are used in case the primary route fails. Because it is a local
procedure, the switchover to the backup route is immediate and does not involve the action in any other
routers.
 Bounded updates mean that EIGRP uses less bandwidth, especially in large networks with many routes.
 EIGRP supports multiple Network layer protocols through Protocol Dependent Modules, which include support
for IP, IPX, and AppleTalk.

Distance vector routing protocols include:

 RIPv1
 RIPv2
 IGRP
 EIGRP
 Routers that use distance vector routing protocols determine best path to remote networks based on the
information they learn from their neighbors.

One disadvantage of distance vector routing protocols is the potential for routing loops. Routing loops can occur
when the network is in an unconverged state. Distance vector routing protocols use holddown timers to prevent the
router from using another route to a recently down network until all of the routers have had enough time to learn about
this change in the topology.