INTRODUCTION TO

ROUTING PROTOCOLS
Tools and Topics of Dynamic Routing
Protocols

Why Routing Protocols?

Static routes have too much overhead.
Must be configured manually
Must be configured on all routers that need a route
Does not account for link failure easily
Every new network requires a new static route.
Directly connected routes dont provide full connectivity in

large networks.
Best routes should directly reflect network performance.
Summarizing several routes as a single route would
reduce overhead.

Interior vs. Exterior

Autonomous System (AS): an internetwork under the

control of a single organization.

Interior Gateway Protocol
Used within a single AS.
All protocols we discuss will be IGPs.

Exterior Gateway Protocol

Used to route between Ass.
Only EGP in use is BGP (which we will not discuss).

Visualized

Types of IGPs
Distance Vector
Router knows only distance (hops) and vector (next hop).
Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is the only distance vector
protocol we will discuss.
Link-State
Router knows the state of all links (interfaces) in the internetwork,

and selects the best path.

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is the only link-state protocol we
will discuss.

Balanced Hybrid (Enhanced Distance Vector)

Router uses known topology from neighboring routers (not all
routers) and selects the best path.
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol

Classful and Classless RPs

Classful routing protocols assume that every classful

network is contiguous.
They do not care about subnet mask information.
They automatically summarize routes between major networks.
RIPv1 is classful.

Classless routing protocols allow for fine-grained

subnetting.
They send/receive subnet mask information.
Only classful routing protocols support VLSM.
Only classful routing protocols allow manual summarization.
Most dont automatically summarize between major networks.
RIPv2, OSPF, and EIGRP are all classless.

Administrative Distance
Abbr.

Route Type

Admin. Dist.

Directly Connected

Static

BGP (External)

20

EIGRP (Internal)

90

IGRP

100

OSPF

110

IS-IS

115

RIP

120

EIGRP (External)

170

BGP (Internal)

200

Unusable Route

255

Metric
Each routing protocol has its own way to determine the

best path to a network.

RIP: Hop Count
OSPF: Sum of Inverse of Bandwidth (Cost)
EIGRP: Min. Bandwidth + Total Delay

Each metric has certain advantages and disadvantages.

Summary of Routing Protocols

Feature

RIPv1 RIPv2 OSPF EIGRP

Classless

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Distance Vector

Yes

Yes

No

No

Link-State

No

No

Yes

No

Autosummarization

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Manual Summarization

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Cisco Proprietary

No

No

No

Yes

Authentication

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Convergence

Slow

Slow

Fast

V. Fast

Questions

Presentation Licensing
Introduction to Routing Protocols by Ryan Clough is
licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.