RIP Protocol

RIP Protocol
Routing Information Protocols (RIP) are a family of distance-vector routing protocols used in IP networks.
RIP is defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in RFC 1058 and has been in use since the early
days of the internet.
RIP uses distance-vector algorithms to determine the best path to a destination. It makes routing decisions
based on hop count, which is the number of routers a packet must pass through to reach a destination. The
router with the lowest hop count is considered the best path.
One advantage of RIP is its simplicity, which makes it easy to configure and manage. However, its limited
scalability and slow convergence time make it less suitable for larger networks.
RIP stands for “Routing Information Protocol”. Routers use it to interchange details on a network.
Its main functions are −
 To find out the most effective way to route data on a network
 To avoid routing loops
The main advantage of RIP is that its bandwidth utilization is very high and it updates every 30
seconds. However, a maximum of 16 routers can be composed, as it supports only 15 hop counts.
In RIP, infinity is defined as 16, which means that the RIP is useful for smaller networks or small
autonomous systems. The maximum number of hops that RIP can contain is 15 hops, i.e., it should not
have more than 15 hops as 16 is infinity.
There are two versions of RIP:

RIPv1 and RIPv2. RIPv1 is an outdated protocol that has limitations in terms of network size and
security, which led to the development of RIPv2.
RIPv1
RIPv1 stands for Routing Information Protocol version 1. It is also called Classful Routing Protocol
because it does not send subnet mask information in its routing updates. The regular routing updates
do not carry subnet details and do not support Variable Length subnet masks (VLSM). This is the
drawback of RIPv1, due to which it is not possible to have various sized subnets in the same network
class.
RIPv2
RIPv2 stands for hybrid routing protocol version 2. It is standardized in 1998 -- is called Classless
Routing Protocol because it does send subnet mask information in its routing updates. It is a
distance-vector routing protocol defined in RFC 1723 and has the characteristics of link-state routing
protocols. It is a classless routing protocol which means it involves the subnet mask having the
network addresses in the routing updates.
How is hop count determined?

When the router sends the packet to the network segment, then it is counted as a single hop.
In the above figure, when the router 1 forwards the packet to the router 2 then it will count as 1 hop
count. Similarly, when the router 2 forwards the packet to the router 3 then it will count as 2 hop
count, and when the router 3 forwards the packet to router 4, it will count as 3 hop count. In the same
way, RIP can support maximum upto 15 hops, which means that the 16 routers can be configured in a
RIP.
How does the RIP work?
If there are 8 routers in a network where Router 1 wants to send the data to Router 3. If the network is
configured with RIP, it will choose the route which has the least number of hops. There are three
routes in the above network, i.e., Route 1, Route 2, and Route 3. The Route 2 contains the least
number of hops, i.e., 2 where Route 1 contains 3 hops, and Route 3 contains 4 hops, so RIP will
choose Route 2.
Let's look at another example.
Suppose R1 wants to send the data to R4. There are two possible routes to send data from r1 to r2. As
both the routes contain the same number of hops, i.e., 3, so RIP will send the data to both the routes
simultaneously. This way, it manages the load balancing, and data reach the destination a bit faster.
How RIP updates its Routing table

The following timers are used to update the routing table:
o RIP update timer : 30 sec
The routers configured with RIP send their updates to all the neighboring routers every 30 seconds.
o RIP Invalid timer : 180 sec
The RIP invalid timer is 180 seconds, which means that if the router is disconnected from the network
or some link goes down, then the neighbor router will wait for 180 seconds to take the update. If it
does not receive the update within 180 seconds, then it will mark the particular route as not
reachable.
o RIP Flush timer : 240 sec
The RIP flush timer is 240 second which is almost equal to 4 min means that if the router does not
receive the update within 240 seconds then the neighbor route will remove that particular route from
the routing table which is a very slow process as 4 minutes is a long time to wait.
Difference between RIPv1 and RIPv2

The following table highlights the major differences between RIPv1 and RIPv2.
RIPv1 RIPv2
This protocol is a Distance-Vector routing This protocol is also a distance-vector routing

protocol. protocol.
It can assist with a complete class network It can assist complete class networks and classless
only. networks.
It does not keep up with documentation. It keeps up with documentation.
RIPv1 hop count limit is 15. RIPv2 hop count limit is also 15.
Not good security. Security is good.
For updates, it uses Broadcast traffic. Whether For updates, it uses Multicast traffic. However,
routers are running on RIPv21 or not. They multicast traffic weakens the network traffics.
have to process the routing update messages. Therefore, only routers that are running on RIPv2 will
join the multicast group.
It does not give the activate updates. It gives the activate updates.
It does not send a subnet mask to the It sends a subnet mask to the periodic table.
periodic table.

RIP Protocol

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RIP Protocol

There are two versions of RIP:

How is hop count determined?

How does the RIP work?

Let's look at another example.

How RIP updates its Routing table

o RIP Invalid timer : 180 sec

o RIP Flush timer : 240 sec

Difference between RIPv1 and RIPv2

This protocol is a Distance-Vector routing This protocol is also a distance-vector routing

It does not keep up with documentation. It keeps up with documentation.

Not good security. Security is good.

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