Basic of IP Routing Explained with

Example
This tutorial explains the basic concepts of IP routing. Learn what IP routing is, how
IP routing works, and how computer networks use IP routing.

What is IP routing?

IP routing is a process that an IP host uses to transfer data to another IP host in an

IP network. An IP network may use a single IP subnet or multiple IP subnets. If two
hosts belong to the same IP subnet, they can exchange data directly. If two hosts
belong to different IP subnets, they need a router to exchange data. A router
connects different IP subnets.

How does IP routing work?

The process of IP routing starts when the host creates the IP packet for another
host. Once an IP packet is created for another host, the host takes the following
steps.

The host determines the IP subnet of the destination host.

To determine the IP subnet of the destination host, the host compares the address of
the destination host to its address.

If the network address is the same in both addresses, both addresses belong to the
same IP subnet. If the network address is different in both addresses, both
addresses belong to different IP subnets.

The following image shows an example of this comparison.

If the destination host belongs to the same IP subnet, the host sends the packet to
the destination host directly. If the destination host belongs to a different IP subnet,
the host sends the packet to the default gateway.

IP routing works differently in both cases. We will discuss both cases separately.
Let's start with the first case.

If the destination host belongs to the same IP subnet, the host takes the following
steps.

The host finds the MAC address of the destination host. To find the MAC address of
the destination host, it uses the ARP protocol.

Before we move to the next step, let’s briefly discuss how ARP protocol works.

If a host knows the IP address of the destination host but does not know the MAC
address of the destination host, it sends an ARP message to the broadcast address
of the local network. This ARP message contains the IP address of the destination
host. A broadcast address belongs to all hosts of the LAN network. All hosts receive
the ARP message and examine the message to find out whether the message is
intended for them. When the destination host finds its IP address in the ARP
message, it sends a reply message to the broadcast address. The reply message
contains the MAC address of the destination host. Since the destination host sends
the reply message to the broadcast address, all hosts of the LAN network receive
the reply message. From the reply message, the first host learns the MAC address
of the destination host.

The host encapsulates the IP packet with the MAC address of the destination host in
a data-link frame and sends the frame to the destination host. The destination host
receives the frame and checks the frame condition.

If the frame contains no error, the destination host de-encapsulates it to extract the
IP packet.
Since the IP packet belongs to the destination host, the IP protocol running on the
destination host processes the IP packet and transfers the packet's data to the
corresponding application for further processing.

If the destination host belongs to a different IP subnet, the host takes the following
steps.

The host finds the MAC address of the default gateway. To find the MAC address of
the default gateway, it uses the ARP protocol.

The host encapsulates the IP packet with the MAC address of the destination host in
a data-link frame and sends the frame to the default gateway.

The default gateway router receives the frame and checks the frame condition. If the
frame contains no error, the gateway router de-encapsulates the frame and extracts
the IP packet.

The gateway router checks the destination address of the IP packet and makes a
routing decision. To make a routing decision, the router uses the routing table. A
routing table entry contains a network address and the name of the interface that is
connected to the network.

If the router finds no entry for the destination network, it discards the packet.

If the router finds an entry for the destination network, it transfers the packet to the
interface that is connected to the destination network.

If the interface is directly connected to the destination network, the interface

encapsulates the packet in a data-link frame and forwards the frame to the
destination network.

If the interface is connected to the router (next-hop) that knows how to reach the
destination network, the interface encapsulates the packet in a data-link frame and
forwards the frame to the next-hop router.

The next-hop router repeats the same process.

The next-hop router receives a frame, removes the packet from inside the frame,
decides where to forward the packet, puts the packet into another frame, and sends
the frame to the next-hop router.

The last router on the path forwards the frame to the destination network.

The destination host on the destination network receives the frame and checks the
condition of the frame. If the frame contains no error, it de-encapsulates the frame
and extracts the packet from the frame. The IP protocol running on the destination
host processes the IP packet. It extracts data from the packet and transfers it to the
corresponding application for further processing.

The following image shows how IP routing works.

To view the full resolution image, right-click the image and click the option 'Open
Image in New Tab'.

The entire process of IP routing is controlled by two types of protocols: routed

protocols and routing protocols. The following tutorial explains both types in detail.

Cisco Router Show Command Explained

with Examples
This tutorial explains basic show commands (such as show ip route, show ip
interfaces brief, show version, show flash, show running-config, show startup-config,
show controllers, etc.) in Cisco router with examples. Learn how to use show
commands in Cisco router to get specific information.

To explain basic router show commands, I will use packet tracer network simulator
software. You can use any network simulator software or can use a real Cisco router
to follow this guide. There is no difference in output as long as your selected
software contains the commands explained in this tutorial.

Create a practice lab as shown in following figure or download this pre-created

practice lab and load in packet tracer

Download practice topology for basic show commands

If require, you can download the latest as well as earlier version of Packet Tracer from here. Download
Packet Tracer

In this practice lab

Device / Interface Connected To

PC0 Router0's FastEthernet 0/0

Router0's FastEthernet 0/0 PC0

Router0's Serial 0/0/0 Router1's serial 0/0/0

Router1's Serial 0/0/0 Router0's serial 0/0/0

Device / Interface Connected To

Router1's FastEthernet 0/0 PC1

PC1 Router1's FastEthernet 0/0

 RIP Routing protocol is configured on both routers.

 Clock rate and bandwidth is assigned on Router0’s serial interface 0/0/0.

Above practice lab is only a recommendation to understand the show commands

more clearly, it’s not a requirement to follow this tutorial. You can follow this tutorial
in a single router or even without router.

Basic Cisco Router Show Commands

Access CLI prompt of router

Use enable command to enter in privilege exec mode. Cisco IOS supports unique
context sensitive help features. We can use this features to list all available
commands and parameters those are associated with show command.

Enter show command with ? ( Question mark ) to list all available commands
If prompt returns with parameters excluding <CR> that means it requires more
parameters to complete this command.
If prompt returns with <CR> only as option, that means router does not need any
additional parameters to complete this command. You can execute this command in
current condition.

Router#show interfaces
This command shows the status and configuration of interfaces. By default it will
display all interfaces. But you can limit it to particular interface. To view the detail of
specific interface you can use the following command.

Router#show interface [type slot_# port_#]

For example to view the detail of serial 0/0/0 interface on Router0 we will use
following command

Output of this command provides several details about interface including its status,
encapsulation, interface type, MTU, last input and output packet etc. First line of
output shows the status of interface. First up indicates the status of physical layer.
Second up refers the data link layer status.
Possible status of physical layer

 UP: - Interface is receiving physical layer signals.

 Down:- Interface is not receiving physical layer signals. This could be happen due to
following reasons.
o Cable is unplugged
o You are using wrong cable type.
o Attached device is turned off.
 Administratively down:- Interface is turned off by using shutdown command.

Possible status of data link layer

 UP:- interface is operational.

 Down:- interface is not operational. This could be due to following reasons:-
o Physical layer is down
o Incorrect encapsulation setting
o Incorrect clock rate or bandwidth setting
o Incorrect keepalives setting

Interface status Description

UP and UP Interface is operational

UP and Down Check data link layer for possible reasons given

Down and Down Check physical layer for possible reasons given

Administratively down and down Interface is disabled with shutdown command

 Second line shows the Hardware type and MAC address of interface.
 Third line shows the IP address of interface.
 MTU indicates the Ethernet frame size.
 BW parameter refers to bandwidth link

Router# show ip interface brief

This command provides a quick overview of all interfaces on the router including
their IP addresses and status.

Router#show controllers [type slot_# port_#]

This command is used to check the hardware statistic of interface including clock
rate and cable status such as cable is attached or not. One end of serial cable is
physically DTE, and other end is DCE. If cable is attached, it will display the type of
cable.
Router#show flash
This command will display the content of flash memory, used space and available
space. By default router stores IOS image file in flash. We can use this command to
check the available space in Flash memory while updating / restoring IOS files.

Router#show version
This command will display information about software version of running IOS. It also
provides information about configuration setting. It shows current configuration
register setting that is used to reset the password of router.

Router#show startup-config
Routers load configuration from NVRAM in startup. This command will display the
configuration stored in NVRAM.

Router#show running-config
Router keeps all running configuration in RAM. This command will display the
configuration currently running in RAM.
Router#show clock
This command displays current time on router.

Router#show hosts
This command displays names and addresses of the hosts on the network that you
can connect.

Router#show users
This command displays users currently connected to the router.

Router#show arp
This command displays ARP cache table. ARP table is used to resolve the hardware
MAC addresses.

Router#show protocols
This command shows the status of configured layer three protocols on the device.

Router#show history
Router keeps a history of used command. This command will list the used command
on that level.

Router#show ip route
Routers use routing table to take packet forward decision. This command displays
routing table.

Basic Routing Concepts and Protocols

Explained
This tutorial explains the basic concepts, features, functions, and types of routing
protocols. Learn different types of routing protocols and how they work.

Features of routing protocols

Routers use routing protocols for the following purposes.

 To discover all the available paths in the network.

 To learn how many paths exist between each source and destination.
 To select the fastest path if multiple paths exist between a source and the
destination.

Functions of routing protocols

The main functions of routing protocols are the following.

 Learn routing information from neighboring routers

 Advertise local routing information to neighboring routers
 Calculate the best route for each subnet of the network
 Provide a virtual map of all routes of the network
 Calculate the cost of each route and help the router choose the best and fastest
route
 Detect any change in the network and update all routers about that change

Types of routing protocols

There are three types of routing protocols: distance-vector, link-state, and hybrid.

Let's understand how each type of routing protocol works and how it differs from
others.

Distance-vector routing protocols

Routers running distance-vector routing protocols periodically broadcast routing and

reachability information from all active interfaces. They also receive the same
information from their neighbors on their enable interfaces.

Distance-vector protocols use timers to broadcast routing information. Once their

periodic timer expires, they broadcast their routing information from all enable
interfaces, no matter whether the routing information has changed since the previous
broadcast or not.

Calculating/selecting the best route

Distance-vector protocols use distance and direction to calculate and select the best
route for each subnet in the network. Distance is the number of routers that a packet
crosses to reach its destination.

Distance is measured in terms of hops. Each instance where a packet goes through
a router is called a hop. For example, if a packet crosses four routers to reach its
destination, the number of hops is 4. The route with the least number of hops is
selected as the best route.

The vector indicates the direction that a packet uses to reach its destination.

The following figure shows an example of a network running distance victor protocol.

In this network, the router R1 has three routes to reach the destination network.
These routes are the following.

1. The four-hop route (distance) through R2 (vector)

2. The two-hop route (distance) through R6 (vector)
3. The three-hop route (distance) through R7 (vector)

Since the second route has the lowest hop count, the router R1 uses this route to
forward all packets of the destination network.

Key points: -

 Distance-vector protocols do not use any mechanism to know who their neighbors
are.
  Distance-vector protocols learn about their neighbors by receiving their broadcasts.
 Distance-vector protocols do not perform any formal handshake or hello process with
neighbors before broadcasting routing information.
 Distance-vector protocols do not verify whether neighbors received routing updates
or not.
 Distance-vector protocols assume that if a neighbor misses an update, it will learn
about the change in the next broadcast update.
 RIPv1 and IGRP are examples of distance-vector routing protocols.

Link-state routing protocols

Unlike distance-vector routing protocols, the link-state routing protocols do not share
routing and reachability information with anyone. Routers running link-state protocols
share routing information only with neighbors. To discover neighbors, link-state
protocols use a special protocol known as the Hello protocol.

After discovering all neighbors, the link-state protocols create three separate tables.
One of these tables keeps track of directly attached neighbors, one determines the
topology of the entire internetwork, and one is used as the routing table.

From all available routes, to select the best route for each destination in the network,
the link-state protocols use an algorithm called the Shortest Path First (SPF)
algorithm.

OSPF is an example of link-state routing protocols.

Differences between distance-vector routing protocols and link-state routing

protocols
Unlike distance-vector routing protocols that broadcast the entire routing table
periodically whether there are any changes or not, link-state routing protocols do not
exchange routing information periodically. They exchange information only when
they detect any change in the network.

Distance-vector protocols use local broadcasts, which are processed by every router
on the same segment, while link-state protocols use multicasts which are processed
only by the routers running the link-state protocol.

Distance-vector protocols do not verify routing broadcasts. They don't care whether
the neighboring routers received them or not. Link-state protocols verify routing
updates. A destination router running link-state protocol responds to the source
router with an acknowledgment when it receives a routing update.

Hybrid routing protocols

Hybrid routing protocols are the combination of both distance-vector and link-state
protocols. Hybrid routing protocols are based on distance-vector routing protocols
but contain many of the features and functions of link-state routing protocols.

Hybrid routing protocols are built upon the basic principles of a distance-vector
protocol but act like a link-state routing protocol. Hybrid protocols use the Hello
protocol to discover neighbors and form neighbor relationships. Hybrid protocols also
send updates only when a change occurs.

Hybrid routing protocols reduce the CPU and memory overhead by functioning like a
distance-vector protocol when it comes to processing routing updates; but instead of
sending out periodic updates like a distance-vector protocol, hybrid routing protocols
send out incremental, reliable updates via multicast messages, providing a more
secure network environment.

RIPv2, EIGRP, and BGR are examples of hybrid routing protocols.

IP Route command Explained with

Examples
This tutorial explains how to use the 'ip route' command to create a static route on
the router. Learn the parameters, arguments, and options of the 'ip route' command.

The 'ip route' command is a global configuration command. This command defines
a static route for a specific destination network. To define a static route, this
command needs the following information.

 The destination network address

 Either the name of the local interface connected to the destination network or the IP
address of the next-hop router.
 Additional control options

We have already discussed the above information in the previous part of this tutorial.
In this part, we will learn how to specify the above information to the 'ip
route' command to create and add a static route to the routing table.

This tutorial is the third part of the tutorial "Static Routing Configuration,
Commands, and Concepts Explained". The other parts of this tutorial are the
following.

Static Routes and Static Routing Explained

Types of Static Routes Explained
Static Routing Configuration Guide with Examples

The 'ip route' command syntax

The 'ip route' command uses two syntaxes. It uses the first syntax to specify the
local interface to forward data packets to the destination network and the second
syntax to specify the IP address of the next-hop router that can send data packets to
the destination network.
If you specify the local interface, the router assumes the destination network is
directly connected to the local interface and forwards the destination network's data
packets to the destination network. If you specify the IP address of the next-hop
router, the router assumes the destination network is available on another router. In
this case, the router sends the destination network's data packets to the next-hop
router. A next-hop router is a router that knows how to reach the destination network.

To specify the name of the local interface, uses the following syntax.

Router(config)# ip route destination_network_# [subnet_mask]

interface_to_exit
[administrative_distance] [permanent]
To specify the IP address of the next-hop router, uses the following syntax.

Router(config)# ip route destination_network_# [subnet_mask]

ip_address_of_next_hop_neighbor
[administrative_distance] [permanent]
Let's understand both syntaxes.

ip route
This is the main command. This command defines a static route. To define a static
route, it needs the following parameters.

destination_network_#

This is the destination network address for which you are creating a static route.

subnet_mask

This is the subnet mask of the destination network. This is an optional parameter. If
you skip this parameter, the command uses the default subnet mask for the
destination network. The default subnet masks for class A, B, and C are 255.0.0.0,
255.255.0.0, and 255.255.255, respectively. For example, if the destination network
belongs to class B, the command will use the subnet mask 255.255.0.0.

interface_to_exit or ip_address_of_next_hop_neighbor
You have two options for specifying how to reach the destination network. You can
specify the name of the local interface or the IP address of the next-hop router. If you
specify the name of a local interface, the router uses the local interface to forward
the destination network's data packets. You should use this option when the
destination network is directly connected to the interface.

If you specify the IP address of the next-hop router, the router sends the destination
network's data packets to the next-hop router. You should use this option when the
destination network is connected via the next-hop router.

Let's understand the difference between both options.

You can connect multiple networks to the same interface of the router. If you connect
more than one networks to the same interface, the interface works as a multi-
access link. If the interface is connected to only one network, the interface works as
a point-to-point link.

On a multi-access link, you should always use the IP address of the next-hop. On a
point-to-point link, you can use any one option from both options.

If you use the name of a local interface, the router shows the same recommendation
on the console prompt and inserts the route as the connected route in the routing
table.
administrative_distance

Administrative distance is the trustworthiness of the route. If multiple routes for the
same destination are available, the router always choose the route with the lowest
administrative distance value.

You can use this option to create multiple static routes to the same destination
network. For example, if you have two routes for a destination network, and want to
use the first route as the primary route and the second route as the backup route,
you can set the administrative distance value of the second route to higher than the
first route. If you configure two static routes in this way, the router always selects the
first route to forward data packets to the destination network. If the first route fails,
the router automatically switches to the second route.
This option is optional. If you skip this option, the router automatically sets the
administrative distance value depending on the value of the previous parameter. If
you specified the name of a local interface in the previous parameter, the router sets
the administrative distance value to 0. And if you specified the IP address of the
next-hop router, the router sets the administrative distance value to 1.

Permanent

This is also an optional option. If you specify this parameter, the router keeps the
route in the routing table even when the route fails. If you don't use this option, the
router automatically removes the route when the route fails.

Static Routing Configuration Guide with

Examples
This tutorial explains how to configure static routing on routers. Learn how to create
and manage static routes on routers through a packet tracer example.

Static routes are the routes you manually add to the router’s routing table. The
process of adding static routes to the routing table is known as static routing. Let’s
take a packet tracer example to understand how to use static routing to create and
add a static route to the routing table.

Setting up a practice lab

Create a packet tracer lab as shown in the following image or download the following
pre-created lab and load it on Packet Tracer.
Packet Tracer Lab with Initial IP Configuration

In this lab, each network has two routes to reach. We will configure one route as the
main route and another route as the backup route. If the link bandwidth of all routes
is the same, we use the route that has the least number of routers as the main route.
If the link bandwidth and the number of routers are the same, we can use any route
as the main route and another route as the backup route.

If we specify two routes for the same destination, the router automatically selects the
best route for the destination and adds the route to the routing table. If you manually
want to select a route that the router should add to the routing table, you have to set
the AD value of the route lower than other routes. For example, if you use the
following commands to create two static routes for network 30.0.0/8, the route will
place the first route to the routing table.

#ip route 30.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 20.0.0.2 10

#ip route 30.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 40.0.0.2 20
If the first route fails, the router automatically adds the second route to the routing
table.

Creating, adding, verifying static routes

Routers automatically learn their connected networks. We only need to add routes
for the networks that are not available on the router’s interfaces. For example,
network 10.0.0.0/8, 20.0.0.0/8 and 40.0.0.0/8 are directly connected to Router0.
Thus, we don’t need to configure routes for these networks. Network 30.0.0.0/8 and
network 50.0.0.0/8 are not available on Router0. We have to create and add routes
only for these networks.

The following table lists the connected networks of each router.

Router Available networks on local interfaces Networks available on oth

Router0 10.0.0.0/8, 20.0.0.0/8, 40.0.0.0/8 30.0.0.0/8, 50.0.0.0/8

Router1 20.0.0.0/8, 30.0.0.0/8, 50.0.0.0/8 10.0.0.0/8, 40.0.0.0/8

Router2 40.0.0.0/8, 50.0.0.0/8 10.0.0.0/8, 20.0.0.0/8, 30.

Let's create static routes on each router for networks that are not available on the
router.

Router0 requirements

 Create two routes for network 30.0.0.0/8 and configure the first route (via -Router1)
as the main route and the second route (via-Router2) as a backup route.
 Create two routes for the host 30.0.0.100/8 and configure the first route (via -
Router2) as the main route and the second route (via-Router1) as a backup route.
 Create two routes for network 50.0.0.0/8 and configure the first route (via -Router2)
as the main route and the second route (via-Router1) as a backup route.
 Verify the router adds only main routes to the routing table.

Router0 configuration
Access the CLI prompt of Router0 and run the following commands.

Router>enable
Router#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#ip route 30.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 20.0.0.2 10
Router(config)#ip route 30.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 40.0.0.2 20
Router(config)#ip route 30.0.0.100 255.255.255.255 40.0.0.2 10
Router(config)#ip route 30.0.0.100 255.255.255.255 20.0.0.2 20
Router(config)#ip route 50.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 40.0.0.2 10
Router(config)#ip route 50.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 20.0.0.2 20
Router(config)#exit
Router#show ip route static
30.0.0.0/8 is variably subnetted, 2 subnets, 2 masks
S 30.0.0.0/8 [10/0] via 20.0.0.2
S 30.0.0.100/32 [10/0] via 40.0.0.2
S 50.0.0.0/8 [10/0] via 40.0.0.2
Router#
Router1 requirements

 Create two routes for network 10.0.0.0/8 and configure the first route (via -Router0)
as the main route and the second route (via-Router1) as a backup route.
 Create two routes for network 40.0.0.0/8 and configure the first route (via -Router0)
as the main route and the second route (via-Router2) as a backup route.
 Verify the router adds only main routes to the routing table.

Router1 configuration
Router>enable
Router#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#ip route 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 20.0.0.1 10
Router(config)#ip route 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 50.0.0.1 20
Router(config)#ip route 40.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 20.0.0.1 10
Router(config)#ip route 40.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 50.0.0.1 20
Router(config)#exit
Router#show ip route static
S 10.0.0.0/8 [10/0] via 20.0.0.1
S 40.0.0.0/8 [10/0] via 20.0.0.1
Router#
Router2 requirements
Create static routes for network 10.0.0.0/8 and network 30.0.0.0/8 and verify the
router adds both routes to the routing table.

Router2 configuration
Router>enable
Router#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#ip route 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 40.0.0.1
Router(config)#ip route 30.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 50.0.0.2
Router(config)#exit
Router#show ip route static
S 10.0.0.0/8 [1/0] via 40.0.0.1
S 30.0.0.0/8 [1/0] via 50.0.0.2
Router#
Verifying static routing

On Router0, we configured two routes for network 30.0.0.0/8. These routes are via
Router1 and via Router2. We set the first route (via-Router1) as the main route and
the second route as the backup route. We can verify this configuration in two ways.

By sending ping requests to a PC of network 30.0.0.0/8 and tracing the path they
take to reach the network 30.0.0.0/8. For this, you can use 'tracert' command on a
PC of network 10.0.0.0/8. The 'tracert' command sends ping requests to the
destination host and tracks the path they take to reach the destination.

By listing the routing table entries on Router0. Since a router uses the routing table
to forward data packets, you can check the routing table to figure out the route the
router uses to forward data packets for each destination.

The following image shows the above testing.

We also configured a separate static host route for the host 30.0.0.100/8. The router
must use this route to forward data packets to the host 30.0.0.100/8. To verify this,
you can do the same testing for the host 30.0.0.100/8.
The following image shows this testing.

We also configured a backup route for network 30.0.0.0/8. The router must put the
backup route to the routing table and use it to forward data packets to network
30.0.0.0/8 when the main route fails. To verify this, we have to simulate the failure of
the main route.

To simulate the failure of the main route, you can delete the link between Router0
and Router1. After deleting the link, do the same testing again for the network
30.0.0.0/8.

The following link provides the configured packet tracer lab of the above example.

Packet Tracer Lab with Static Routing Configuration

Deleting a static route

To delete a static route, use the following steps.

 Use the 'show ip route static' command to print all static routes.
 Note down the route you want to delete.
 Use the 'no ip route' command to delete the route.
If you have a backup route, the backup route becomes the main route when you
delete the main route.

In our example, we have a backup route and a main route for the host 30.0.0.100/8.
The following image shows how to delete both routes.

RIP Tutorial – Basic operation of RIP

Protocol
This tutorial explains the differences between the RIPv1 and RIPv2 routing protocols.
Learn what RIP timers are and how they are used by the RIP protocol to perform its
basic operations.

There are two different versions of the RIP routing protocol: RIPv1 and RIPv2. RIPv1
is one of the first most popular IP routing protocols. It was widely used until the 90s.
RIPv1 is no longer used in modern networks.

RIPv2 was developed in the 90s as an enhancement of the RIPv1. To make RIP
more suitable for modern networks, in RIPv2 not only many functions of RIPv1 were
improved but many new features were also added.

To understand which functions were improved and which features were newly
added, in the following section, we will compare RIPv1 and RIPv2 routing protocols.

This tutorial is the third part of the article "How to configure RIP routing protocol explained
with features and functions of the RIP protocol ". The previous parts of this article are the
following.

How RIP Routing Protocol Works

This is the first part of the article. This part explains how the RIP routing protocol uses broadcast messages
to exchange network paths' information.

RIP Routing Information Protocol Explained

This is the second part of the article. This part explains the concept of distance-vector routing and how the
RIP routing protocol uses this concept.
Comparing RIPv1 and RIPv2 routing protocols

RIPv1 is a true distance-vector routing protocol. Although RIPv2 is based on RIPv1

and at heart it is also a distance-vector routing protocol, still, due to some added
features, RIPv2 is sometimes considered as a hybrid routing protocol.

To find and select a single best route for each IP subnet of the network, both
versions use the hops-count metric. The maximum hops count limit is set to 15 on
both versions.

RIPv1 uses broadcast messages to advertise routing updates. To advertise routing

updates, RIPv2 uses a multicast address 224.0.0.9. This enhancement saves a lot of
bandwidths of the network.

RIPv1 does not support trigger updates. RIPv2 supports trigger updates. It means,
when a change occurs, RIPv2 will immediately propagate this information to its
connected neighbors while RIPv1 will broadcast this information to its neighbors only
in the next scheduled broadcast message. Trigger updates speed up the
convergence process.

RIPv1 is a classful routing protocol while RIPv2 is a classless routing protocol. A

classful routing protocol does not support variable-length subnet masking (VLSM).
VLSM is a routing feature that allows us to use more than one subnet mask for a
given class network number. VLSM maximizes the efficiency of IP addressing design
as well as summarize routing information to create very large, scalable networks.

RIPv1 does not support any type of authentication while RIPv2 supports MD5
authentication. In RIPv2, we can restrict what routers we want to participate in.

RIPv1 and RIPv2 both use the split horizon, route poisoning, and various timers to
perform their basic operations. In the following section, we will understand RIP
timers while we will understand the split horizon and route poisoning in the next parts
of this tutorial.

RIP timers
RIP uses four different types of timers. These timers are: update timer, route invalid
timer, route flash timer, and hold-down timer.

The following images show an example of these timers.

Let's understand each timer in detail

Update timer: -

RIP uses this timer to set the interval between two continuous routing updates. The
default value of this timer is 30 seconds. After advertising a routing update, RIP waits
30 seconds before advertising the next routing update.

Route invalid timer: -

RIP learns new routes from the received routing update. After learning new routes,
when RIP adds them to the routing table, it also adds an invalid timer with each
route. RIP uses this timer to get rid of routes that become invalid in the future.
In upcoming routing updates, if RIP receives the same information on a route, it
resets the invalid timer of that route in the routing table. If RIP does not receive the
same information on a route in 180 seconds, it assumes that the route is no longer
available. When this happens, RIP sends an update to all its neighbors to indicate
that the route is invalid.

Route flush timer: -

RIP uses this timer to flush invalid routes from the routing table. The value of this
timer must be set higher than the value of the invalid timer. This gives the RIP
enough time to tell its neighbors about an invalid route before the invalid route is
removed from the routing table. The default value of this timer is 240 seconds.

Hold-down timer: -

RIP uses this timer to quickly identify invalid routes. When RIP receives a routing
update that contains information about an invalid route, the RIP immediately starts
the hold-down timer for that route in the routing table. The default value of the hold
timer is 180 seconds.

RIP stops and removes this timer from an invalid route only if it receives a routing
update that contains a better routing metric for the invalid route. If RIP does not
receive a better metric for the invalid route until the hold-down timer expires, RIP
advertises the invalid route to its neighbors till the flush timer expires. The invalid
route will be removed, once the flush timer is expired.

Both the root invalid-route timer and hold-down timer work similarly except how they
are triggered. An invalid-route timer of the route is triggered when RIP does not
receive a routing update for that route until 180 seconds. The hold-down timer of a
route is triggered when RIP receives a routing update that indicates that the route
has become invalid.

RIP - Routing Information Protocol

Explained
This tutorial explains the concept of distance-vector routing in detail. Learn what a
distance and a vector are and how they are used by the RIP routing protocol to learn
and advertise network paths.

In the distance-vector routing, routers learn the routing information from directly
connected neighbors, and these neighbors may have learned these networks from
other neighboring routers. Because of this, the distance-vector routing is also known
as the routing by rumor.
In the following section, we will not only understand the distance-vector routing
concept in detail through an example but will also understand how the RIP routing
protocol uses this concept to learn and select the best route for each subnet of the
network.

This tutorial is the second part of the article "How to configure RIP routing protocol
explained with features and functions of the RIP protocol ". The first part of this
article is the following.

How RIP Routing Protocol Works

This part explains how the RIP routing protocol uses broadcast messages to
exchange network paths' information.

Distance-vector routing and RIP routing protocol

RIP routing protocol uses the concept of distance-vector routing. Routers running
RIP protocol learn about the destination networks from neighboring routers through
broadcast messages. Routers running RIP protocol periodically broadcast the
configured networks from all ports. Listing routers update their routing tables from
these broadcasts.

Let's understand this concept through an example.

The following figure illustrates a simple network running the RIP routing protocol.

When we start this network, the routers only know the IP subnets that are available
on their local interfaces.

Router R1 knows the networks 10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.1.252/30 are available on

interfaces F0/1 and S0/0, respectively.
Router R2 knows the networks 192.168.1.252/30 and 192.168.1.248/30 are
available on interfaces S0/0 and S0/1, respectively.

Router R3 knows the networks 192.168.1.248/30 and 20.0.0.0/8 are available on

interfaces S0/0 and F0/1, respectively.

After the booting process, routers share configured routes in the network through the
broadcasts. These broadcasts are known as routing updates.

The following image shows this process.

Routers also receive broadcasts (routing updates) on their active interfaces. Routers
compare their routing tables with routing updates to learn about new IP subnets.

Router R1 receives one broadcast from the router R2 and learns one new IP subnet
192.168.1.248/30.

Router R2 receives two broadcasts: one from the router R1 and another from the
router R2. From these broadcasts, the router R2 learns two new IP subnets:
10.0.0.0/8 and 20.0.0.0/8.

Router R3 receives one broadcast from the router R2 and learns one new IP subnet
192.168.1.252/30.

Routers add newly learned IP subnets with their respective ports in routing tables.

The following image shows routers with their updated routing tables.
After 30 seconds (default time interval between two routing updates) all routers
broadcast their routing tables again with updated information.

 R1 broadcast the IP subnets: 10.0.0.0/8, 192.168.1.248/30 and 192.168.1.252/30.

 R2 broadcast the IP subnets: 10.0.0.0/8, 20.0.0.0/8, 192.168.1.248/30 and
192.168.1.252/30.
 R3 broadcast the IP subnets: 20.0.0.0/8, 192.168.1.248/30 and 192.168.1.252/30.

Routers also learn from the received broadcasts.

 R1 learns about the network 20.0.0.0/8 from R2’s broadcast.

 R2 learns nothing new from R1’s and R2’s broadcasts.
 R3 learns about the network 10.0.0.0/8 from R2’s broadcast.

The following image shows routing tables of all routers after these routing updates.
After 30 seconds, routers broadcast new routing information again. But this time, all
routers know all routes of the network, so they will update nothing. This stage is
known as convergence. The convergence is a term that refers to the time taken by
all routers in understanding the current topology of the network.

The RIP protocol broadcasts successive routing updates even after achieving the
phase of convergence. This helps the router to detect and adapt to any new changes
that occur after the convergence.

Selecting/calculating the best route

Distance-vector routing protocols use distance (accumulated metric value)
and direction (vector) to find and select the single best route for each IP subnet of
the network. When a router running a distance-vector routing protocol learns about
network routes, it learns three important facts related to each route: the destination
subnet, the distance (routing protocol metric), and the vector (link and next-hop
router to use as part of that route).

RIP uses distance to select the best route for each destination subnet. Distance is
calculated in the term of hops. Each instance where a packet goes through a router
is called a hop, and the route with the least number of hops to the destination subnet
is selected as the best route for that destination subnet. The term vector indicates
the direction to the destination subnet. RIP uses the interface of the next-hop router
as the vector.

Let's understand this concept through an example.

The following figure shows an example of a network running the RIP routing
protocol.
In this network, the router A has three routes to the destination network. These
routes are the following.

1. The four-hops route (distance) through router B (vector)

2. The one-hop route (distance) through router F (vector)
3. The two-hops route (distance) through router G (vector)

Since the second route has the lowest hop count, router A uses this route to forward
all packets of the destination network.

Key points: -

 Distance-vector protocols do not perform any mechanism to know who their

neighbors are.
 Distance-vector protocols learn about their neighbors by receiving their broadcasts.
 Distance-vector protocols do not perform any formal handshake or hello process with
neighbors before broadcasting routing information.
 Distance-vector protocols do not verify whether neighbors received routing updates
or not.
 Distance-vector protocols assume that if a neighbor misses an update, it will learn
about the change in the next broadcast update.
 RIP is a distance-vector routing protocol.
 RIP routing protocol uses local broadcasts to share routing information.
 RIP broadcasts routing updates every 30 seconds, regardless something in the
network has changed or not. Once 30 seconds expires, routers running RIP protocol
will broadcast their routing information to any devices connected to their interfaces.
 Before sending routing updates, a router adds an initiating metric to every route
which it has and increments the metric of incoming routes in advertisements so the
listing routers can learn how far destination network is located.
  When sending a broadcast, RIP does not care who will listen to this broadcast and
who will not.
 After sending the broadcast, RIP does not care whether neighbors received this
broadcast or not.
 When a router receives routing updates, it compares them with the routes that it
already has in its routing table.
 If the update has information about a route that is not available in its routing table, the
router will consider that route as a new route.
 The router will add all new routes in the routing table before updating existing routes.
 If the update has better information for any existing route, the router will replace the
old entry with new route information.
 If the update has worse information for any existing route, the router will ignore it.
 If the update has the same information about any existing route, the router will reset
the timer for that route in the entry.

RIP Protocol configuration Guide with

Examples
This tutorial explains how to configure RIP Routing protocol step by step in detail.
RIP is the simplest and one of the oldest Distance Vector routing protocol. Learn
how to enable and configure RIP routing in Cisco router with practical example in
packet tracer.

To explain RIP Routing, I will use packet tracer network simulator software. You can
use any network simulator software or can use a real Cisco switch to follow this
guide. There is no difference in output as long as your selected software contains the
commands explained in this tutorial.

Create a practice lab as shown in following figure or download this pre-created

practice lab and load in packet tracer

Download RIP Practice Topology

If require, you can download the latest as well as earlier version of Packet Tracer from here. Download
Packet Tracer

Initial IP configuration

Device Interface IP Configuration

PC0 Fast Ethernet 10.0.0.2/8

Router0 Fa0/1 10.0.0.1/8

Router0 S0/0/1 192.168.1.254/30

Router0 S0/0/0 192.168.1.249/30

Router1 S0/0/0 192.168.1.250/30

Router1 S0/0/1 192.168.1.246/30

Router2 S0/0/0 192.168.1.245/30

Router2 S0/0/1 192.168.1.253/30

Router2 Fa0/1 20.0.0.1/30

PC1 Fast Ethernet 20.0.0.2/30

Assign IP address to PCs

Double click PC0 and click Desktop menu item and click IP Configuration. Assign
IP address 10.0.0.2/8 to PC0.
Repeat same process for PC1 and assign IP address 20.0.0.2/8.

Assign IP address to interfaces of routers

Double click Router0 and click CLI and press Enter key to access the command
prompt of Router0.

Three interfaces FastEthernet0/0, Serial0/0/0 and Serial0/0/1 of Router0 are used in

this topology. By default interfaces on router are remain administratively down during
the start up.

We need to configure IP address and other parameters on interfaces before we

could actually use them for routing. Interface mode is used to assign IP address and
other parameters. Interface mode can be accessed from global configuration mode.
Following commands are used to access the global configuration mode.

Router>enable
Router#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#
From global configuration mode we can enter in interface mode. From there we can
configure the interface. Following commands will assign IP address on
FastEthernet0/0.

Router(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/0

Router(config-if)#ip address 10.0.0.1 255.0.0.0
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Router(config)#
interface fastEthernet 0/0 command is used to enter in interface mode.

ip address 10.0.0.1 255.0.0.0 command will assign IP address to interface.

no shutdown command will bring the interface up.

exit command is used to return in global configuration mode.

Serial interface needs two additional parameters clock rate and bandwidth. Every
serial cable has two ends DTE and DCE. These parameters are always configured
at DCE end.

We can use show controllers interface command from privilege mode to check the
cable’s end.

Router#show controllers serial 0/0/0

Interface Serial0/0/0
Hardware is PowerQUICC MPC860
DCE V.35, clock rate 2000000
[Output omitted]
Fourth line of output confirms that DCE end of serial cable is attached. If you see
DTE here instead of DCE skip these parameters.

Now we have necessary information let’s assign IP address to serial interface.

Router#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#interface serial 0/0/0
Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.249 255.255.255.252
Router(config-if)#clock rate 64000
Router(config-if)#bandwidth 64
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Router(config)#interface serial 0/0/1
Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.254 255.255.255.252
Router(config-if)#clock rate 64000
Router(config-if)#bandwidth 64
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Router(config)#
Router#configure terminal Command is used to enter in global configuration mode.
Router(config)#interface serial 0/0/0 Command is used to enter in interface mode.

Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.249 255.255.255.252 Command assigns

IP address to interface. For serial link we usually use IP address from /30 subnet.

Router(config-if)#clock rate 64000 And Router(config-if)#bandwidth 64 In real

life environment these parameters control the data flow between serial links and
need to be set at service providers end. In lab environment we need not to worry
about these values. We can use these values.

Router(config-if)#no shutdown Command brings interface up.

Router(config-if)#exit Command is used to return in global configuration mode.

We will use same commands to assign IP addresses on interfaces of remaining

routers. We need to provided clock rate and bandwidth only on DCE side of serial
interface. Following command will assign IP addresses on interface of Router1.

Router1
Router>enable
Router#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#interface serial 0/0/0
Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.250 255.255.255.252
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Router(config)#interface serial 0/0/1
Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.246 255.255.255.252
Router(config-if)#clock rate 64000
Router(config-if)#bandwidth 64
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Use same commands to assign IP addresses on interfaces of Router2.

Router2
Router>enable
Router#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/0
Router(config-if)#ip address 20.0.0.1 255.0.0.0
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Router(config)#interface serial 0/0/0
Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.245 255.255.255.252
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Router(config)#interface serial 0/0/1
Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.253 255.255.255.252
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Great job we have finished our half journey.To be on same page we have uploaded
our practice topology with IP configuration. You can download it form here.

Download RIP Practice Topology with IP Configuration

Now routers have information about the networks that they have on their own
interfaces. Routers will not exchange this information between them on their own.
We need to implement RIP routing protocol that will insist them to share this
information.

Configure RIP routing protocol

Configuration of RIP protocol is much easier than you think. It requires only two
steps to configure the RIP routing.

 Enable RIP routing protocol from global configuration mode.

 Tell RIP routing protocol which networks you want to advertise.

Let’s configure it in Router0

Router0
Router0(config)#router rip
Router0(config-router)# network 10.0.0.0
Router0(config-router)# network 192.168.1.252
Router0(config-router)# network 192.168.1.248
router rip command tell router to enable the RIP routing protocol.

network command allows us to specify the networks which we want to advertise.

We only need to specify the networks which are directly connected with the router.

That’s all we need to configure the RIP. Follow same steps on remaining routers.

Router1
Router1(config)#router rip
Router1(config-router)# network 192.168.1.244
Router1(config-router)# network 192.168.1.248
Router2
Router2(config)#router rip
Router2(config-router)# network 20.0.0.0
Router2(config-router)# network 192.168.1.252
Router2(config-router)# network 192.168.1.244
That’s it. Our network is ready to take the advantage of RIP routing. To verify the
setup we will use ping command. ping command is used to test the connectivity
between two devices.

Access the command prompt of PC1 and use ping command to test the connectivity
from PC0.
Good going we have successfully implemented RIP routing in our network. For cross
check we have uploaded a configured topology on our server. You can download
and use that if not getting same output.

Download RIP Routing practice topology

RIP protocol automatically manage all routes for us. If one route goes down, it
automatically switches to another available. To explain this process more clearly we
have added one more route in our network.
Currently there are two routes between PC0 and PC1.

Route 1
PC0 [Source / destination – 10.0.0.2] <==> Router0 [FastEthernet0/1 – 10.0.0.1]
<==> Router0 [Serial0/0/1 – 192.168.1.254] <==> Router2 [Serial 0/0/1 –
192.168.1.253] <==> Router2 [FastEthernet0/0 – 20.0.0.1] <==> PC1 [Destination
/source – 20.0.0.2]

Route 2
PC0 [Source / destination – 10.0.0.2] <==> Router0 [FastEthernet0/1 – 10.0.0.1]
<==> Router0 [Serial0/0/0 – 192.168.1.249] <==> Router1 [Serial 0/0/0 –
192.168.1.250] <==> Router1 [Serial 0/0/1 – 192.168.1.246] <==> Router2 [Serial
0/0/0 – 192.168.1.245] <==> Router2 [FastEthernet0/0 – 20.0.0.1] <==> PC1
[Destination /source – 20.0.0.2]

By default RIP will use the route that has low hops counts between source and
destination. In our network route1 has low hops counts, so it will be selected. We can
use tracert command to verify it.

Now suppose route1 is down. We can simulate this situation by removing the cable
attached between Router0 [s0/0/1] and Router2 [s0/0/1].
Okay our primary route went down. What will be happen now?

So far we are running RIP routing protocol and have another route to destination,
there is no need to worry. RIP will automatically reroute the traffic.
Use tracert command again to see the magic of dynamic routing.

Command Description

Router(config)#router rip Enable RIP routing protocol

Router(config-router)#network a.b.c.d Add a.b.c.d network in RIP routing advertisement

Router(config-router)#no network a.b.c.d Remove a.b.c.d network from RIP routing advertisement
Router(config-router)#version 1 Enable RIP routing protocol version one ( default)

Router(config-router)#version 2 Enable RIP routing protocol version two

Router(config-router)#no auto-summary By default RIPv2 automatically summarize networks in their default classfu
This command will turn it off.

Router(config-router)#passive-interface RIP will not broadcast routing update from this interface
s0/0/0

Router(config-router)#no ip split-horizon Disable split horizon ( Enable by default )

Router(config-router)#ip split-horizon Enable spilt horizon

Router(config-router)#timers basic 30 90 Allow us to set RIP timer in seconds. 30 (routing update), 90 (invalid timer)
180 270 360 timer), 270 (Flush timer), 360 (sleep timer)

Router(config)#no router rip Disable RIP routing protocol

Router#debug ip rip Used for troubleshooting. Allow us to view all RIP related activity in real tim

Router#show ip rip database Display RIP database including routes

RIP Routing protocol configuration commands summary

EIGRP Tutorial – Basic concept explained

This tutorial explains EIGRP terminology and fundamentals. Learn the basic
concepts and operations of the EIGRP routing protocol.

EIGRP is a Cisco propriety routing protocol. It dynamically discovers, adds, and

manages routes on the router. It works in three steps. These steps are the following.

Step1
An EIGRP router joins the network and sends Hello messages to discover potential
neighboring EIGRP routers. EIGRP neighboring routers reply to Hello messages.
Hello messages and reply messages contain the required parameters to become a
neighbor. The EIGRP router and EIGRP neighboring routers check parameters to
determine which routers should become neighbors. Neighbors that pass all
parameters build a neighbor relationship.

Step2
When building a neighbor relationship, EIGRP routers exchange full topology
updates. After this, they only share partial updates as needed based on changes to
the network topology. EIGRP routers stores topology information into the EIGRP
topology table.

Step3
An EIGRP router chooses the lowest-metric route to reach each subnet from the
EIGRP topology table and places the route with the metric into the routing table. The
router uses the routing table to forward packets.

EIGRP Terminology
EIGRP is a complex protocol. It uses several terms to refer to its components and
functions. Let’s discuss these terms and their meanings.

EIGRP Neighbor
From an EIGRP router's perspective, an EIGRP neighbor is another EIGRP running
router that is connected to the same subnet and ready to share routing information
with the first router.

Two EIGRP running routers become neighbors only if the following information
matches.

 If authentication is configured, both routers must use the same type of authentication
and the same authentication key.
 The AS (Autonomous System) number must be the same on both routers.
 The interfaces that exchange EIGRP Hello messages must belong to the same IP
subnet.
 The K values must match on both routers.

AS (Autonomous System) number

Administrators use AS numbers to create groups of routers. Routers share routing

information within the group. An AS is a single network or a group of networks in
which all routers share routing information. If two routers belong to two different AS,
they do not share routing information.
Hello packets/messages

EIGRP uses Hello packets to discover potential EIGRP neighbors and maintain the
EIGRP neighbors. EIGRP uses the multicast address 224.0.0.10 for the destination
in the hello packets.

Hello timer
By default, EIGRP generates hello packets every 5 seconds. This time interval is
known as the hello timer. If required, you can adjust this timer.

Hold timer
The hold timer is the amount of time a router tells others to waits before they can
declare it dead. Once a neighbor is declared dead, EIGRP removes it from the
neighbor table and recalculates all routes that depend on it. The default value of this
timer is three times (5 * 3 = 15 seconds) of the hello timer. You can also adjust this
value.

EIGRP metric
EIGRP uses a composite metric to calculate the best route. A composite metric is a
metric that uses more than one component and uses the math equation to calculate
the result. EIGRP uses five components in the composite metric. These components
are bandwidth, delay, load, reliability, and MTU.

K-values
K-values are the placeholder for components used in the metric calculation formula.
You can use K-values to control the components of the EIGRP metric calculation
formula. By default, EIGRP uses only bandwidth and delay in the formula. If you
want to add another component to the formula, you have to enable its K-value. In
simple words, K-values are used to enable or disable the different metric
components used in the metric calculation formula.

Update message
A router uses an update message to send its topology to another router. The router
uses this message when it builds a neighbor relationship with another router.

Query message
A router uses a query message to ask a neighboring router to validate routing
information.

Reply message
A router uses a reply message to respond to a query message.

Neighbor table
EIGRP uses the neighbor table to store a list of the EIGPR neighbors. EIGRP uses
a separate neighbor table for each routed protocol.

Topology table
EIGRP uses the topology table to store a list of all destinations and paths it learned.
It uses a separate topology table for each routed protocol.
Successor
A successor route is the best path to reach a destination within the topology table. If
there is only one path to reach a destination, EIGRP selects the available path as
successor. If there is more than one path to reach a destination, EIGRP selects the
path that has the lowest metric as a successor.

Feasible successor
A feasible successor is the best backup path to reach a destination within the
topology table. If there are two paths to reach a destination, the path with the lower
metric will be selected as a successor and the path with the higher metric will be
selected as a feasible successor.

Routing table
EIGRP places all successor paths into the routing table. A router uses the routing
table to make forwarding decisions.

Advertised distance (AD) / Reported distance (RD)

This is the metric of a subnet, as reported or advertised by a neighbor. The neighbor
router uses the same metric in the routing table and the local router keeps this metric
with the path in the topology table.

Feasible Distance (FD)

This is the metric of a subnet as calculated by the local router. The local router first
calculates its metric then adds the result to the advertised distance to calculate
the feasible distance of a subnet.

Reliable Transport Protocol (RTP)

EIGRP uses RTP to communicate with other EIGRP running routers. RTP is a Cisco
proprietary protocol. Cisco developed this protocol for reliable communication
between EIGRP routers. This protocol uses both unicast and multicast to provide
reliable communication.
EIGRP Neighborship Requirements and
Conditions
This tutorial explains how EIGRP speaking routers build and maintain a
neighborship. Learn EIGRP neighborship requirements, conditions, and
configuration values.

EIGRP routers share routing information only with neighbors. To build a

neighborship, they use two configuration values. These values are AS
number and K-values. Since the neighborship between two EIGRP routers depends
on these configuration values, these configuration values are also known as EIGRP
neighborship requirements.

Let's understand the meaning of these configuration values.

AS number

EIGRP routers use the concept of AS number to create a group of routers that can
share routing information. Routers share routing information only within the group.
For example, the following image shows two groups of routers. The AS number of
the first group is 20 and the AS number of the second group is 30. Routers of the
first group do not share routing information with the routers of the second group.

Key points: -

 An AS is a group of networks running under single administrative control.

 ASs are used to break a large network into smaller networks.
  An AS creates a boundary for routing protocol which allows us to control how far
routing information should be propagated.
 An AS allows us to filter the routing information before sharing it with other AS
systems.
 The AS feature enhances the security and scalability of the network.
 The AS concept was mainly developed for large networks.
 Routing protocols that were developed for small networks such as RIP do not
understand the concept of AS systems.
 Cisco developed EIGRP for all types of networks. EIGRP understands and uses the
concepts of AS.
 EIGRP routers that belong to different ASs don't become neighbors therefore they
don't share any routing information.

K-values

EIGRP routers use a composite metric to calculate the cost of routes. A composite
metric includes multiple components in the calculation formula. K-values are the
placeholder of these components. K-values allow an administrator to control the
components used in the metric calculation formula. To become neighbors, two
routers must use the same components in the metric calculation formula. If they use
different components in the metric calculation formula, the result of the calculation
will be different for the same path.

To learn what K-values are and how EIGRP uses them in the metric calculation
formula, you can check the following tutorial.

EIGRP Metric and K-Values Explained

Building an EIGRP neighborship

As mentioned earlier, EIGRP routers use two configuration values to form a
neighborship. To share these values, they use Hello Packets. A Hello Packet is a
special packet that contains the configuration that EIGRP routers use for various
purposes.

When an EIGRP router joins a network, it sends Hello Packets out from all enabled
interfaces. If an EIGRP router is connected to the other end of the enabled device, it
receives the Hello Packet.
The second router checks the configuration values in the Hello Packet. If the AS
number and K-values in the packet match the router's AS number and K-values, the
router adds the first router into the Neighbor Table.

After adding the first router to the Neighbor Table, the second router responds with
an update message. The update message contains all routing information the
second router has.

The first router responds with an ACK message. This ACK message confirms the
second router that the first router received the update message.
After sending the confirmation message, the first router sends an update message to
the second router. This update message contains all routing information the first
router has.

The second router responds with an ACK message. This ACK message confirms the
first router that the second router received the update message.
At this point, both routers have converged. After this point, they do not share a full
update. If they detect any change in the routing information, they share it through
partial updates.

Maintaining an EIGRP neighborship

EIGRP uses Hello Packets to discover new EIGRP neighbors and maintain
neighborship with active neighbors. EIGRP stores information about neighbors in the
Neighbor Table.

When an EIGRP router forms a neighborship with another EIGRP router, it creates
an entry for that router in the Neighbor Table. In simple words, the Neighbor Table
contains information about all known and active neighbors.

When a router adds an entry for a neighbor to the Neighbor Table, it also associates
a timer with the entry. This timer is called the hold timer. The router uses the hold
timer to maintain active neighbors in the Neighbor Table. The hold time is the
amount of time a router considers a neighbor is up without receiving a Hello Packet
from the particular neighbor. The default hold time is 3 times of the default hello
interval. The default hello interval is 5 seconds.

If the router does not receive a Hello Packet from a neighbor before the expiration of
the hold time interval, the router declares the neighbor dead. After declaring the
neighbor dead, the router ends the neighborship and deletes all entries associated
with the neighbor.
Passive interface

EIGRP does not send Hello Packets out from a passive interface. To turn an
interface passive, you can use the passive-interface command. Once you turned an
interface passive, EIGRP will never send Hello Packets out from it. You can use this
command to exclude an interface from all EIGRP operations.

Adjacency

EIGRP uses the term Adjacency to refer to the neighborship. In the log, it uses the
term New Adjacency to refer to a new neighborship. The term New
Adjacency indicates a new neighbor is found and the neighborship with the
neighbor has been established.

Convergency

Convergency is a state that indicates two EIGRP routers have learned all routing
information from each other.

Full update

A full update contains all routing information the source router has and wants to
share with another router. To send a full update, EIGRP uses an update message.
Partial update

A partial update contains only the recent change in topology or a link. EIGRP
uses Query and Reply messages to learn and share partial updates.

To learn more about EIGRP message types, you can check the following tutorial.

EIGRP Packet Types

EIGRP Metric K Values Explained with

Examples
This tutorial explains what K Values (K1– Bandwidth, K2-Load, K3-Delay, K4-
Reliability, and K5-MTU) are and how EIGRP uses them in the composite metric
calculation formula.

EIGRP routing protocol calculates the cost of each route. This feature helps EIGRP
in selecting the best route for each destination. To calculate the cost of a route,
EIGRP uses a composite metric calculation formula. The formula can use five
components in the calculation. These components are Bandwidth, Delay, Load,
Reliability, and MTU.

By default, the formula uses only Bandwidth and Delay. If you want to include the
remaining components in the formula, you have to enable them. In simple words, the
formula uses only the enabled components in the calculation and by default, only the
Bandwidth and Delay are enabled.

To enable or disable components, the formula uses K-values. K-values are the
placeholder or influencer in the formula. When you enable or disable a K-value, the
formula adds or removes the component associated with the K-value in the formula.

The following table lists all K-values and their associated components.

K-Value Component Description

K1 Bandwidth Lowest bandwidth of the route

K2 Load Worst load on the route based on the packet rate

K3 Delay Cumulative interface delay of the route

K4 Reliability Worst reliability of the route

K5 MTU Smallest MTU in the route [Not used in route calculation]

Bandwidth (K1)

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred over a link within a given
amount of time. It is a static value. It changes only when you make some physical
(layer1) changes in the route such as changing a cable or upgrading a link' type. To
know more about the bandwidth, you can check the following tutorial.

Bandwidth Explained through examples

EIGRP picks the lowest bandwidth from all outing going interfaces of the route. Let's
take an example. The following image shows a network. In this network, Router0 has
two routes: Route1 and Route2 to reach Router5.

EIGRP uses Update messages to share routing information. An EIGRP message

includes the value of all metric components. From EIGRP update messages, all
EIGRP routers can learn the value of all components for each subnet.

From EIGRP update messages, Router0 can learn the bandwidth of each link on a
route. The bandwidths of exit interfaces on Route1 are 72Kbps, 28Kbps, and
28Kbps. EIGRP will pick 28Kbps to calculate the cost of Route1. The bandwidths of
the exit interfaces on Route2 are 56Kbps, 56Kbps, and 64Kbps. EIGRP will pick
56Kbps to calculate the cost of Route2.

You may think, why does EIGRP pick the lowest bandwidth instead of the highest
bandwidth?

If EIGRP picks the maximum bandwidth of the route, it will get the equivalent or
lower bandwidth throughout the route. But if it picks the minimum bandwidth of the
route, it will get equivalent or higher bandwidth throughout the route. Picking the
lowest bandwidth is the guarantee of equivalent or higher bandwidth throughout the
route.

Load (K2)

Load is the volume of traffic passing through the interface in comparison to the
maximum capacity. It is expressed on a scale of 255 where 1 represents that an
interface is empty and 255 represents that an interface is fully utilized. It is a dynamic
value that changes frequently. It is based on the packet rate and bandwidth of the
interface.

Since data flows from both directions, the router maintains two separate load
counters: -

 Txload for the outgoing traffic

 Rxload for the incoming traffic

If K2 is enabled, the maximum Txload value will be used in the composite metric
calculation formula.

Delay (k3)

Delay is the time taken by a packet in crossing the interface. It is measured in

fractions of a second and is expressed as tens of microseconds. It is a static value.
You can configure this value by using the 'delay' command.

EIGRP uses total delay in the metric calculation formula. Total delay is the sum of
the delay received from the neighboring router and the delay configured on the
interface. For example, if EIGRP receives a delay value of 1000 from the
neighboring router and the value of delay is configured 2000 on the local interface,
then the total delay will be 3000 (1000 + 2000).

To view the configured delay on an interface, you can use the 'show
interface' command. The output of the 'show interface' command displays the
value of all components used in the EIGRP metric calculation formula.

The following image shows an example output of the 'show interface' command.
Reliability (K4)

Reliability is a dynamic value. It compares all successfully received frames against

all received frames. 100% reliability indicates that all received frames are good. If the
reliability is less than 100%, it indicates that some frames have been received as
corrupt.

Reliability is expressed on a scale of 0 to 255. 255 expresses 100% reliability

while 0 represents 0% reliability. If K4 is enabled in the metric calculation formula, it
will use the minimum reliability.

MTU (K5)

MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit. It is advertised with the routing update
but does not actively participate in the metric calculation. EIGRP uses it when the
number of similar cost paths to the same destination exceeds the number of allowed
paths. For example, the maximum allowed paths for the load balancing is 5, and the
metric counts 6 identical cost paths to the same destination. In this case, EIGRP
ignores the path that has the lowest MTU.

EIGRP supports the load balancing feature. The load balancing feature allows a
routing protocol to use more than one path for the same destination. EIGRP can use
a maximum of 32 paths for the same destination. By default, it uses only 4 paths for
a single destination. You can configure the number of allowed paths by
the "maximum-paths" command.

EIGRP Metric Calculation Formula

EIGRP uses five components in the metric calculation formula. If all five components
are enabled, it uses the following formula to produce a single 32 bits metric.
As mentioned earlier, by default Load, Reliability, and MTU are disabled. If a
component is disabled, EIGRP does not use its value in the formula. If we exclude
the disabled components, the above-listed formula changes into the following
formula.

Cisco uses following the configuration values for Bandwidth and Delay.

Bandwidth = 107/ least bandwidth of the route [Lowest bandwidth from all
interfaces between source and destination.]

Delay = cumulative delay of the route [Sum of all outgoing interfaces' delay.]

Let's take an example to understand how this formula works.

The following image shows an example EIGRP network created on Packet Tracer.
You can download this network topology from the following link.

Packet Tracer Lab for EIGRP metric calculation formula

Run 'show ip route eigrp' command on Router0 to view all routes in the routing
table added by EIGRP. The following image shows the output of this command.
As we can in the above output, there are four routes added by EIGRP. The
destination subnet of the first route is 30.0.0.0/8. The destination subnet of the
second route is 40.0.0.0/8. The destination subnet of the third route and fourth route
is 50.0.0.0/8. Since the third and fourth routes have the same metric, they both are
added for the load balancing. The value after the forward-slash in the square bracket
is the metric of the route. For example, the metric of the first route (30.0.0.0/8) is
2681856.

Let's understand how the metric is calculated for each route.

EIGRP metric calculation example 1

The destination subnet of the first route (30.0.0.0/8) is available between Router1
and Router2. There are two exit points (interfaces) between the source and the
destination. These exit points are Router0's S0/0/0 and Router1's S0/0/1.

Since we didn't change the default values of the bandwidth and delay on both
interfaces, EIGRP will use the default values in the formula. Default bandwidth and
delay of a serial interface are 1544Kbps and 2000, respectively.

To view the value of all metric components, you can use the 'show
interface' command.
The formula uses the least bandwidth from all interfaces between the source and the
destination. Since both interfaces have equal bandwidth, the least bandwidth is
1544Kbps.

The formula uses the sum of delay configured on all interfaces between the source
and the destination. The sum of delay configured on both interfaces
is 4000(2000+2000).

The output of the "show interface" command shows the delay in tens of
microseconds. Because of this, the delay is shown as 20000 (2000x10 = 20000) in
the above output.

As we know, unless we enable Load, Reliability, and MTU, EIGRP uses the following
formula.

For the above formula, we only need the least bandwidth and cumulative delay. The
least bandwidth and cumulative delay of the first route are 1544Kbps and 4000,
respectively. Let's put both values in the formula.

Metric = ((10000000/1544) +4000)*256

Metric = ((6476.6839) +4000)*256
If the result of an operation is in decimal, the formula rounded it back to the nearest
integer before performing the rest of the equation. Because of this, the value
6476.6839 will be rounded back to 6476.

Metric = ((6476) +4000)*256

Metric = (10476)*256
Metric = 10476*256
Metric = 2681856
Thus, the cost of the first route (30.0.0.0/8) is 2681856.

EIGRP metric calculation example 2

Let's calculate the cost of the second route (40.0.0.0/8).

This route has two exit points (interfaces) till the destination subnet. Both exit
interfaces have default bandwidth and delay. Because of this, the least bandwidth
and cumulative delay will be 1544Kbps and 4000, respectively.

Let's put these values in the equation.

Metric = ((10000000/1544)+4000)*256
Metric = ((6476.6839) +4000)*256
Metric = (6476 + 4000) * 256
Metric = 10476 * 256
Metric = 2681856
Thus, the cost of the second route (40.0.0.0/8) is 2681856.

EIGRP metric calculation example 3

There are two routes to the subnet 50.0.0.0/8. Both routes have the equal least
bandwidth and cumulative delay. Since their least bandwidth and cumulative delay
are the same, their cost will also be the same. The equal cost routes are
automatically used in the load balancing. Because of this, EIGRP added both routes
to the routing table.
The following image shows the least bandwidth and cumulative delay of both routes.

The following steps calculate the metric for both routes.

Metric = ((10000000/1544) + 4010) * 256

Metric = (6476 + 4010) * 256
Metric = 10486 * 256
Metric = 2684416
Thus, the cost of both routes is 2684416.

EIGRP Configuration Step-by-Step Guide

This tutorial explains how to configure the EIGRP routing protocol on Cisco routers.
Learn EIGRP configuration and commands via a packet tracer example.

EIGRP is a Cisco proprietary routing protocol. It is one of the most popular and
widely used routing protocols. It is a complex routing protocol, but it provides many
benefits and supports all sizes and types of networks.

Configuring EIGRP on routers

EIGRP configuration is straightforward. It is a two-step process. In the first step, we

enable EIGRP. In the second step, we provide the required details to the EIGRP.
Let’s discuss both steps in detail.
Enabling EIGRP

To enable EIGRP, we use the following command in global configuration mode.

Router(config)# router eigrp AS_number

The above command enables EIGRP and puts us in EIGRP configuration mode. It
needs only one parameter, an AS (Autonomous System) number. EIGRP uses
an AS number to create a group of routers that can share routing information. You
can choose any number from the range 1 to 65535 as an AS number. After selecting
a number, you have to use the same number on all routers. If two routers belong to
different AS, they will not share routing information.

To learn more about the AS number, you can check the following tutorial.

EIGRP basic concepts explained

Customizing EIGRP

In EIGRP configuration mode, we use the following command to include the network
in the EIGRP operation.

Router(config-router)# network network_address [wildcard_mask]

The above command needs two parameters: a network address and wildcard mask
of the network. The network address is the network ID of the subnet that you want to
include in the EIGRP operation. The wildcard mask is the range of addresses that
you want to include in the operation.

To calculate the wildcard mask, subtract the subnet mask from 255.255.255.255.
The following table lists some examples of this calculation.

Subtract from 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 255.255

Subnet mask 255.255.0.0 255.255.255.252 255.128

Wildcard mask 0.0.255.255 0.0.0.3 0.127.25

Each time this command will add only one network. To add more networks, you can
use the same command again and again. For example, if you want to add three
networks, you have to use this command three times.

EIGRP configuration packet tracer example

Either build a packet tracer lab as shown in the following image or download the pre-
built lab from the following link.

Packet Tracer Lab for EIGRP configuration

Router0
The following commands configure and enable EIGRP on Router0.

Router(config)#router eigrp 20
Router(config-router)#network 10.0.0.0 0.0.0.255
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.244 0.0.0.3
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.3
Let’s discuss the above commands in detail.

The first command enables EIGRP with the AS number 20. Since we used the AS
number 20 on this router, this router will share routing information only with the
routers that belong to the AS number 20.

The second command adds the network 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 to the EIGRP operation.
The subnet mask of the network 10.0.0.0/8 is 255.0.0.0. To calculate the wildcard
mask for this subnet mask, we subtracted if from 255.255.255.255.

255 .255 .255 .255

– 255 .0 .0 .0
-----------------------
0 .255 .255 .255
-----------------------
When we add a network, EIGRP checks the IP configuration of all interfaces and
enables EIGRP operation on the matching interfaces. Since the IP configuration of
the interface F0/0 belongs to the network 10.0.0.0/8, EIGRP enables EIGRP
operation on the interface F0/0.
In network diagrams, we normally use slash notation to write the subnet mask. In
slash notation, the subnet mask 255.0.0.0 is written as /8 and the subnet
mask 255.255.255.252 is written as /30.

The third command adds the network 192.168.1.244 255.255.255.252 (/30) to the
EIGRP operation. Since this network is configured on the Serial interface S0/0/0,
EIGRP enables EIGRP operation on the Serial interface S0/0/0.

The fourth command adds the network 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.252 (/30) to the
EIGRP operation. This network is configured on the F0/1 interface. Thus, EIGRP
enables the EIGRP operation on the F0/1 interface.

Using the same commands in the same pattern, we can configure and enable
EIGRP on the rest of the routers.

Router1
Router(config)#router eigrp 20
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.244 0.0.0.3
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.248 0.0.0.3
Router(config-router)#
Router2
Router(config)#router eigrp 20
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.248 0.0.0.3
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.252 0.0.0.3
Router(config-router)#
Router3
Router(config)#router eigrp 20
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.8 0.0.0.3
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.4 0.0.0.3
Router(config-router)#
Router4
Router(config)#router eigrp 20
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.4 0.0.0.3
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.3
Router(config-router)#
Router5
Router(config)#router eigrp 20
Router(config-router)#network 20.0.0.0 0.255.255.255
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.252 0.0.0.3
Router(config-router)#network 192.168.1.8 0.0.0.3
Router(config-router)#
The following image shows how to run the above commands on routers.
Verifying EIGRP configuration

You can verify EIGRP configuration in two ways: -

1. by testing end-to-end connectivity

2. by listing EIGRP routes on the router

Let’s discuss both methods.

Testing end-to-end connectivity

To test connectivity between two devices, we use the ping command. This
command sends dummy data packets to the destination device and tracks the
response. If it receives replies from the destination device, it lists the replies on the
console. A successful reply verifies that the source and the destination have proper
connectivity.

We can also use the tracert command. This command also sends dummy data
packets to the destination device, but instead of tracking the response, it monitors
the path the data packets take to reach the destination device.

In our example network, we have two end devices: PC0 and Server0. The following
image shows how to test connectivity between both devices.
By listing EIGRP routes on the router
You can use the "show ip route eigrp" command on the router to list all routes
added in the routing table by EIGRP.

The following image shows the output of this command on Router0.

If more than one routes for the same destination are available, EIGRP adds the route
that has the lowest metric value to the routing table. To view all available routes for
each destination, you can use the "show ip eigrp topology" command.

The following image shows the output of this command or Router0.

If a network has a loop, EIGRP automatically removes the loop. To remove a loop, it
chooses only one of the routes that make up the loop. To select a route, it compares
their metrics and selects the route with the lowest metric.

In our example network, we have a routing loop. To remove this

loop, Router0 added only one route to each destination. For example, to reach the
network 20.0.0.0/8, Router0 has two routes: via Serial0/0/0 and F0/1. But it added
only one route via F0/1 to reach the network 20.0.0.0/8.

To know more about routing loops, you can check the following tutorial.

Routing loops explained with examples

EIGRP learns all routes of the network. But it does not add the routes that make a
loop. It uses them as backup routes. If the main route fails, it immediately switches to
the backup route.

To verify this, power off the F0/0 interface of Router3. Router3’s F0/0 interface
forwards data packets on the route Router0 uses to reach the network 20.0.0.0/8. If
we power off this interface, the main route of Rotuer0 to reach the
network 20.0.0.0/8 will be down. In this situation, Router0 will immediately switch to
the backup route (Via – R1 and R2) to reach the network 20.0.0.0/8.

The following image shows the first situation.

The following image shows the second situation.
EIGRP Packet Types and RTP Protocol
This tutorial explains Reliable Transport Protocol (RTP) and five EIGRP packet
types: Update, Query, Reply, Hello, and Acknowledgment. Learn the meaning of
EIGRP packet types and how EIGRP uses RTP to communicate with other EIGRP
speaking routers.

Like other routing protocols, the EIGRP routing protocol does not use TCP or UDP
for communication. An EIGRP router uses RTP protocol to communicate with other
EIGRP speaking routers.

RTP stands for Reliable Transport Protocol. It is a Cisco proprietary protocol.

Cisco designed it to provide reliable communication between two devices. It uses
multicasts and unicasts to ensure that packets are delivered quickly and reliably.

RTP sends only one packet at a time. Since it sends only one packet at a time, it
does not use windowing or any congestion control mechanism. It supports multicast
and unicast methods of transmission.
How does EIGRP use RTP?

EIGRP uses RTP to communicate with other EIGRP speaking routers on the
network. In EIGRP implementation, RTP is responsible for guaranteed and ordered
delivery of EIGRP packets with the use of sequence and acknowledge numbers.

Each EIGRP router knows who its neighbors are. When an EIGRP router sends a
multicast, it builds a list and uses it to track the neighbors who have replied. If the
EIGRP router doesn't get a reply from a neighbor via the multicast, the EIGRP router
uses unicasts to resend the same data. If it does not get a reply from the neighbor
after 16 unicast attempts, it declares the router dead. This process is known as
reliable multicast.

To track each packet, EIGRP assigns a sequence number to each packet.

Sequencing allows routers to identify old and redundant packets and discard packets
that are out of sequence.

RTP maintains a retransmission table for each neighbor. It uses this table to track all
the reliable packets that were sent but not acknowledged within the Retransmission
Time Out (RTO). When RTP sends a reliable packet, it creates an entry for the
packet in the table. The entry contains the RTO timer. If the RTO timer expires
before an ACK packet is received, RTP will transmit the same copy of the reliable
packet again. RTP will repeat this process until the hold time of the neighbor expires
in the neighbor table. If the hold time of a neighbor expires in the neighbor table,
EIGRP removes the neighbor from the neighbor table.

EIGRP packet types

EIGRP uses five types of packets. These types are Update, Query, Reply, Hello, and
Acknowledgment. Let's discuss these types.

Update
An Update packet contains the routing update or route information. When two
EIGRP routers build a neighbor relation, they use update packets to exchange
routing information. After building a neighbor relation, they use update packets only
to exchange information about a change.

EIGRP always uses reliable multicast or unicast to send to an update packet. EIGRP
uses multicast to send the same information to all neighbors and a unicast to send
the information only to a specific neighbor.

Regardless of which method EIGRP uses to send an update packet, EIGRP always
requires an acknowledgment for each update packet.

Query

EIGRP uses a query packet to find an alternate path to a particular destination when
it has lost the exiting path to the destination. EIGRP always uses the reliable
multicast method to send query packets and requires an acknowledgment for each
query packet.

Reply

EIGRP uses a reply packet to respond to a query packet. EIGRP uses the reliable
unicast method to send a reply packet. A reply packet either includes information
about a specific route or a message indicating that there is no known route to the
specific route. EIGRP also needs an acknowledgment for a reply packet.

Hello

EIGRP uses hello packets to discover potential EIGRP neighbors. EIGRP sends
hello packets via the unreliable multicast method. It does not need an
acknowledgment for a hello packet.

Ack

EIGRP sends an ack packet in response to an update, query, or reply packet. An ack
packet confirms that the destination device received the packet. Ack packets are
always sent via unicast and never require an acknowledgment. An ack packet is
itself sent as acknowledgment. An acknowledgment for an acknowledgment packet
makes no sense.

Key points

 EIGRP uses RTP to exchange packets with other EIGRP speaking routers.
 EIGRP exchanges five types of packets. These packet types are Update, query,
reply, hello, and acknowledgment.
 Update, query, and reply packets require acknowledgment.
 Hello, and ack packets do not require acknowledgment. Since they don't require
acknowledgment, they do not have sequence numbers.
 EIGRP multicast address is 224.0.0.10. A packet sent to this address is heard by all
connected EIGRP routers.
  EIGRP Hello packets are sent every 5 seconds on LANs and point-to-point links. On
T1 or low-speed interfaces, they are sent every 60 seconds.

That's all for this tutorial. In this tutorial, we discussed EIGRP packet types and how
EIGRP uses the RTP protocol.

EIGRP Features, Operations, and

Overview
This tutorial introduces EIGRP and compares it with RIP and IGRP. Learn the
characteristics, features, functions, and basic operations of EIGRP.

EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) is a Cisco proprietary routing

protocol. It runs only on Cisco routers and on some Cisco multilayer switches. In
2013, Cisco converted the functionality of EIGRP to an open standard. Cisco
developed EIGRP to update IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) and IGRP to
provide a better option than RIP.

Historically, RIPv1 was the first most popular routing protocol. It was published in
1988. It broadcasts a routing update every 30 seconds from all enabled interfaces. A
routing update includes all routes from the routing table. A neighboring router uses
routing updates to update its routing table.

The formula a routing protocol uses to calculate the cost of a route is called the
routing metric. A routing protocol can use a single component or multiple
components in the routing metric.

RIPv1 uses only one component in the routing metric. It counts the number of
routers in the route to calculate the best route to reach each destination. The number
of routers in a route is known as hop count. A hop is a default gateway in the path
that the packet cross to reach the destination. For example, if there are two routers
in the path, the hop count will be 2.

If there are two routes to a destination, it chooses the route that has less hop count.
It can count a maximum of 15 routers. It means if a route has more than 15 routers, it
will not use the route.

RIPv1 was mainly developed for small networks. It has many limitations and uses
only hop count in the metric. Because of these, RIPv1 was not a good choice for mid
or large-size networks. Cisco developed IGRP to overcome the limitations of RIPv1
and provide a better routing protocol.

IGRP uses multiple components in the routing metric to select the best route for
each destination. These components include bandwidth, delay, load, reliability, and
MTU. IGRP supports a maximum 255 hop count (default 100). It broadcast routing
updates every 90 seconds.

Like RIPv1, IGRP also had some technical limitations. It was developed to support
the technology levels of the 1980s. Till the 1980s, it was a good option. In the early
1990s, business requirements and technical factors pushed Cisco to update IGRP.
In the mid-1990s, Cisco updated IGRP to EIGRP.

EIGRP is the updated version of IGRP. EIGRP uses the same metric components.
These components are bandwidth, delay, load, reliability, and MTU. By default, only
bandwidth and delay are enabled. However, you can manually enable load,
reliability, and MTU. EIGRP uses all enabled components in the metric algorithm.

Even though EIGRP uses the same metric components, it stores them in different
size values. IGRP uses a 24-bit metric, while EIGRP uses a 32-bit metric. Another
major enhancement in EIGRP is that EIGRP supports classless subnets.
IGRP is a classful routing protocol. It does not advertise subnet information. EIGRP
is a classless routing protocol. It includes subnet information in routing updates. It
can advertise both classful and classless networks. This feature allows network
administrators to use VLSM in EIGRP networks.

EIGRP uses the concept of an AS (autonomous system). An AS describes a set of

contiguous routers that run the same routing protocol and share routing information.
By default, EIGRP does not share routing information with different AS routers.

EIGRP does not advertise routing updates periodically. it synchronizes network

topology information between neighbors at start-up and then sends specific updates
only when topology changes occur.

EIGRP also supports a maximum 255 hop count (default 100). Unlike RIP, EIGRP
does not use hop count as a metric. EIGRP uses hop count to refer to how many
routers an EIGRP routing update can go through before it will be discarded.
Comparing RIPv1, IGRP and EIGRP
The following table compares RIPv1, IGRP, and EIGRP.

Option RIPv1 IGRP

Type of protocol Open-source Cisco proprietary

Metric Hop count Bandwidth, delay, reliability, load

Bits to store metric value - 24bits

The maximum supported router in a route 15 -

Maximum number of routers a routing update can go - 255

Supported network size small all

Routing update method Broadcast Multicast

Characteristics and features

 It supports route summarization and VLSM/CIDR.

 It supports routing for IPv4, IPv6, IPX, and AppleTalk.
 It provides a loop-free routing topology.
 It supports dis-contiguous networks.
 It does broadcast routing updates.

Functions and basic operations

 It uses Diffusing Update Algorithm (DUAL) to build a loop-free routing topology.

 It uses multicast to advertise routing updates.
 It can load balance across six paths to a destination.
 It uses triggered updates when changes occur.

TCP Features and Functions Explained

with Examples
This tutorial explains TCP features and functions such as three way handshake
process, connection oriented, sequencing, acknowledgment, error recovery, flow
control and windowing in detail with examples.

TCP is a features rich protocol. It provides guaranteed data delivery. It ensures that
each bit, sent from the source host, reaches at the destination host. To provide such
a reliable service, TCP deploys five functions; Segmentation, connection
multiplexing, three-way handshake, sequencing and acknowledgment, and flow
control through windowing.

From these functions, I have already explained first two functions in previous parts of
this article. In this part, I will explain reaming three functions.

This tutorial is the last part of the article "Similarities and Differences between TCP
and UDP explained with functions" This tutorial explains following CCNA topic.

Compare and contrast TCP and UDP protocols

Other parts of this article are following.

Segmentation Explained with TCP and UDP Header

This tutorial is the first part of the article. It explains segmentation process along with TCP/UDP header in
detail.

Connection Multiplexing Explained with Examples

This tutorial is the second part of the article. It explains what the connection multiplexing is and how the
TCP and UDP protocols use it to connect with the multiple applications simultaneously.
Connection oriented protocol or connection-less protocol
TCP is a connection oriented protocol. Difference between a connection-oriented
protocol and a connection-less protocol is that a connection-oriented protocol does
not send any data until a proper connection is established. Connection establishment
refers to the process of initializing protocol specific features.

TCP, in connection establishment process, initializes sequence and

acknowledgement numbers. TCP refers this process as the three-way handshake
process.

TCP Three-way handshake process

Source sends a SYN (synchronization) segment to the destination. This segment

indicates that source want to establish a reliable session with destination.

Destination responds back with a SYN/ACK (synchronization/acknowledgement)

segment. This segment indicates that destination received the source’s connection
request and ready to setup a reliable session with source.

Upon receiving a SYN/ACK segment from destination, source sends an ACK

(acknowledgement) segment to the destination. This segment indicates that source
received the confirmation from destination and the session is now fully reliable.

Following figure shows an example of Three-way handshake process.

Once the three-way handshake process is done both source and destination can
transfer the data.

TCP does not send any data without establishing proper connection. Segments
which are used in connection establishment or three-way handshake process
contain only the header information that is used to initialize the TCP specific
features. These features are explained below.

Reliability through acknowledgement and sequencing

The term TCP reliability covers mainly following items;

 Recognizing and resending lost packets

 Detecting and dropping duplicate packets
 Recognizing and reordering the packets that arrive out of order
 Controlling the overflow of segments

To provide reliability, TCP assigns a sequence number to each sent segment. This
number not only helps the destination host in reordering any incoming segments that
arrived out of the order but also help in verifying that all sent segments were
received.

Acknowledgement numbers are used in opposite direction. These numbers are used
to send the verification of received segments, notification of lost segments and
acknowledgement for next segments.

Upon receiving all sent segments, to get the next segments, destination sends a
segment with a number in the acknowledgment field that is one number higher than
the received sequence number.

If any segment lost in transmission, its sequence number is used in acknowledgment

field to notify the sender about it.
Both, sequence number and acknowledge number are initialized in three-way
handshake process. Source and destination hosts update each other about their
sequence number in this process.

Once source and host know each other’s sequence numbers, they use them in data
exchange process. Before we take an example of this process, let’s understand one
more number that is also initialized in three-way handshake process and is used with
these numbers.

Flow control through Windowing

Windowing is the process of controlling the flow of segments. It ensures that one
host doesn’t flood another host with too many segments, overflowing its receiving
buffer.

In three-way handshake process, receiver computer, while responding to the initial

segment, updates the sender computer about its window size. Window size is the
number of segments that it can store in its buffer. Once sender computer knows the
window size of receiver computer, it can control the flow of segments.

For example, if window size of the receiver computer is 4, sender computer sends
only the 4 segments. Once 4 segments are sent, it waits for confirmation from
receiver computer before sending next 4 segments.

While sending confirmation, receiver computer can change the window size. For
example, it can ask sender computer to send more or less segments in next section.
This feature is called sliding windowing or dynamic windowing. It allows receiver to
control the flow of segments that sender computer can send.
Reordering segments and in correct order and dropping extra segments

To arrange the arrived segments in correct order, receiver computer uses the
sequence numbers of the segments. To detect and drop the duplicate or extra
segments, it compares the received segments with the requested segments. For
example if receiver computer requested 3 segments by specifying window size 3 in
acknowledgment and received 4 segments, it assumes that one segment is arrived
extra.

Sequence numbers also help in detecting duplicate segments. If two or more

segments have same sequence numbers, they are duplicates. Duplicate segments
are dropped.
Recovering lost segments

As mentioned above, receiver computer compares the arrived segments with the
expected segments. If it finds any segment is missing, it uses the sequence number
of that segment to acknowledge the receiver computer about it. When sender
computer receives an acknowledgment of a segment that it has already sent, it
assumes that acknowledged segment has lost. While transmitting the next set of
segments (segments equal to the window size), it retransmits the lost segments first
and new segments later. For example if window size is 3 and lost segment is 1, then
the transmitted segments will be; lost segment, new segment and new segment.
Comparing with UDP

UDP is a connection-less protocol. It does not establish any connection or exchange

any messages before sending the data.

TCP protocol always starts a session with the three-way handshake process. It
means if an application wants to send its data through TCP, it has to wait until the
proper connection is established through the three-way hand shake process.

UDP doesn’t use any mechanism or process before starting the session. It means if
an application wants to send its data through UDP, it can send its data immediately
without any delay.

UDP neither sequences the segments nor care about the order in which they are
sent to the destination. It also does not take acknowledgement of the sent segments
to verify that they reached at destination. It just sends and forgets about them.
Because of this, it is also referred as an unreliable protocol.

UDP takes less bandwidth and uses fewer processing cycles in comparison of TCP.
Segmentation Explained with TCP and
UDP Header
This tutorial explains what the segmentation is, how the segmentation works in data
communication process, what the TCP and UDP header contain and how the header
is used to build a segment.

Both TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
protocols work in the Transport layer. Both provide same functionality in different
ways. This functionality is the delivering data at the correct destination. While
providing this functionality, TCP focuses on accuracy while UDP pays attention on
speed.

This tutorial is the first part of the article "Similarities and Differences between TCP
and UDP explained with functions" This tutorial explains following CCNA topic.

Compare and contrast TCP and UDP protocols

Other parts of this article are following.

Connection Multiplexing Explained with Examples

This tutorial is the second part of the article. It explains what the connection multiplexing is and how the
TCP and UDP protocols use it to connect with the multiple applications simultaneously.

TCP Features and Functions Explained with Examples

This tutorial is the last part of the article. It explains how TCP provides guaranteed data delivery through its
protocol specific features.
Following five functions are used in data delivery process: -

 Segmentation
 Connection multiplexing
 Connection oriented or connection less delivery
 Reliability through acknowledgement and sequencing
 Flow control through windowing

From these functions, to ensure the accuracy in delivery process, TCP supports all
functions while in order to provide the highest possible speed, UDP supports only the
second function.

Let’s understand each function in detail and compare the way in which both
protocols provide it.

Segmentation
Segmentation is the process of dividing large data stream into smaller pieces. This
functionality allows a host to send or receive a file of any size over the any size of
network. For example, if network bandwidth is 1 Mbps and file size is 100 Mb, host
can divide the file in 100 or more pieces. Once a piece becomes less or equal to the
network bandwidth in size, it can be transferred easily. Destination host, upon
receiving all pieces, joins them back to reproduce the original file.

TCP supports segmentation while UDP does not. It means if an application wants to
use the TCP to send its data, it can give the data to TCP in actual size. Based on
several conditions such as data size and available network bandwidth, if
segmentation is required, TCP does it on its own before packing data for
transmission.

But if an application wants to use UDP to send its data, it can’t give the data to UDP
in actual size. It has to use its own mechanism to detect whether segmentation is
required or not. And if segmentation is required, it has to do it on its own before
giving data to UDP.

Packing data for transmission

Both protocols pack data in similar fashion. Both add a header with each data piece.
A header mainly contains two types of information;

1. The information that is required to send the segment at the correct destination.
2. The information that is required to support the protocol specific features.

Both TCP and UDP add first type of information in same manner. Both use two fields
for this information; source port and destination port. Information about the
application that is sending the data and the information about the application that will
receive the data are added in source port field and in destination port field
respectively.

Protocols add second type of information based on the services they offer. TCP
offers several protocol specific services such as segmentation, windowing, flow
control, etc. To provide these services, it adds the necessary information in the
header.

Following figure shows a data piece with the TCP header.

Field Description

Source port Used to identify the application that is sending data from the source host

Destination port Used to identify the application that will receive the data at destination host

Sequence Number Used to identify the lost segments and maintain the sequencing in transmission.

Acknowledgment Number Used to send a verification of received segments and to ask for the next segment

Header Length A number that indicates where the data begin in segment

Reserved Reserve for future use. Always set to zero.

Code Bits Used to define the control functions such as setting up and terminating the sessio

Window size Used to set the number of segments that can be sent before waiting for a confirm

Checksum CRC (cyclic redundancy check) of the header and data piece.

Urgent Used to point any urgent data in the segment.

Options Used to define any additional options such as maximum segment size

Data A data piece that is produced from the segmentation

On other hand, UDP neither provides any protocol specific service, nor adds any
additional information in the header.

Following figure shows data with UDP header.

Field Description

Source port Port number of the application that is transmitting data from the source computer

Destination port Port number of the application that will receive the data at destination.

Length Denotes the length of the UDP header and the UDP data

Checksum CRC of the complete segment

Data Data which it received from the application

Segment

Once a header is attached with the data piece (generated from the segmentation in
TCP or received from the application in UDP), it is referred as a segment.

Following figure shows how segmentation works in both protocols.

Key points

 TCP uses segmentation while UDP does not.

 Both protocols use different types of header to pack the data for transmission.
 UDP header contains information only about the compulsory functions and it is 8
bytes in the length.
 TCP header contains information for both compulsory and optional functions. TCP
header is 20 bytes and 24 bytes in length without options and with options
respectively.

Connection Multiplexing Explained with

Examples
This tutorial explains the UDP/TCP connection or session multiplexing in detail with
examples. Learn what the sockets and port numbers are and how they are used in
the application mapping.

UDP/TCP Connection or Session Multiplexing

Connection or session multiplexing occurs at the Transport layer. It allows multiple
applications to send and receive data simultaneously. It assigns a unique number to
each individual session or connection to keep it separate from others. This unique
number is known as port number.

This tutorial is the second part of the article "Similarities and Differences between
TCP and UDP explained with functions" This tutorial explains following CCNA topic.

Compare and contrast TCP and UDP protocols

Other parts of this article are following.

Segmentation Explained with TCP and UDP Header

This tutorial is the first part of the article. It explains segmentation process along with TCP/UDP header in
detail.

TCP Features and Functions Explained with Examples

This tutorial is the last part of the article. It explains how TCP provides guaranteed data delivery through its
protocol specific features.

In each session or connection, two port numbers are used; source port and
destination port. Source port number is used to identify the session or connection
while destination port number is used to identify the application that processes the
data at destination host.

To assign the source port number and the destination port number, both Transport
layer protocols TCP and UDP use two fields in segment header; source port field
and destination port field.

The port number field is 16 bits in length that allows a total of 65536 (from 0 to
65535) port numbers. Port numbers are divided in three categories; well-known,
registered and dynamically assigned.

Port type Range Description

Well-known 0 to 1023 IANA assigns these numbers to the applications those are common
Registered 1024 to 49151 IANA assigns these numbers to the applications those are propriet
Dynamically assigned 49152 to 65535 Sending device assigns these numbers to the sessions.
Well-known and registered port numbers are used in the destination port field while
dynamically assigned port numbers are used in the source port field.

Transport layer, at source host, assigns a separate port number to each individual
session from the dynamically assigned port numbers. When it initiates a new
session, it picks a currently unused dynamic port number from 49152 to 65535 and
assigns it to the session. All segments which are sent through this session use the
assigned port number as the source port number. For destination port number, the
port number of destination application is used.
Transport layer at destination host, upon receiving segments from the source host,
checks the destination port field in each segment to know by which application that
segment should be processed. After processing, when the destination application
returns the data, the transport layer at destination host uses the same port numbers
in reverse. It uses the port number of application by which the segment was
processed as source port number and the port number from which the segment was
received as destination port number.

Let’s take an example. A host wants to access a website. So it initiates a TCP

session. Transport layer assigns a dynamic port number 50000 to this session. Since
this session is initiated to communicate with a webserver which uses HTTP protocol
to serve the websites and the HTTP protocol uses the port number 80, it uses
destination port number 80.

Upon receiving segments from this host, transport layer at webserver checks the
destination port number in segments headers. From destination port number, it
knows that the source wants to communicate with an application that uses HTTP
protocol. While responding to this host, it uses the destination port number 5000 and
the source port number 80.

Now suppose, host wants to access another website from same or other webserver.
So it initiates a new session. Since it’s a new session, transport layer assigns a new
port number to it. New port number allows it to keep its segments separate from the
existing session.
If there is only one host that access remote hosts, port numbers are sufficient to
multiplex the sessions. But if there is more than one host, session multiplexing can’t
be done only from the port numbers.

Let’s take an example. There are two hosts those want to access a webserver
simultaneously. So they both initiate sessions. Spouse they both assign the same
port number 50000 to their session. Now how will the webserver know which
segment is coming from which host?

To deal with such a situation, IP address is used with the port number in
multiplexing. Since both hosts have different IP addresses, destination host can
easily differentiate their sessions even they both use the same source and
destination port number.

Following figure shows an example of this. In this example, two hosts 1.1.1.1 and
2.2.2.2 are accessing two webservers 10.10.10.10 and 20.20.20.20 simultaneously
with the same source port numbers.
In this way, to make a connection or session unique or to allow a host to connect
with multiple applications simultaneously, three things are used together; Transport
layer protocol, source port number and destination IP address. To refer these three
things together, a technical term socket is used.

For example, in above figure; the host 2.2.2.2 is using the socket (10.10.10.10, TCP,
50000) to connect with the web server 10.10.10.10 while to connect with the web
server 20.20.20.20, it is using the socket (20.20.20.20, TCP, 5001).

Same way, the host 1.1.1.1 is using the socket (10.10.10.10, TCP, 50000) to
connect with the web server 10.10.10.10 while to connect with the web server
20.20.20.20, it is using the socket (20.20.20.20, TCP, 5001).
Both transport layer protocol TCP and UDP use socket based multiplexing to deliver
the data to the correct application at the source and destination hosts.

Data Encapsulation and De-encapsulation

Explained
This tutorial explains how the OSI model and TCP/IP model encapsulate and de-
encapsulate the data when it passes through the layers.

In a networking model, the term encapsulation refers to a process in which protocol

information is added to the data. The term de-encapsulation refers to a process in
which information added through the encapsulation process is removed.

Protocol information can be added before and after the data. If the information is
added before the data, it is known as a header. If the information is added after the
data, it is known as a trailer.

The following image explains the data encapsulation and de-encapsulation process.
The header and trailer added by a layer on the sending computer can only be
removed by the peer layer on the receiving computer. For example, the header and
trailer added by the Transport layer on the sending computer can only be removed
by the Transport layer on the receiving computer.

Data encapsulated by a layer on the sending computer is de-encapsulated by the

same layer on the receiving computer. This process is known as the same layer
interaction.

The encapsulation process takes place on the sending computer. The de-
encapsulation process takes place on the receiving computer. After doing the
encapsulation, each layer uses a specific name or term to represent the
encapsulated data.
The following table lists the terms used by the layers in both models to represent the
encapsulated data.

Term OSI layer TCP/I

Data Application Applic
Data Presentation
Data Session
Segment Transport Transp
Packet Network Netwo
Frame Data Link Data L
Bits Physical Physic
Let’s understand each term and the data encapsulation process in detail.

This tutorial is the last part of the article "Networking reference models explained in detail with
examples.". Other parts of this article are the following.

OSI Model Advantages and Basic Purpose Explained

This tutorial is the first part of the article. It briefly explains why the OSI model was created and what the
advantages of the OSI model are.

OSI Seven Layers Model Explained with Examples

This tutorial is the second part of the article. It explains the seven layers of the OSI model in detail.

Similarities and Differences between the OSI Model and TCP/IP Model

This tutorial is the third part of the article. It compares the OSI reference model with the TCP/IP model and
lists the similarities and differences between both.

TCP/IP Reference Model Explained

This tutorial is the fourth part of the article. It explains the five layers of the TCP/IP model in detail.

Data

The upper layer (the Application layer in the TCP/IP model) or the layers (the
Application, Presentation, and Session layers in the OSI model) create a data stream
and transfer it to the Transport layer.

The upper layers do not attach headers and trailers to the data. But if required, the
application that initiates the connection can add a header and trailer to the data. For
example, browsers use the HTTP protocol to fetch websites from webservers. The
HTTP protocol uses a header to transfer the data.

The encapsulation process describes the headers and trailers that are added by the
layers. It does not describe application-specific headers and trailers. Since the upper
layers do not add any header or trailer to the data, the encapsulation process does
not use any particular term to refer to the encapsulated data in the upper layers.

Segment
The Transport layer receives the data stream from the upper layers. It breaks the
received data stream into smaller pieces. This process is known as segmentation.
After segmentation, it creates a header for each data piece and attaches that header
to the data piece. Headers contain the information that the remote host needs to
reassemble all data pieces. Once the header is attached, a data piece is known as
the segment. The Transport layer transfers segments to the Network layer for
further processing.
Packet

The Network layer creates a header for each received segment from the Transport
layer. This header contains the information that is required for addressing and
routing, such as the source software address and destination software address.
Once the header is attached, a segment is known as the packet. Packets are
handed down to the Data link layer.

In the original TCP/IP model, the term packet is mentioned as the term datagram.
Both terms are identical and interchangeable. A packet or a datagram contains a
network layer header and an encapsulated segment.

Frame

The Data link layer receives packets from the Network layer. Unlike the Transport
layer and Network layer which only create a header, it also creates a trailer along
with the header for each received packet. The header contains information that is
required for the switching, such as the source hardware address and destination
hardware address. The trailer contains information that is required to detect and drop
the corrupt data packages in the earliest stage of the de-encapsulation. Once the
header and trailer are attached, a packet is known as the frame. Frames are passed
down to the Physical layer.

Bits

The Physical layer receives frames from the Data link layer and converts them into a
format that the attached media can carry. For example, if the host is connected
through a copper wire, the Physical layer converts frames into voltages. And if the
host is connected through a wireless network, the physical layer converts them into
radio signals.

De-encapsulation

De-encapsulation takes place on the receiving computer. The de-encapsulation

process is the opposite of the encapsulation process. In this process, the headers
and trailers that are attached by the encapsulation process are removed.

The Physical layer picks encoded signals from the media and converts them into
frames and hands them over to the Data link layer.

The Data-link layer reads the trailer of the frame and confirms that the received
frame is in the correct shape. If the frame is in the correct shape, it reads the
destination hardware address of the frame to determine whether the fame is
intended for it.

If the frame is not intended for it, it will discard the frame. If the frame is intended for
it, it will remove the header and the trailer from the frame. Once the data link layer’s
header and trailer are removed from the frame, it becomes the packet. Packets are
handed over to the Network layer.

The Network layer checks the destination software address in the header of each
packet. If the packet is not intended for it, it will discard the packet. If the packet is
intended for it, it will remove the header. Once the network layer’s header is
removed, the packet becomes the segment. Segments are handed over to the
Transport layer.

The Transport layer receives segments from the Network layer. From segment
headers, it collects all necessary information, and based on that information it
arranges all segments back to the correct order. Next, it removes the segment
header from all segments and reassembles them in the original data stream. The
data stream is handed over to the upper layers.

Upper layers convert the data stream in such a format that the target application can
understand.

The following figure shows the encapsulation and de-encapsulation process in the
OSI model.

The following figure shows the encapsulation and de-encapsulation process in the
TCP/IP model.
OSPF Fundamental Terminology
Explained
OSPF is a complex routing protocol. It uses many terms to define its functions and
operations. This tutorial explains the meaning of the terms OSPF routing protocol
uses.

Link

A link is a router's interface connected to an IP subnet. When we add an interface to

the OSPF process, OSPF considers the interface as a link.

State

Since a link is an interface, it has two states: up and down. The up state shows the
link (interface) is operational and OSPF can reach the IP subnet connected to the
link. The down state shows the link is not operational and OSPF cannot reach the IP
subnet connected to the link.

Link state protocol

OSPF is a link-state protocol. Link state protocols use the Shortest Path First (SPF)
algorithm to calculate the best path to a destination. To run this algorithm, link-state
protocols learn the complete topology of the network. In a big size network, this
feature creates scalability problems. To solve this problem, OSPF uses two
concepts: autonomous systems and areas.

Autonomous System

An autonomous system is a group of networks under a single administrative control

which can be a group of companies, a company, or a division within the company.
There are two types of routing protocols: Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) and Border
Gateway Protocol (BGP). IGP routing protocols provide routing within a single AS.
BGP routing protocols provide routing between different AS. OSPF is a IGP routing
protocol. OSPF provides routing within a single AS.

Hierarchical Design and Areas

Within the AS, OSPF uses areas and hierarchical design. OSPF implements a two-
layer hierarchy: backbone area and areas off the backbone. OSPF uses the
backbone area to provide routing between areas off the backbone and areas off the
backbone to control when and how much routing information is shared between
routers.

An area is a group of contiguous networks. Each area uses a unique area ID. All
routers in the same area use the same area ID. The following image shows how
OSPF uses areas for hierarchical routing.

The following table lists some common terms used in the hierarchical design and the
area concept.

Term Description
Backbone area A special area to which all other areas must connect.
area A set of contiguous routers that share the same routing information.
Backbone routers Routers in the backbone area
Internal routers Routers in areas off the backbone
ABR A router that connects the area to the backbone area
Intra-area route A route within the same area
Interarea route A route between the areas
Router ID (RID)

RID is the name of the router OSPF uses to identify the router. OSPF uses the
highest configured IP address as RID. If loopback interfaces are configured, OSPF
uses them to choose RID. If loopback interfaces are not configured, OSPF uses all
active physical interfaces to choose RID.

Neighbors

OSPF neighbors are two or more routers that have an interface in the same network
and have certain configuration values same. These configure values are called
neighborship requirements.

Adjacency

OSPF does not share routing updates with all neighbors. An OSPF router shares
routing updates with adjacent neighbors only. An adjacency is a relationship
between two adjacent routers that permits them to directly exchange routing
updates.

Designated router (DR)

OSPF uses the concept of DR and BDR in the broadcast network to minimize the
number of adjacencies formed. In a broadcast network, one router is selected as DR.
A designated router shares routing updates with all routers.

Backup Designated Router (BDR)

A BDR is a hot standby router for the DR. The BDR keeps the backup copy of all
databases running on DR. If DR fails, BDR immediately takes over the position of
DR.

Hello protocol

OSPF uses the hello protocol to discover OSPF routers in the network and maintain
the relationship with neighbors. Hello packets are sent to multicast address
224.0.0.5.

OSPF database

OSPF maintains two types of databases: neighborship database and topological

database. It uses the neighborship database to store a list of all OSPF routers for
which hello packets have been seen. It uses the topological database to store
information about all LSA packets.

Link State Advertisement (LSA)

LSA is an OSPF data packet containing link-state and routing information. OSPF
routers share LSA packets only with established adjacent routers.

LSDB

An LSDB is a collection of all LSAs received by the OSPF router. Each LSA has a
unique sequence number. OSPF stores an LSA in LADB with its sequence number.
Adjacent routers maintain the same LSDB.

OSPF Neighborship Condition and

Requirement
This tutorial explains OSPF Neighborship requirements (Area ID, Network ID,
Authentication, Hello and Dead Intervals, Stub Flag and MTU Size) and conditions in
detail with examples. Two routers cannot become OSPF neighbor until these
configuration values match on both routers.

OSPF routers share routing information only with neighbors. OSPF uses hello
packets to discover neighbors in segments. A hello packet contains some essential
configuration values that must be same on both routers who want to build an OSPF
neighborship. In this tutorial we will explain these configuration values in detail with
example.

OSPF Neighborship Requirement

In order to become OSPF neighbor following values must be match on both routers.

 Area ID
 Authentication
 Hello and Dead Intervals
 Stub Flag
 MTU Size

This tutorial is the second part of our article “OSPF Routing Protocol Explained
with examples". You can read other parts of this article here.

OSPF Fundamental Terminology Explained

This tutorial is the first part of this article. In this part we explained basic terminology of OSPF such as
Feature , Advantage and Disadvantage, Autonomous System, Area concept, ABR, IR, Link, State ,LSA
and LSDB with example.

OSPF Neighbor States Explained with Example

This tutorial is the third part of this article. OSPF adjacency process goes through the seven states; OSPF
State down, OSPF State Init, OSPF State two ways, OSPF State Exstart, OSPF State Exchange, OSPF
State Loading and OSPF State full. This part explains these states with DR BDR selection process in detail
with examples.

OSPF Configuration Step by Step Guide

This tutorial is the fourth part of this article. Configuration part of OSPF includes process ID, Area ID and
wildcard mask which make its setup a litter bit harder. This part explains these parameters in detail with
examples.

OSPF Metric cost Calculation Formula Explained

This tutorial is the last part of this article. In this part we will explain OSPF metric component bandwidth,
Delay, Load, Reliability and MTU with cost calculation formula in detail with examples.

Area ID

OSPF uses area concept to scale an enterprise size network. I have explained
OSPF Areas in first part of this article. Just for reference, OSPF areas create a
logical boundary for routing information. By default routers do not share routing
information beyond the area. So in order to become neighbor, two routers must
belong to same area. Here one confusing fact needs to clear. Area is associated with
specific interface, not with entire router. This allows us to configure the router in
multiple areas. For example a router that has two interfaces; Serial interface and
FastEthernet interface, can run Serial interface in one area and FastEthernet in
another area. It means link which connects two routers need be in same area
including its both ends interface. Beside this interfaces should have same network ID
and subnet mask.

Following figure illustrate a simple OSPF network. In this network R1 is eligible to

form neighborship with R4 and R2 respectively on S0/0 and F0/0.
I have question for you. Why neighborship cannot be built between R1 and R3?

Let’s find out the answer step by step.

Both interfaces should be in same area.

Yes both interfaces ( R1’s Fo/1 and R3’s F0/1) are in same area.

Both interfaces should be in same segment.

Yes both interfaces ( R1’s Fo/1 and R3’s F0/1) are connected with direct link.

Both interfaces should have same subnet mask.

Yes both interfaces have same subnet mask /30.

Both interfaces should have same network ID.

No both interfaces have different network ID. R1’s F0/1 has network
ID 192.168.0.4/30 while R3’s F0/1 has network ID 192.168.0.8/30. This condition
does not match. Thus these two routers on these interfaces cannot build
neighborship.

Authentication

To enhance the security of network, OSPF allows us to configure the password for
specific areas. Routers who have same password will be eligible for neighborship. If
you want to use this facility, you need to configure password on all routers which you
want to include in network. If you skip any router, that will not be able to form an
OSPF neighborship.

Suppose that our network has two routers R1 and R2. Both routers are connected
with direct link and meet all criteria mentioned in first requirement. What if I configure
password in R1 and leave R2 as it is? Will it form neighborship with R2?
Well in this situation neighborship will not take place. Because when both routers
see each other’s hello packet in segment, they try to match all configure values
including password field. One packet has a value in password filed while other has
nothing in it. In this case routers will simply ignore each other’s packet.

Hello packets and hello interval

Hello packets are the special type of LSAs (Link State Advertisements) which are
used to discover the neighbors in same segment. And once neighborship is built
same hello packets are used to maintain the neighborship. Hello packets contain all
necessary information that is required to form a neighborship. Hello packets are
generated and distributed in hello interval via multicast. Hello interval is the length of
time in seconds between the hello packets. Default hello interval is 10 seconds.

Dead Intervals

As we already know once neighborship is built, hello packets are used to maintain
the neighborship.

So a router must see hello packets from neighbor in particular time interval. This time
interval is known as dead interval. Dead interval is the number of seconds that a
router waits for hello packet from neighbor, before declaring it as dead.

Default dead interval is 40 seconds. If a router does not receive hello packet
in 40 seconds from neighbor it will declare that as dead. When this happens, router
will propagate this information to other OSPF neighboring router via LSA message.
Hello and dead interval must be same between two neighbors. If any of these
intervals are different, neighborship will not form.

Stub Area Flag

This value indicates that whether sending router belong to stub area or not. Routers
who want to build OPSF neighborship must have same stub area flag.

For example we have two routers R1 and R2:-

 Both routers belong to same stub area, neighborship can be built

 Both routers belong to different stub area, neighborship cannot be built
 Both routers do not belong to any stub area, neighborship can be built
 Only one router belongs to a stub area, neighborship cannot be built

Just like another areas, Stub area also has some specific meanings in OSPF
hierarchal design.

A stub area has following requirements:-

  A stub area can have only single exit point from that area.
 Stub area cannot be used as a transit area for virtual links.
 Routing from stub area to outside of the area should not have to take an
optimal path.
 Any external networks (redistributed from other protocols into OSPF) should
not be flooded in stub area.

Configuring a stub area reduces the size of topology table inside that area. Thus
routers running in this area require less memory.

MTU

Technically MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) is not a part of compulsory matching

conditions. Still we should match this value. If this value does not match routers may
stuck in Exstart/Exchange exchange stage.

Consider a situation where MTU setting between two OSPF routers does not match.
If the router with the higher MTU sends a packet larger than the MTU set on the
neighboring router, the neighboring router will ignores this packet. This function
creates serious problem for database updates. Database updates are heavier in
nature. Once an update becomes larger than the configured MTU setting, it needs to
be spilt. In a case of miss match MTU, database update may lost few bytes. Due to
this, OSPF will ignore that update and cannot sync with database. It will be stuck in
Exstart/Exchange stage.

It is always worth to spend a little extra time in matching optional values along with
compulsory values. Matching configuration values will make troubleshooting easier.

OSPF Neighbor States Explained with

Example
OSPF routers go through the seven states, called Down, Attempt/Init, Two ways,
Exstart, Exchange, Loading and full while building adjacency with other OSPF
speaking routers. In this tutorial I will explain these states in easy language with
examples. Along with these states I will also explain few other terminologies used in
this process.

OSPF Neighborship states

OSPF routers go through the seven states while building neighborship with other
routers.

1. Down state
2. Attempt/Init state
 3. Two ways state
4. Exstart state
5. Exchange state
6. Loading state
7. Full state

This tutorial is the third part of our article “OSPF Routing Protocol Explained with
examples". You can read other parts of this article here.

OSPF Fundamental Terminology Explained

This tutorial is the first part of this article. In this part we explained basic terminology of OSPF such as
Feature , Advantage and Disadvantage, Autonomous System, Area concept, ABR, IR, Link, State ,LSA
and LSDB with example.

OSPF Neighborship Condition and Requirement

This tutorial is the second part of this article. OSPF neighborship is built between two routers only if
configuration value of Area ID, Authentication, Hello and Dead interval, Stub Area and MTU are matched.
This part explains these parameters and OSPF adjacency in detail with examples.

OSPF Configuration Step by Step Guide

This tutorial is the fourth part of this article. Configuration part of OSPF includes process ID, Area ID and
wildcard mask which make its setup a litter bit harder. This part explains these parameters in detail with
examples.

OSPF Metric cost Calculation Formula Explained

This tutorial is the last part of this article. In this part we will explain OSPF metric component bandwidth,
Delay, Load, Reliability and MTU with cost calculation formula in detail with examples.

If you are an intermediate or advance leaner, grab this tutorial from where you want.
But if you are a beginner or Cisco exam candidate, I suggest you to go through the
entire article without skipping any section. Believe me OSPF is the most complex
routing protocol among the routing protocols which you will study in CCNA.

Let’s understand these states with a simple example. Assume that our network has
two routers running OSPF routing protocol. Routers are connected with each other
via serial link. We just turned on both routers simultaneously.

Down state
At this point both routers have no information about each other. R1 does not know
which protocol is running on R2. Vice versa R2 have no clue about R1. In this stage
OSPF learns about the local interfaces which are configured to run the OSPF
instance.
In down state routers prepares themselves for neighborship process. In this state
routers choose RID (Router ID). RID plays a big role in OSPF process. Before we
move in next state let’s understand what is RID.

RID

RID is a unique identifier of Router in OSPF network. It must be unique within the
autonomous system. Routers identify each other through the RID in AS.

How do routers choose RID?

An OSPF router looks in three places for RID:-

1. Manual configuration
2. Loopback interface IP configuration
3. Active interfaces IP configuration

Manual configuration
Because RID plays a significant role in network, OSPF allows us to configure it
manually. RID is 32 bit long. IP address is also 32 bit in length. We can use IP
address as a RID. This gives us more flexibility over RID. For example we can use a
simple and sequential IP scheme such as 1.1.1.1 for R1, 1.1.1.2 for R2, 1.1.1.3 for
R3, 1.1.1.4 for R4, 1.1.1.5 for R5 and so on.

We can assign RID from OSPF sub command mode.

Router(config)#router ospf 1
Router(config-router)#router-id ip_address
If we have assigned RID manually, OSPF will not look in next two options. Suppose
we did not assign it through the command. In this situation OSPF will look in next
option to find the RID.
Loopback interface IP configuration
If loopback interface is configured, OSPF will choose its IP address as RID. If
multiple loopback interfaces are configured, highest IP address will be chosen from
all loopback interfaces configuration.

If loopback interface is not configured, OSPF will look in next and last possible place
to choose the RID.

Active interface IP configuration

OSPF will choose the highest IP address from all operational IP interfaces. We
should not let the OSPF to use this option. This option does not provide a fix RID
which is very necessary for network stability.

This option has several reasons which may force OSPF to recalculate the RID such
as Interface which IP address is chosen may go down or for troubleshooting we may
enable / disable the interfaces.

Key points

 OSPF will follow the sequence (Manual configuration => Loopback interface =>
Active interface) of options while selecting RID. If RID is found, it will not look in next
option.
 OSPF will choose IP address only from operational IP interface. Operational means
interface should be listed as line is up and line protocol is up in the output of show ip
interface brief command.
 When multiple IP addresses are available, OSPF will always pick highest IP address
for RID.
 For network stability we should always set RID from either router-id command or by
using loopback interfaces.
 By default Router chooses OSPF RID when it initialized. Once RID is selected it will
use that RID until next reboot.
 OSPF will not consider any change in RID which we make after initialization. We
have two options to implement new RID. Either reboots the router or clear the OPSF
process with clear ip ospf process command.
 If OSPF fails to select the RID, it will halt the OSPF process. We cannot use OSPF
process without RID.
In down state router do following

 Choose RID and initialize the OSPF process

 Run OSPF instance on local interfaces which are configured through the network
command such as R1(config-router)#network 10.0.0.0 0.0.255.255 area 0.
 Collect necessary information for Hello packet such RID and configuration values
which are required to build the neighborship.

Attempt/Init state
Neighborship building process starts from this state. R1 multicasts first hello packet
so other routers in network can learn about the existence of R1 as an OSPF router.
This hello packet contains Router ID and some essential configuration values such
as area ID, hello interval, hold down timer, stub flag and MTU. Essential
configuration values must be same on routers who want to build an OSPF
neighborship.

In previous part of this article I explained essential configuration values in detail with
example. For this tutorial I assume that these values match on both routers. If
essential configuration values match, R2 will add R1 in his neighbor Table.
In Init state routers do following

 R1 will generate a hello packet with RID and essential configuration values and send
it out from all active interfaces.
 The hello packets are sent to the multicast address 224.0.0.5.
 R2 will receive this packet.
 R2 will read RID from packet and look in neighbor table for existing entry.
 If match found, R2 would skip neighborship building process and reset the dead
interval timer for that entry.
 If OSPF does not find a match in neighbor table, it will consider R1 (sender router) as
a possible OSPF neighbor and start neighborship building process.
 R2 will match its essential configuration values with values listed in packet.
 If all necessary configuration values match, R2 will add R1 in its neighbor table.

At this moment R1 has no idea about R2. R1 will learn about R2 when it will
respond.

Before we enter in third state, let’s have a quick look on attempt state.

Attempt
In Non-broadcast multi-access environment such as Frame Relay and X.25, OSPF
uses Attempt state instead of Init state. OSPF uses this state only if neighbors are
statically configured with neighbor command. In this situation, it does not have to
discover them dynamically. As it already knows the neighbors, it will use unicast
instead of multicast in this state.

Once neighborship is built, OSPF uses hello packets as keep alive. If a router does
not receive a hello packet from any particular neighbor in dead interval, it will change
its state to down from full. After changing the state it will make an effort to contact the
neighbor by sending Hello packets. This effort is made in Attempt state.
Basically Both Init and Attempt states describe similar situation where one router has
sent a hello packet and waiting for response.

Two ways state

If essential configuration values match, R2 will add R1 in neighbor table and reply
with its hello packet. As R2 knows the exact address of R1, it will use unicast for
reply. Beside RID and configuration values, this packet also contains the R2’s
neighbor table data. As we know R2 has already added R1 in its neighbor table. So
when R1 will see R2’s neighbor table data, R1 would also see its name in this data.
This will assure R1 that R2 has accepted its neighborship request.

At this point:-

 R2 has checked all essential configuration values listed in hello packet which it
received from R1.
 R2 is ready to build neighborship with these parameters.
 R2 has added R1 in its neighbor table.
 To continue the neighborship process, R2 has replied with its hello packet.
 R1 has received a reply from neighbor, with its own RID listed in R2’s neighbor table.

Now it is R1’s turn to take action on R2’s reply. This reply would be based on hello
packet which it received from R2. As we know that this hello packet contains one
additional field; Neighbor table data field which indicates that this is not a regular
neighbor discovery hello packet. This packet is a reply of its own request.
R1 will take following actions:-

 It will read RID from hello packet and look in its neighbor table for existing entry.
 If a match for RID found in neighbor table, it would reset the dead interval timer for
that entry.
 If a match is not found in neighbor table, it would read the essential configuration
values from packet.
 It will match configuration values with its own values. If values match, it will add R2’s
RID in neighbor table.
 If packet contains neighbor table data with its own RID, it will consider that as request
to enter in two way state.
 R1 will reply with a hello packet which contains its neighbor table data.
 This packet is a confirmation of two ways state.

Fine, our routers are neighbor now. They are ready to exchange the routing
information.

Before we understand how routers will exchange routing information, we need to

understand the types of network. OSPF uses different types of exchange process for
different types of network.

Point to point network

It is a Cisco specific network type. It connects a single pair of routers. HDLC and
PPP are example of point to point network type. In this type of network:-

 All routers form full adjacencies with each other.

 Hello packets are sent using a multicast address 224.0.0.5
 No DR and BDR are required.
 All routers are considered as AllSPFRouters.

I will explain the terms adjacencies, DR, BDR and AllSPFRouters shortly.
Broadcast Networks
Broadcast networks are capable in connecting more than two devices. Ethernet and
FDDI are the example of broadcast type network. In this type of network:-

 A single transmitted packet can be received by all attached devices.

 DR and BDR are required.
 All routers form full adjacencies only with DR and BDR.
 Routers use a multicast address 224.0.0.6 to update the DR.
 DR uses a multicast address 224.0.0.5 to update the all routers.

NMBA
Non-broadcast Multi-access networks are also capable in connecting more than two
devices. But they do not have broadcast capability. X.25 and Frame Relay are the
example of NMBA type network. In this type of network:-

 As network does not have broadcast capability, dynamic network discovery will not
be possible.
 OSPF neighbors must have to define statically.
 All OSFP packets are unicast.
 DR and BDR are required.

Point to multipoint
Point to multipoint is a special implementation of NMBA network where networks are
configured as a collection of point to point links. In this type of network:-

 Network must be configured statically.

 No DR and BRD are selected in this type of network.
 OSPF packets are multicast.

We can divide these networks in two types;

 1. Networks which need DR and BDR such as broadcast and NBMA
2. Networks which do not need DR and BDR such as point to point and point to
multipoint

So what does DR and BDR actually do? Why do we need them in our network?

DR and BDR

OSPF routers in a network which need DR (Designated router) and BDR (Backup
designated router) do not share routing information directly with all each other’s. To
minimize the routing information exchange, they select one router as designated
router (DR) and one other router as backup designated router (BDR). Remaining
routers are known as DROTHERs.

All DROTHERs share routing information with DR. DR will share this information
back to all DROTHERs. BDR is a backup router. In case DR is down, BDR will
immediately take place the DR and would elect new BDR for itself.

Main reason behind this mechanism is that routers have a central point for routing
information exchange. Thus they need not to update each other’s. A DROTHER only
need to update the central point (DR) and other DROTHERs will receive this update
from DR.

Practically this will cut the numbers of routing information exchange

from O(n*n) to O(n) where n is the number of routers in a multi-access segment.

For example following figure illustrates a simple OSPF network. In this network R4 is
selected as DR and R5 is selected as BDR. DROTHERs (R1, R2 and R3) will share
routing information with R4 (DR) and R5 (BDR), but they will not share routing
information with each other. Later DR will share this information back to all
DROTHERs.
DR and BDR Election process

OSPF uses priority value to select DR and BDR. OSPF router with the highest
priority becomes DR. Router with second highest priority becomes BDR. If there is a
tie, router with the highest RID will be chosen.

Priority value is 8 bit in length. Default priority value is 1. We can set any value from
range 0 to 255. We can change it from Interface Sub-configuration mode with ip ospf
priority command.

We can force any router to become DR (Highest) or BDR (Second highest) by

changing its priority value. If we set priority value to 0, it will never become DR or
BDR.

For example following figure illustrates a simple OPSF network. In this network we
have five routers. We do not want that R3 becomes DR or BDR. So we changed its
default priority value to 0. Now let’s see how these routers select DR and BDR.

Condition 1:- Use the highest priority value

This condition says “Arrange all routes in high to low order and pick the highest for
DR and second highest for BDR”. If we arrange our routers in high to lower order, R3
will stand at last. Remaining routers have equal priority value. So at the end of this
condition we have a tie between four routers.

Condition 2:- If there is a tie use the highest RID

This condition says “If there is a tie, use RID value to choose”. In our network we
have a tie between four routers, so our routers will use RID to elect the DR and BDR.
Arranging routers in high to low order will give us the DR and BDR.

As we know that there are two types of network; networks which do not require DR
and BDR for exchange process and networks which require DR and BDR for
exchange process.

In first type all routers will exchange routing information with each other’s. In second
type DROTHERs will exchange routing information with DR and BDR.

Routers which will exchange routing information are known as adjacent. Relationship
between two adjacent is known as adjacency. This terminology is associated with
interfaces.

A router which has two interfaces can be adjacent in one interface

and DROTHER in other interface.

For example following figure illustrates an OSPF running NBMA network. In this
network;

R3 will build adjacency with R1, so in this relationship they will be considered
as Adjacent.

R3 will not build adjacency with R4, so in this relationship they will be considered
only DROTHER.
In a network which doesn’t require DR and BDR, all routers will be considered
as Adjacent and relationship between them will be considered as Adjacency.

Only adjacent routers will enter in next states to build the adjacency.

Exstart state

Routers who decided to build adjacency will form a master / slave relationship. In
each adjacency router who has higher RID will become master and other will
become slave. Do not mix Master /Slave relationship with DR/ BDR/ DROTHER
relationship. Both terms look similar but have different meaning. DR/ BDR/
DROTHER relationship is built in a segment and have a wider meaning while Master
/ Slave relationship is built between two interfaces which need to exchange routing
information. Master / Slave relationship has limited purpose. It is used to decide the
Router who will start exchange process. Always Master starts exchange process.
Once routers settle down on Master/Slave, they will establish the initial sequence
numbers which will be used in routing information exchange process. Sequence
numbers insure that routers get most accurate information.

Exchange state

In exchange state, Master and slave decide how much information needs to be
exchange. A router that has more than one interface may learn same network
information from different sources. An OSFP router is smart enough to filter the
updates before receiving it. It will ask only for the updates which it does not have. In
this state, routers will filter the updates which need be to exchange.

Before we learn how routes will filter this information, let’s understand few relative
terms.

LSA and LSDB are explained in the first part of this tutorial. To maintain the flow of this article I am
including the summary of these terms here again.

LSA
Link state advertisement (LSA) is a data packet which contains link-state and routing
information. OSPF uses it share and learn network information.

LSDB
Every OSPF router maintains a Link state database (LSDB). LSDB is collection of all
LSAs received by a router. Every LSA has a sequence number. OSPF stores LSA in
LADB with this sequence number.
DBDs
Database description packets (also referred as DDPs) contain the list of LSA. This
list includes link state type, cost of link, ID of advertising router and sequence
number of link. Make sure you understand this term correctly. It is only a list of all
LSAs from its respective database. It does not include full LSAs.

In this state, routers exchanges DBDs. Through DBDs routers can learn which LSAs
they already have. For example in following network R1 has A1, A2 and B2 LSAs in
its LADB. So it will send a list of these LSAs to R2. This list is a DBDs. R2 will send
an acknowledgment of receiving the list with LSACK signal. Same as R2 will send its
DBDs to R1 and R1 would acknowledge that with its LSACK single.

LSR
Upon receiving DBDs, routers will compare it with their own LADB. Thus they will
learn what they need to order. For example R1 received a check list (DBDs) of A1
and B1. When it will compare this list with its own LSA database (LADB), it will learn
that it already has A1. So it does not need to order this LSA again. But it does not
have B1, so it needs to order for this LSA. After a complete comparison, both routers
will prepare a list of LSAs which they do not have in their own LADB. This list is
known as LSR (Link State Request).

What other have (DBDs) – What I have (LADB) = What I need to order (LSR)
At the end of this state both routers have a list of LSAs which need to be exchanged.

Loading state

In this state actual routing information is exchanged. Routers exchange LSAs from
LSR list.

Routers will use LSU (Link state update) to exchange the LSAs. Each LSA contains
routing information about a particular link. Routers also maintain a retransmission list
to make sure that every sent LSA is acknowledged.

For example following figure illustrates loading state of above example. R1 sent a
LSU which contain two LSAs but it received acknowledgement of only one, so it had
to resend lost LSA again.

This exchange process will continue till router has any unsent LSA in LSR list.

Full state
Full state indicates that both routers has been exchanged all LSAs from LSR list.
Now they have identical LSDB.

Adjacent routers remain in this state for life time. This state also referred as
adjacency. If any change occurs in network, routers will go through this process
again.

Maintaining adjacency

 Routers will send hello messages in hello interval.

 If a router does not receive hello message from neighbor in dead interval, it will
declare that neighbor as dead.
 Once a neighbor is dead, router will flood this change to other connected neighbors.
 Beside this if router detect any change in network or receive any update, it will flood
that change.
 A LSA has a default lifetime of 30 minutes. Any unchanged LSAs must be reflooded
in every 30 minutes.

That’s all for this part. In next part, I will explain configuration part of OSPF.

To keep this tutorial simple, I used terms neighbor and adjacencies synonymously.
Technically both terms are related but have different meanings especially in OSPF.
Neighboring routers are defined in RFC 2328.

Neighboring routers are the routers that have interfaces in common network.

OSPF Configuration Step by Step Guide

This tutorial explains how to configure OSPF Routing protocol step by step with
practical example in packet tracer. Learn OSPF configuration commands, OSPF
show commands, OSPF network configuration (Process ID, Network ID, Wild card
mask and Area number) and OSPF routing in detail.

For demonstration we will use packet tracer network simulator software. You can use
real Cisco devices or any other network simulator software for following this guide.

Create a topology as illustrate in following figure or download this pre-created

topology.

Download OSPF Practice Topology

This tutorial is the fourth part of our article “OSPF Routing Protocol Explained with
examples". You can read other parts of this article here.

OSPF Fundamental Terminology Explained

This tutorial is the first part of this article. In this part we explained basic terminology of OSPF such as
Feature , Advantage and Disadvantage, Autonomous System, Area concept, ABR, IR, Link, State ,LSA
and LSDB with example.

OSPF Neighborship Condition and Requirement

This tutorial is the second part of this article. OSPF neighborship is built between two routers only if
configuration value of Area ID, Authentication, Hello and Dead interval, Stub Area and MTU are matched.
This part explains these parameters and OSPF adjacency in detail with examples.

OSPF Neighbor States Explained with Example

This tutorial is the third part of this article. OSPF adjacency process goes through the seven states; OSPF
State down, OSPF State Init, OSPF State two ways, OSPF State Exstart, OSPF State Exchange, OSPF
State Loading and OSPF State full. This part explains these states with DR BDR selection process in detail
with examples.

OSPF Metric cost Calculation Formula Explained

This tutorial is the last part of this article. In this part we will explain OSPF metric component bandwidth,
Delay, Load, Reliability and MTU with cost calculation formula in detail with examples.
Initial IP Configuration

Device Interface IP Configuration

PC0 Fa0/0 10.0.0.2/8

Router0 Fa0/0 10.0.0.1/8

Router0 Fa0/1 192.168.1.1/30

Router5 Fa0/1 192.168.1.2/30

Router5 Fa0/0 192.168.1.5/30

Router6 Fa0/0 192.168.1.6/30

Router6 Fa0/1 20.0.0.1/8

Server0 Fa0/0 20.0.0.2/8

Router0 Serial 0/0/0 (DCE) 192.168.0.1/30

Router1 Serial 0/0/0 192.168.0.2/30

Router1 Serial 0/0/1 (DCE) 192.168.0.5/30

Router2 Serial0/0/1 192.168.0.6/30

Router2 Serial 0/0/0 (DCE) 192.168.0.9/30

Router6 Serial 0/0/0 192.168.0.10/30

Router0 Serial 0/0/1 192.168.2.1/30

Router3 Serial 0/0/1 (DCE) 192.168.2.2/30

Router3 Serial 0/0/0 192.168.2.5/30

Router4 Serial 0/0/0 (DCE) 192.68.2.6/30

Router4 Serial 0/0/1 192.168.2.9/30

Router6 Serial0/0/1 (DCE) 192.168.2.10/30

Assign IP address to PC
Double click PC0 and click Desktop menu item and click IP Configuration. Assign
IP address 10.0.0.2/8 to PC0.
Repeat same process for Server0 and assign IP address 20.0.0.2/8.

Assign IP address to interfaces of routers

Double click Router0 and click CLI and press Enter key to access the command
prompt of Router0.

Four interfaces FastEthernet0/0, FastEthernet0/1, Serial 0/0/0 and Serial0/0/1 of

Router0 are used in this topology. By default interfaces on router are remain
administratively down during the start up.

We need to configure IP address and other parameters on interfaces before we

could actually use them for routing. Interface mode is used to assign the IP address
and other parameters. Interface mode can be accessed from global configuration
mode. Following commands are used to access the global configuration mode.

Router>enable
Router# configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#
From global configuration mode we can enter in interface mode. From there we can
configure the interface. Following commands will assign IP address on
FastEthernet0/0 and FastEthernet0/1.

Router(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/0

Router(config-if)#ip address 10.0.0.1 255.0.0.0
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Router(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/1
Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.252
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Router(config)#
interface fastEthernet 0/0 command is used to enter in interface mode.

ip address 10.0.0.1 255.0.0.0 command would assign IP address to interface.

no shutdown command would bring the interface up.

exit command is used to return in global configuration mode.

Serial interface needs two additional parameters clock rate and bandwidth. Every
serial cable has two ends DTE and DCE. These parameters are always configured
at DCE end.

We can use show controllers interface command from privilege mode to check the
cable’s end.

Router#show controllers serial 0/0/0

Interface Serial0/0/0
Hardware is PowerQUICC MPC860
DCE V.35, clock rate 2000000
[Output omitted]
Fourth line of output confirms that DCE end of serial cable is attached. If you see
DTE here instead of DCE skip these parameters.

Now we have necessary information let’s assign IP address to serial interfaces.

Router# configure terminal

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)#interface serial 0/0/0
Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.0.1 255.255.255.252
Router(config-if)#clock rate 64000
Router(config-if)#bandwidth 64
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Router(config)#interface serial 0/0/1
Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.2.1 255.255.255.252
Router(config-if)#no shutdown
Router(config-if)#exit
Router#configure terminal Command is used to enter in global configuration mode.

Router(config)#interface serial 0/0/0 Command is used to enter in interface mode.

Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.0.1 255.255.255.252 Command assigns IP

address to interface. For serial link we usually use IP address from /30 subnet.

Router(config-if)#clock rate 64000 In real life environment this parameter controls

the data flow between serial links and need to be set at service provider’s end. In lab
environment we need not to worry about this value. We can use any valid clock rate
here.

Router(config-if)#bandwidth 64 Bandwidth works as an influencer. It is used to

influence the metric calculation of OSPF or any other routing protocol which uses
bandwidth parameter in route selection process. Serial interface has default
bandwidth of 1544Kbps. To explain, how bandwidth influence route selection
process we will configure (64Kbps) bandwidth on three serial DCE interfaces of our
network; R0’s Se0/0/0, R1’s Se0/0/1 and R2’s Se0/0/0.

Router(config-if)#no shutdown Command brings interface up.

Router(config-if)#exit Command is used to return in global configuration mode.

We will use same commands to assign IP addresses on interfaces of remaining

routers.

Router1
Router2

As I mention earlier, serial interface has a default bandwidth of 1544Kbps. If we don’t

assign any custom bandwidth, router would use default bandwidth. To see this
feature in action we will not assign bandwidth on remaining routers.

Router6
Router5

Router3

Router4
Great job we have finished our half journey. Now routers have information about the
networks that they have on their own interfaces. Routers will not exchange this
information between them on their own. We need to implement OSPF routing
protocol that will insist them to share this information.

To be on same track I have uploaded my practice topology. Use this if you want to
skip above IP configuration part.

Download OSPF Practice Topology with IP configuration

Configure OSPF routing protocol

Enabling OSPF is a two steps process:-

 Enable OSPF routing protocol from global configuration mode.

 Tell OSPF which interfaces we want to include.

For these steps following commands are used respectively.

Router(config)# router ospf process_ID

Router(config-router)# network IP_network_# [wild card mask]
Area Number area number
Router(config)# router ospf process ID

This command will enable OSPF routing protocol in router. Process ID is a positive
integer. We can use any number from 1 to 65,535. Process ID is locally significant.
We can run multiple OSPF process on same router. Process ID is used to
differentiate between them. Process ID need not to match on all routers.

Router(config-router)# network IP_network_# [wildcard_mask] area [area

number]

Network command allows us to specify the interfaces which we want to include in

OSPF process. This command accepts three arguments network number, wildcard
mask and area number.

Network number

Network number is network ID. We can use any particular host IP address or
network IP address. For example we can use 192.168.1.1 (host IP address) or we
can use 192.168.1.0 (Network IP address). While targeting a specific interface
usually we use host IP address (configured on that interface).

While targeting multiple interfaces, we use network IP address. So any interface that
belongs to specified network ID will be selected.

Wildcard mask

Wildcard mask are used with network ID to filter the interfaces. Wildcard mask is
different from subnet mask. Subnet mask is used to separate the network portion
and host portion in IP address. While wildcard mask is used to match corresponding
octet in network portion. Wildcard mask tells OSPF the part of network address that
must be matched. Wildcard masks are explained with examples in access list
tutorials of this category.

Key points

0 (Decimal – octet format) Wildcard mask indicates that corresponding octet in

network address must be matched exactly.

255 (Decimal – octet format) Wildcard mask indicates that we don’t care about
corresponding octet in network address.

For example

0 (Binary – bit format) Wildcard mask indicates that corresponding bit in network
address must be matched exactly.

255 (Binary – bit format) Wildcard mask indicates that we don’t care about
corresponding bit in network address.

OSPF is a classless protocol. With wildcard we can also filter Subnetted networks. In
classes implementation usually we use Subnetted networks. For example consider
following figure
We have four networks 172.168.1.0/24, 172.168.2.0/24, 172.168.3.0/24 and
172.168.4.0/24 subnetted from single class B network 172.168.0.0/16. Classful
configuration does not understand the concept of subnetting. In classful configuration
all these networks belong to a single network. Classful configuration works only with
in default boundary of mask. Default boundary of this address is 16 bits. So a
classful routing protocol will match only first 16 bits (172.168.x.y) of network address.
A classful routing protocol such as RIP cannot distinguish between different
Subnetted networks.

A classless routing protocol such as OSPF goes beyond the default boundary of
mask and work well with Subnetted networks. With wildcard mask we can easily filter
Subnetted networks.

With wildcard we are no longer limited with default boundaries. We can match
Subnetted networks as well as default networks.

For example we want to exclude serial interfaces in above configuration. We can use
a wildcard mask of 0.0.0.255 to match the subnet mask of /24.

Router(config-router)# network 172.168.1.0 0.0.0.255

Router(config-router)# network 172.168.2.0 0.0.0.255
Above commands will ask router to match /24 bits of address instead of default /16
bits. Now router will look for 172.168.1.x and 172.168.2.x network. Our serial
interfaces have 172.168.3.0/24 and 172.168.4.0/24 networks which do not fall in
these search criteria.

Let’s take one more example, if we use following network command, which
interfaces would be selected.

Router(config-router)# network 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.3

In this case valid host IP addresses are 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2. So any
interface that has these IP address would be selected. /30 network is usually used
for serial link connection which need only two valid host IP addresses; one for each
end.

If you are unfamiliar with wildcard mask, I suggest you to check our tutorials on
access lists configuration in this category. In those tutorials wildcard masks are
explained in detail with examples.

For this tutorial let’s move on third argument. Third argument which network
command accept is area number. This parameter say router to put matched interface
in specified area. OSPF areas are explained in second part this article.

Now we know the essential commands for configuration. Let’s implement them in our
network.

OSPF configuration

Router0

Router1
Router2

Router6

Router5

Router4

Router3

That’s it. Our network is ready to take the advantage of OSPF routing. To verify the
setup we will use ping command. ping command is used to test the connectivity
between two devices.

We have two routes between source and destination. tracert command is used to
know the route which is used to get the destination.
Access the command prompt of PC1 and use ping command to test the connectivity
from Server0. After that use tracert command to print the taken path.

Great! We have successfully implemented OSFP routing in our network.

If you did not get the same out as explained in this tutorial, use this configured
topology to cross check your topology and find out the reason.
Download OSPF Practice Topology with OSPF configuration

Summary
Command Description

Router(config)#router opsf 10 Enable OSPF routing protocol under process ID 10.

Router(config-router)#network 10.10.0.0 Enable OSPF with area 0 on matching interface.

0.0.255.255 area 0

Router(config)#interface loopback 0 Create a Loopback interface and move in sub interface configuration m

Router(config-if)#ip address 192.168.250.250 Assign IP address to loopback interface.

255.255.255.0

Router(config-router)#router-id 1.1.1.1 Set 1.1.1.1 as router ID

Command Description

Router(config)#interface serial 0/0 Inter in sub interface configuration mode

Router(config-if)#ip ospf priority 100 Used to influence DR/BDR selection process. Valid range is 0 to 255. 0 m
guaranteed DR/BDR. Higher priority value means higher chance of bec

Router(config-if)#bandwidth 256 Used to influence route metric cost. Cost is the inverse of bandwidth. H
256 means 256 Kbps.

Router(config-if)#ip ospf hello-interval timer Set hello interval timer to 15 seconds. Hello timer must be match on bo
15

Router(config-if)#ip ospf dead-interval 60 Set dead interval timer to 60 seconds. Dead interval timer must be ma

Router#show ip route Display all routes from routing table

Router#show ip route ospf Display all routers learned through OSPF from routing table

Router#show ip ospf Display basic information about OSPF

Router#show ip ospf interface Display information about all OSPF active interfaces

Router#show ip ospf interface serial 0/0/0 Display OSPF information about serial 0/0/0 interface

Router#show ip ospf neighbor List all OSPF neighbors with basic info

Router#show ip ospf neighbor detail List OSPF neighbors with detail info

Router#show ip ospf database Display data for OSPF database

Router#clear ip route * Clear all routes from routing table.

Router#clear ip route 10.0.0.0/8 Clear particular route from routing table

Router#clear ip ospf counters Clear OSPF counters

Router#debug ip ospf events Display all ospf events

Router#debug ip ospf packets Display exchanged OSPF packets

Router#debug ip ospf adjacency Display DR/BDR election process state

That’s all for this part. In next part of this article I will explain how OSPF calculate the
shortest path for destination.
OSPF Metric cost Calculation Formula
Explained
This tutorial explains OSPF Metric calculation formula and SPF algorithm step by
step in detail with examples. Learn how SPF (Shortest Path First) algorithm
calculates cumulative cost of route to build the Shortest Path Tree (SPT) and how
OSPF Metric Formula can be manipulated by changing reference bandwidth value.

Shortest Path First (SPF) Algorithm

As we know upon initialization or due to any change in routing information an OSPF

router generates a LSA. This LSA (Link State Advertisement) contains the collection
of all link-states on that router. Router propagates this LSA in network. Each router
that receives this LSA would store a copy of it in its LSA database then flood this
LSA to other routers.

After database is updated, router selects a single best route for each destination
from all available routes. Router uses SPF algorithm to select the best route.

Just like other routing algorithm SPF also uses a metric component called cost to
select the best route for routing table.

This tutorial is the last part of our article “OSPF Routing Protocol Explained with
examples". You can read other parts of this article here.

OSPF Fundamental Terminology Explained

This tutorial is the first part of this article. In this part we explained basic terminology of OSPF such as
Feature , Advantage and Disadvantage, Autonomous System, Area concept, ABR, IR, Link, State ,LSA
and LSDB with example.

OSPF Neighborship Condition and Requirement

This tutorial is the second part of this article. OSPF neighborship is built between two routers only if
configuration value of Area ID, Authentication, Hello and Dead interval, Stub Area and MTU are matched.
This part explains these parameters and OSPF adjacency in detail with examples.

OSPF Neighbor States Explained with Example

This tutorial is the third part of this article. OSPF adjacency process goes through the seven states; OSPF
State down, OSPF State Init, OSPF State two ways, OSPF State Exstart, OSPF State Exchange, OSPF
State Loading and OSPF State full. This part explains these states with DR BDR selection process in detail
with examples.

OSPF Configuration Step by Step Guide

This tutorial is the fourth part of this article. Configuration part of OSPF includes process ID, Area ID and
wildcard mask which make its setup a litter bit harder. This part explains these parameters in detail with
examples.
OSPF Metric cost
Logically a packet will face more overhead in crossing a 56Kbps serial link than
crossing a 100Mbps Ethernet link. Respectively it will take less time in crossing a
higher bandwidth link than a lower bandwidth link. OSPF uses this logic to calculate
the cost. Cost is the inverse proportional of bandwidth. Higher bandwidth has a lower
cost. Lower bandwidth has a higher cost.

OSPF uses following formula to calculate the cost

Cost = Reference bandwidth / Interface bandwidth in bps.

Reference bandwidth was defined as arbitrary value in OSPF documentation (RFC

2338). Vendors need to use their own reference bandwidth. Cisco uses 100Mbps
(108) bandwidth as reference bandwidth. With this bandwidth, our equation would be

Cost = 108/interface bandwidth in bps

Key points

 Cost is a positive integer value.

 Any decimal value would be rounded back in nearest positive integer.
 Any value below 1 would be considered as 1.

Now we know the equation, let’s do some math and figure out the default cost of
some essential interfaces.

Default cost of essential interfaces.

Interface Type bandwidth Metric Calculation

Ethernet Link 10Mbps 100000000/10000000

FastEthernet Link 100Mbps 100000000/10000000

Serial Link 1544Kbps(default) 100000000/1544000

Cost of common lines

Line Bandwidth Metric calculation

56 Kbps line 56Kbps 100000000/56000 = 1785.71

64 Kbps line 64Kbps 100000000/64000 = 1562.5

128 Kbps line 128Kbps 100000000/128000 = 781.25

512 Kbps line 512 Kbps 100000000/512000 = 195.31

1 Mbps line 1Mbps 100000000/1000000 = 100

10 Mbps line 10Mbps 100000000/10000000 = 10

100 Mbps line 100Mbps 100000000/100000000 = 1

Line Bandwidth Metric calculation

1 Gbps line 1Gbps 100000000/100000000 0= 0.1

10 Gbps line 10Gbps 100000000/10000000000 = 0.01

SPT (Shortest Path Tree)

OSPF router builds a Shortest Path Tree. SPT is just like a family tree where router
is the root and destination networks are the leaves. SPF algorithm calculates the
branch cost between leaves and root. Branch with lowest cost will be used to reach
at leaf. In technical language route that has lowest cumulative cost value between
source and destination will be selected for routing table.

Cumulative cost = Sum of all outgoing interfaces cost in route

Best route for routing table = Route which has the lowest cumulative cost

Summary

 OSPF uses SPT tree to calculate the best route for routing table.
 A SPT tree cannot grow beyond the area. So if a router has interfaces in multiple
areas, it needs to build separate tree for each area.
 SPF algorithm calculates all possible routes from source router to destination
network.
 Cumulative cost is the sum of the all costs of the outgoing OSPF interfaces in the
path.
 While calculating cumulative cost, OSPF consider only outgoing interfaces in path. It
does not add the cost of incoming interfaces in cumulative cost.
 If multiple routes exist, SPF compares the cumulative costs. Route which has the
lowest cumulative cost will be chosen for routing table.

Now we have a basic understanding of SPF algorithm. In remaining part this tutorial
we will learn how SPF algorithm selects the best route from available routes.

Create a practice lab as illustrated in following figure or download this pre-created

practice lab and load in practice tracer.

Download OSPF Practice Topology with OSPF configuration

Access CLI prompt of Router0.

Run show ip route ospf command from privilege mode to view all learned routes
through the OSPF protocol.

As output shows, Router0 has six routes from OSPF in routing table. We will go
through the each route and find out why it was chosen as the best route for routing
table by OSPF.

Route 20.0.0.0
We have three routes to get 20.0.0.0/8 network. Let’s calculate the cumulative cost
of each route.

Via Route R0-R1-R2-R6

Router Exit Interface Bandwidth Metric

R0 Se0/0/0 64Kbps ( Manually Assigned) 100000

R1 Se0/0/1 64Kbps ( Manually Assigned) 100000

R2 Se0/0/0 64Kbps ( Manually Assigned) 100000

R6 Fa0/1 100Mbps 100000

Via route R0 – R3 – R4 – R6
Router Exit Interface Bandwidth Metric Calculatio

R0 Se0/0/1 1544Kbps (Default ) 100000000/1544

R3 Se0/0/0 1544Kbps (Default ) 100000000/1544

R2 Se0/0/1 1544Kbps (Default ) 100000000/1544

R6 Fa0/1 100Mbps 100000000/1000

Via route R0 – R5 – R6
Router Exit Interface Bandwidth Metric Calculation

R0 Fa0/1 100Mbps 100000000/100000000 =

R5 Fa0/0 100Mbps 100000000/100000000 =

R0 Fa0/1 100Mbps 100000000/100000000 =

Among these routes, route R0-R5-R6 has the lowest cumulative cost. So it was
selected as the best route for routing table.

Route 192.168.0.4

Via Route R0 – R1
R0’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (1562) + R1’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (1562) = 3124 (Cumulative
cost)

Via Route R0 – R3 – R4 – R6 – R2
R0’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) + R3’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) + R4’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64)
+ R6’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) + R2’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) = 320 (Cumulative cost)

Via Route R0 – R5 – R6 – R2
Ro’s FastEthernet 0/1 cost (1) + R5’s FastEthernet 0/0 cost (1) + R6’s Serial 0/0/0
cost (64) +R2’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) = 130 (Cumulative cost)
Among these routes, Route R0 – R5 – R6 – R2 has the lowest cost so it was picked
for routing table.

Route 192.168.0.8

Via Route R0 – R1
R0’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (1562) + R1’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (1562) + R2’s Serial 0/0/0
(1562) = 4686 (Cumulative cost)

Via Route R0 – R3 – R4 – R6
R0’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) + R3’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) + R4’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64)
+ R6’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) = 256 (Cumulative cost)

Via Route R0 – R5 – R6
Ro’s FastEthernet 0/1 cost (1) + R5’s FastEthernet 0/0 cost (1) + R6’s Serial 0/0/0
cost (64) = 66 (Cumulative cost)
Among these routes, Route R0 – R5 – R6 has the lowest cost so it was picked for
routing table.

Route 192.168.1.4

Via Route R0 – R1 – R2 – R6
R0’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (1562) + R1’s Serial 0/0/1 (1562) + R2’s Serial 0/0/0 (1562) +
R6’s FastEthernet 0/0 (1) = 4687 (Cumulative cost)

Via R0 – R3 – R4 – R6
R0’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) + R3’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) + R4’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64)
+ R6’s FastEthernet 0/0 (1) = 193

Via R0 – R5
R0’s FastEthernet 0/1 cost (1) + R5’s FastEthernet 0/0 cost (1) = 2
Among these routes, Route R0 – R5 has the lowest cost so it was selected as the
best route.

Route 192.168.2.4

Via Route R0 – R1 – R2 – R6 – R4
R0’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (1562) + R1’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (1562) + R2’s Serial 0/0/0 cost
(1562) + R6’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) + R4’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) = 4814

Via Route R0 – R5 – R6 – R4
R0’s FastEthernet 0/1 cost (1) + R5’s FastEthernet 0/0 cost (1) + R6’s Serial 0/0/1
(64) + R4’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) = 130

Via Route R0 – R3
R0’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) + R3’s serial 0/0/0 cost (64) = 128
Among these routes, Route R0 - R3 has the lowest cost for destination 192.168.2.4.

Route 192.168.2.8

Via Route R0 – R3 – R4
R0’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) + R3’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) + R4’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64)
= 192

Via Route R0 – R1 – R2 – R6
Ro’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (1562) + R1’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (1562) + R2’s Serial 0/0/0 cost
(1562) + R6’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) = 4750

Via Route R0 – R5 – R6
R0’s FastEthernet 0/1 cost (1) + R5’s FastEthernet 0/0 cost (1) + R6’s Serial 0/0/1
cost (64) = 66
Route R0 – R5 – R6 has the lowest cost value.

After selecting best route for each destination OSPF network look likes following
figure.
OSPF Route cost Manipulation
We can manipulate OSPF route cost in two ways.

1. By changing bandwidth of interface

2. By changing reference bandwidth value

By changing bandwidth of interface

Sub interface mode command Bandwidth is used to set the bandwidth of supported
interface.

If bandwidth is set through this command, OSPF will use it. If bandwidth is not set, it
will use interface’s default bandwidth.

When we enable an interface, router automatically assign a bandwidth value to it

based on its type. For example serial interface has a default bandwidth value of
1544k. Until we change this value with bandwidth command, it will be used where it
is required.

Let me clear one more thing about bandwidth. Changing default bandwidth with
bandwidth command does not change actual bandwidth of interface. Neither default
bandwidth nor bandwidth set by bandwidth command has anything to do with actual
layer one link bandwidth.

Then what purpose does this command solve?

This command is only used to influence the routing protocol which uses bandwidth in
route selection process such as OSPF and EIGRP.

We have already seen an example of this method in our example. We changed

default bandwidth (1544Kbps) to custom (64kbps) bandwidth on R0’s serial 0/0/0,
R1’s serial 0/0/1 and R2’s serial 0/0/0. Due to this change R0 took another router for
192.168.0.4 network.

Let’s understand this in more detail.

Current cost for destination 192.168.0.4 from R0

Via Route R0 – R1
R0’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (1562) + R1’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (1562) = 3124 (Cumulative
cost)

Via Route R0 – R5 – R6 – R2
Ro’s FastEthernet 0/1 cost (1) + R5’s FastEthernet 0/0 cost (1) + R6’s Serial 0/0/0
cost (64) +R2’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) = 130 (Cumulative cost)

Via Route R0 – R3 – R4 – R6 – R2
R0’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) + R3’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) + R4’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64)
+ R6’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) + R2’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) = 320 (Cumulative cost)

Among these routes, Route R0 – R5 – R6 – R2 has the lowest cost so it was picked
for routing table.

Well … Which route would have selected, if we had used default bandwidth?

Cost for destination 192.168.0.4 from R0 with default bandwidth.

Via Route R0 – R1
R0’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) + R1’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) = 128 (Cumulative cost)

Via Route R0 – R5 – R6 – R2
Ro’s FastEthernet 0/1 cost (1) + R5’s FastEthernet 0/0 cost (1) + R6’s Serial 0/0/0
cost (64) +R2’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) = 130 (Cumulative cost)

Via Route R0 – R3 – R4 – R6 – R2
R0’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) + R3’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) + R4’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64)
+ R6’s Serial 0/0/0 cost (64) + R2’s Serial 0/0/1 cost (64) = 320 (Cumulative cost)

Among these routes, Route R0 – R1 has the lowest cost value so it would be
selected for routing table. Thus by changing interface bandwidth we actually
influenced route selection process.

By changing reference bandwidth value

As I mention earlier, by default OSPF uses 100Mbps bandwidth as a reference

bandwidth. Changing this value would also change the cost of route. If we use
1000Mbps as a reference bandwidth, cost of 100Mbps link would become 10. This
sounds great, especially if we have higher bandwidth links in our network. For
example have a look on following figure.

Which route will R2 take to get the network of 10.0.0.0/8?

Route R2 – R3
In this route we have two exit points. Both points have default 1oo Mbps speed.

R2’s FastEthernet cost (100000000/100000000) = 1

R3’s FastEthernet cost (100000000/100000000) = 1

Cost of this route 1 + 1 = 2

Route R2 – R1 – R3
In this route we have three exit points. Two exit points (R2 and R1) have 1 Gbps link.

R2’s FastEthernet cost (100000000/1000000000) = .1 (Anything below 1 would be

considered as 1)

R3’s FastEthernet (100000000/1000000000) = .1 (Anything below 1 would be

considered as 1)

R3’s FastEthernet cost (100000000/100000000) = 1

Cost of this route 1 + 1 + 1 = 3

With default reference bandwidth R2 will choose Route R2 – R3, which is not good.

We can adjust reference bandwidth with auto-cost reference-bandwidth ref-

band command.

We need to adjust reference bandwidth on all routers of network. Mismatched

reference bandwidth can cause routers to run the SPF algorithm continually, which
could create a serious performance issue.
Reference bandwidth is assigned in Mbps. Valid range is 1 to 4294967. Default
reference bandwidth is 100Mbps.

Sadly packet tracer does not include this command. For the practice of this
command please use other simulator software which support this command or use
real router.

Let’s change reference bandwidth to 1000Mbps on all three routers using following
commands

Router# configure terminal

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router (config)#router ospf 1
Router (config-router)#auto-cost reference-bandwidth 1000
% OSPF: Reference bandwidth is changed.
Please ensure reference bandwidth is consistent across
all routers.
Router (config-router)#exit
Router #
Route cost with new reference bandwidth

{module in_art_slot_10}
Route R2 – R3
R2’s FastEthernet cost (1000000000/100000000) = 10

R3’s FastEthernet cost (1000000000/100000000) = 10

Cost of this route 10 + 10 = 20

Route R2 – R1 – R3
R2’s FastEthernet cost (1000000000/1000000000) = 1

R3’s FastEthernet (1000000000/1000000000) = 1

R3’s FastEthernet cost (1000000000/100000000) = 10

Cost of this route 1 + 1 + 10 = 12

In this case Route R2-R1-R3 will be selected, which is the shortest route for
destination.

Static Routes and Static Routing

Explained
This tutorial explains what static routing and static routes are. Learn the advantages
and disadvantages of static routing and where to use static routing.

Routers connect different networks. They receive data packets from a network, read
the destination address of each data packet, and forward the data packet to the
destination network. To forward data packets, they learn all routes of the network
and store them into the routing table.

The routing table stores each route in a separate line as a separate entry. A routing
table entry contains the network address of the destination network and either the
name of the local interface connected to the destination network or the IP address of
the remote router that knows how to reach the destination network.

There are three methods to add entries to the routing table. These methods are
default or automatic, manual or static, and dynamic. In the default method, the router
automatically adds routing entries for its interfaces.

We have already discussed the default method of routing in the following tutorial.

Connected Routes and Local Routes Explained

We will discuss, the dynamic method in the next tutorial. In this tutorial, we will
discuss the static or the manual method of routing.

Static or manual routing

The static or manual method to add entries to the routing table is known as static or
manual routing. In static or manual routing, the administrator manually adds entries
to the routing table. The administrator creates a virtual map of all routes and
manually adds them to each router’s routing table.

Routes that are manually added by an administrator to the routing table are known
as static routes. In other words, a static route is a route that you manually add to
the router’s routing table.
Advantages of static routing

Static routing allows the administrator to save money. In static routing, the router
does not use CPU and RAM to learn the routes and calculate the best route to each
destination. Since static routing does not put overhead on the router's CPU and
RAM, the administrator can use a cheaper router.

In static routing, routers do not exchange routing information. Since routers do not
exchange routing information, they save the network bandwidth. If in a network,
routers are connected through a paid WAN link, static routing can reduce the bill
amount that the network pays for WAN connectivity.
Static routing is the safest method of routing. The administrator manually adds
routes for authorized networks. Since the administrator manually decides which
network can reach which network, a network can only access the authorized
network.

Disadvantages of static routing

In static routing, since the administrator adds and manages all routes, the
administrator must have in-depth knowledge of the internetwork.

To add all routes correctly, the administrator has to learn how each router is
connected to the network.

The process of adding each route on each router is tedious.

If the administrator changes the location of a router in the network, the administrator
has to update routing information on all routers manually.

If a link goes up or down, the administrator has to manually update this information
on all routers. On a flipping link, this will cause a huge problem.

If you have a backup route, the router doesn't automatically switch to the backup
route if the main route fails. The administrator must have to reconfigure the router to
use the backup route.

Usages of static routing

Static routing is a good option when the network size is small. In a small network,
static routing offers many benefits at the cost of little manual work. You can use
static routing to reduce the overhead from routers or save bandwidth on paid WAN
connections.

Static routing is not a good choice when the network size is big. In a big network,
where you have hundreds of routes, static routing is not scalable, since you would
have to configure each route and any redundant paths for that route on each router.

This tutorial is the first part of the tutorial "Static Routing Configuration,
Commands, and Concepts Explained". The other parts of this tutorial are the
following.

Types of Static Routes Explained

IP Route command Explained with Examples
Static Routing Configuration Guide with Examples

That's all for the first part of the tutorial. In this part, we discussed what static routing
and static routes are and learned the advantages and disadvantages of static
routing. In the next part of this tutorial, we will learn the types of static routes.
Connected Routes and Local Routes
Explained
This tutorial explains how routers automatically manage routing information for active
interfaces. Learn the meaning of code C and code L in the routing table.

Routers automatically add and maintain the routing information for active interfaces.
A router uses the IP configuration of active interfaces to create the routing
information. The following steps describe this process step-by-step via an example.

 The administrator assigns an IP address to the interface.

 The administrator enables the interface.
 The router checks the line status and protocol status of the interface. The line status
represents the layer-2 connectivity, and the protocol status represents the layer-3
configuration. If the line status is UP, the interface is connected to the remote device.
If the protocol status is UP, the interface is enabled and has a valid IP configuration.
 An interface can forward packets only if both statuses are UP. If one of two statuses
is down, the interface cannot forward packets.
 Routers use the routing table to forward packets. A router does not add routing
information for the interface that can't forward packets.
 If both statuses are up, the router takes the following steps.

o Take the IP address of the interface.

o Find the network address of the IP address.
o Create a routing table entry. This entry includes the network address and the
name of the interface.
 o Add the routing table entry to the routing table.

 If the administrator changes the IP address of the interface, the router automatically
updates the routing table entry to reflect the change.
 The router can't forward packets from the disabled interface. Because of this, if the
administrator disables the interface, the router automatically removes the
corresponding routing table entry.

Let's take another example to understand how this process works.

Automatic route configuration (Packet Tracer Example)

Open Packet Tracer and drag a router and a PC to the workspace.

Access the CLI prompt of the router

Currently, this router has no routing information. To verify this, print all routes. Now,
assign the IP address 10.0.0.1/8 to the GigabitEthernet0/0 interface and enable it.

When you enable the interface, the router checks the IP configuration of the interface
and creates the routing information from the IP configuration, but it does not add the
routing information to the routing table. To verify this, you can print all routes again.

The following image shows how to perform the above steps on the router.
The following table describes the meaning of each command used in the above
process.

Command Description

enable Enter privileged-exec mode

show ip route Print all routes

configure terminal Enter global configuration mode

interface GigabitEthernet0/0 Enter interface configuration mod

no shutdown Enable interface

exit Exit current mode

As you can see in the image above, the router did not add routing information for
the GigabitEthernet0/0 interface.
Can you guess why the router did not add the routing information to the routing
table?

Because the interface is not connected to any remote device. To verify this, you can
use the 'show interfaces interface_name' command. The first line of the output
displays the line status and protocol status of the interface.

The following image shows the output of this command.

If an interface is not connected to any remote device, it can't forward packets. If an

interface can't forward packets, the router does not add the route available on the
interface.

As you can see in the above output, the interface is up (GigabitEthernet0/0 is up),
but it is not connected to any device (line protocol is down).

Connect PC0 to GigabitEthernet0/0.

Now, print all IP routes again.
As you can see in the above output, as soon as both the line status and protocol
status of the interface turns up, the router automatically adds the routing information
for the interface.

The router adds two routes for the interface. The router assigns the code letter C to
the first route and the code letter L to the second route. The router uses the first
route to forward packets from the interface and the second route to send packets to
the interface.

Let's understand the meaning of both routes.

C – (Connected) route

A router uses interfaces to receive and forward packets. An interface and the remote
device that is connected to the interface can exchange packets only if they belong to
the same IP network. Because of this, when an administrator configures an IP
address on the interface, the router automatically assumes that the remote device
that is connected to the interface belongs to the same IP network.

In our example, we configured the IP address 10.0.0.1/8 on the GigabitEthernet0/0.

From this IP address, the router assumes that the remote device connected to the
other side of GigabitEthernet0/0 belongs to network 10.0.0.0/8 and knows how to
access network 10.0.0.0/8.

Based on this assumption, the router automatically adds a route for the
network 10.0.0.0/8 and relates this route to the GigabitEthernet0/0 interface. The
router uses the letter C (Connected) to represent this type of route.

When the router receives a packet for a remote destination, it checks all available
routes. If a route is available for the remote destination, the router forwards the
packet from the interface that is mentioned in the route.

In our example, if the router receives a packet which destination address belongs to
the network 10.0.0.0/8, the router forwards the packet from
the GigabitEthernet0/0 interface.

L – (Local) route

A router also receives packets for local usages. You can configure multiple IP
addresses on the router. Each configured IP address represents a specific object on
the router. The second route tells us where the particular IP address is available on
the router. The second route is known as the host route. The router uses the
letter L (Local) to represent this type of route.

In our example, the IP address 10.0.0.1/8 is configured on

the GigabitEthernet0/0 interface. To forward packets to
the GigabitEthernet0/0 interface, the router adds a local route for this IP address.
Since a local route represents a specific local object, the router uses the IP address
of the object. The router uses the prefix /32 in the local route. The
prefix /32 represents a host address.

Similarities between a connected route and its related local route

 Both routes belong to the same IP subnet.

 The router calculates both routes from the same IP configuration.
 Both routes lead packets to the same interface.

Differences between a connected route and its related local route

 A connected route represents the network address. It uses the actual subnet prefix
(mask). A local route represents the host address. It always uses the subnet
prefix /32.
 A router always uses a connected route to forward packets out of the router. A router
never uses a local route to send packets out of the router.
 Local routes display the internal layout of the router. Connected routes show how the
router is connected to the network.

The following image explains the differences between a connected route and its
related route through an example.
Managing connected routes and local routes

A router creates a connected route and the local route from the IP configuration of
the interface. If the administrator changes the IP configuration of the interface, the
router automatically updates its connected route and the local route.

The following image shows an example of this process.

As mentioned earlier, a router adds a route for an interface only if both the line status
and the protocol status of the interface are up. If the line status or the protocol status
or both the line status and the protocol status change down, the router automatically
removes the interface's route.

The following image shows how a router removes routes of an interface when the
administrator shuts down the interface.
If an interface loses its connectivity from the remote device, the router automatically
removes its routes. The following image shows how a router removes the routes of
an interface when the interface loses its connectivity.
Routed, Routable, and Routing Protocols
This tutorial describes the differences between routed or routable protocols and
routing protocols. Learn how computer networks use routing protocols and routable
protocols.

The entire communication process between two devices on a computer network is

mainly divided into two parts. The source device and the destination device control
and manage the first part while the intermediate devices that provide connectivity
between the source device and the destination device control and manage the
second part.

To control and manage the communication process, the source device and the
destination device use a routed protocol whereas the intermediate devices use a
routing protocol. Let’s take a simple example.
Suppose, two devices: A and B are connected through two devices: C and D. In this
case, A and B will use a routed protocol, and C and D will use a routing protocol.

The source device uses a routed protocol to pack data packets for transportation.
The destination device uses the same routed protocol to unpack the received data
packets from the source device.
On computer networks, routers work as intermediate devices. They connect different
networks. They use routing protocols to discover all available routes and find the
shortest and the fastest route between the source device and the destination device
from all available routes.

Let’s take another example. In a network two PCs: PC0 and PC1 are connected
through three routes: route-a, route-b, and route-c. PC0 wants to send a large data
file to PC1. The routed protocol running on PC0 performs all necessary tasks that
are required to send the file to PC1. These tasks include breaking the file into
smaller pieces so each piece can travel over any type of route available in the
network and adding the source address, the destination address, the sequence
number, and other parameters to each piece.

Breaking a large file into smaller pieces is known as segmentation. The process of
adding necessary information to each piece is known as encapsulation. The routed
protocol performs segmentation and encapsulation on the source device. After
performing all necessary tasks, the routed protocol running on the source device
decides the method that it can use to send the packet to the destination device.

A source device can send a packet to the destination device by using one of two
methods. These methods are sending the packet to the destination device directly
and sending the packet to the destination device via the default gateway router. If the
destination device is available in the local network, the source device uses the first
method. If the destination device is available in the remote network, the source
device uses the second method.

To learn more about these methods, you can check the following tutorial.

Basic of IP Routing Explained with Example

This tutorial step-by-step explains how the packet moves between the source device
and the destination device.

If the destination device is available in the remote network, the source device gives
the data packet to the default gateway router. The default gateway router reads the
destination address of the packet and forwards the packet to the destination address
or to the router that is connected to the destination address.

If the default gateway router knows multiple routes for the same route, it uses the
shortest and the fastest route to forward the packet. To learn all available routes and
calculate the shortest and the fastest route to the destination, the default gateway
router, and other intermediate routers use a routing protocol.

The Destination device uses the same routed protocol to reproduce the original file
from the received data packets. In our example, the routed protocol running on PC1
recreates the original file from the received data packets.
The source device and the destination device use the same routed protocol to
encapsulate and de-encapsulate the data packets. The routers that connect the
source device to the destination device use the same routing protocol to learn all
available routes and select the best route between the source device and the
destination device.

TCP/IP network

On a TCP/IP network, the source device and the destination device use the IP
protocol to encapsulate and de-encapsulate the data packets. In other words, the IP
protocol is the only available routed protocol on a TCP/IP network.

On a TCP/IP network, many routing protocols are available. RIP, EIGRP, and OSPF
are some of the most common and widely used routing protocols. Each routing
protocol uses a different technique and algorithm to find all available routes and
calculate the best route from all available routes. An administrator can select a
routing protocol that suites the network requirement.
Differences between routed protocols and routing protocols

The main differences between routed protocols and routing protocols are the
following.

Routed protocols

 End devices use routed protocols to send and receive data packets.
 Routed protocols provide addressing to end devices.
 Routed protocols encapsulate and de-encapsulate data packets.
 If the destination address is not available in the local network, the routed protocol
forwards the packet to the default gateway.
 A routed protocol does not care which route the packet takes to reach the remote
destination from the default gateway.
 The IP protocol is an example of a routed protocol.

Routing protocols

 Intermediate routers use routing protocols to discover routes and calculate the best
route between a source and the destination.
 Routing protocols store discovered routes in routing tables.
 Routing protocols continuously update and manage routing tables.
  Routing protocols exchange information between routers.
 Routing protocols do not care what is inside a packet. They only care about how to
deliver the packet to the correct destination.
 RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS are some examples of routing protocols.

How routed and routing protocols work on a computer network

Let’s take another example to understand how a computer network uses routed and
routing protocols.

The following image shows the layout of a network. In this network, PC0 and PC1
are connected to PC2 via four routers; R1, R2, R3, and R4.

Suppose, an application running on PC0 wants to send some data to PC1. The
application calls the IP protocol of PC0 and hands that data over to the IP protocol.
The IP protocol packs data into packets and adds source address and destination
address to each packet.

If the destination address is located in the same IP subnet, the IP protocol sends
packets directly to the destination host.

The entire routing process is controlled by the routed (IP) protocols of PC0 and PC1.
Now suppose, the same application wants to send data to PC2. The same process is
repeated until the packet forwarding decision is made by the IP protocol. This time,
since the destination host (PC2) is located in a different IP subnet, the IP protocol
sends packets to the default gateway router.

The default gateway router not only keeps records of all remote networks but also
keeps records of all available paths for each remote network. A router maintains
these records in the routing table. A typical routing table entry consists of two pieces;
the network address and the interface on which that network is available.

When a router receives a packet on any of its interfaces, it reads the destination
network of the packet and finds the destination network in the routing table. If the
routing table contains a record for the destination network, the router uses the record
to forward the packet. If the routing table doesn’t contain a record for the destination
network, the router discards the packet.

If multiple paths to a remote network exist, the router chooses the fastest path.

In our example, the default gateway router R1 has two paths to reach PC2's network.
When it receives packets for PC2 from PC0, it compares both paths and chooses the
fastest path to forward packets. For this, R1 uses the routing protocol. Routing
protocols help routers to find all paths and select the best path for each destination.
PC2 receives packets from its default gateway router R4. Routed (IP) protocol
running on PC2 processes the received packets.

Bandwidth command on Cisco Routers

This tutorial explains how to view, configure, and modify the bandwidth of an
interface on a Cisco router. Learn the usages and purposes of the
interface bandwidth command.

What is the bandwidth?

Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data that an object can transfer within a given
amount of time. It is object-specific. Two different objects may have similar or
different bandwidths. It depends on many factors such as the object's capacity,
environment, configuration, etc.

Some objects allow us to configure their bandwidths. If an object supports bandwidth

customization, we can use this feature to match the object's bandwidth to the
bandwidth of another object. Two objects with similar bandwidths work more
effectively.

Bandwidth is not the speed or guarantee of the transmission. It is the maximum

capacity of the transmission that an object can achieve. For example, if the
bandwidth of a cable is 100Mbps, it can't transfer more than 100Mb of data in a
second.

To know more about the bandwidth, you can check the following tutorial.

Differences between Throughput and Bandwidth Explained

Purposes of the bandwidth command

The bandwidth command allows us to configure the bandwidth of an interface on

the router. Interface bandwidth is the maximum amount of data that an interface can
load on the attached media within a given amount of time. For example, if an
interface can load 100Mb of data on the connected media in one second, then the
interface's bandwidth is 100Mbps.

Some protocols use the interface's bandwidth for various functions. For example,
TCP and UDP use the interface's bandwidth to decide the size of a segment. EIGRP
and OSPF use the interface's bandwidth to calculate routing metrics. Protocols read
the interface's bandwidth from the running configuration. The bandwidth command
allows us to configure the interface's bandwidth in the running configuration.

Since some protocols use the interface's bandwidth for various functions, Cisco
assigns a default bandwidth to each interface. If you will not configure the interface's
bandwidth, protocols will use the default bandwidth. If you will configure the
interface's bandwidth, protocols will use the configured bandwidth.

The bandwidth command sets the interface's bandwidth in the running

configuration. It does not change the actual or the physical bandwidth of the
interface. You can use the bandwidth command for the following purposes.

 To match an interface's bandwidth to the bandwidth of the connected media.

 To influence the metric of a route if the routing protocol uses the bandwidth as a
metric component.

Let's discuss the above purposes in detail.

Different media types have different bandwidths. When we connect a media to an

interface of the router, we use the bandwidth command to set the interface's
bandwidth equal to the bandwidth of the media.

Media bandwidth is the amount of data that a media can transfer within a given time.
For example, if a cable can transfer 1Gb data in a second, then the cable's
bandwidth is 1Gbps.
To utilize the maximum capacity or bandwidth of the cable, you should configure the
interface's bandwidth equal to the cable's bandwidth. For example, if the cable's
bandwidth is 1544Kbps, you should configure the interface's bandwidth to
1544Kbps.

If you configure the interface's bandwidth less than or more than the cable's
bandwidth, the performance of the network will decrease.

Let's take an example. A 100Mbps cable is connected to an interface.

If you configure the interface's bandwidth to 10Mbps, the upper-level protocols will
assume that interface is connected to a 10Mbps link. They will encapsulate data
packets for a 10Mbps link. Although the cable can carry 100Mb of data per second,
the interface will only load 10Mb of data per second over the cable. With this
configuration, you will waste 90% of the cable's bandwidth.

If you configure the interface's bandwidth to 200Mbps, the upper-layer protocols will
assume that interface is connected to a 200Mbps link. They will encapsulate data
packets for a 200Mbps link. Since the size of data packets is more than the
maximum capacity of the cable, the cable can not carry them. This configuration will
generate many errors.

If you configure the interface's bandwidth to 100Mbps, the upper-layer protocols will
encapsulate data packets for a 100Mbps link. This configuration utilizes the full
capacity of the cable and interface.
Using the bandwidth command to influence a routing protocol's metric
Some routing protocols such as EIGRP and OSPF use the interface's bandwidth to
calculate the metric of each route. We can use the bandwidth command to influence
their metric calculation. For example, EIGRP uses the interface's bandwidth in the
metric calculation formula. By changing an interface's bandwidth, we can force
EIGRP to select the route we want for a particular destination without making any
change in the physical layout of the network.

Let's understand it through an example.

In the following network, Router0 has two routes to reach Router2. Both routes have
two serial links. Serial links or cables connect to serial interfaces. The default
bandwidth of a serial interface is 1544Kbps.

You can download this network topology from the following link.

Packet Tracer Lab for the bandwidth command

If we don't change the default bandwidth of any serial interface on both routes, both
routes have equal costs. To verify this, we can use the 'show ip route' command on
router Router0.

The following image shows the output of the 'show ip route' command.
As you can see in the output, the cost of both routes is 2684416.

By default, EIGRP adds only one and the best route to each destination network in
the routing table. To select the best route, EIGRP compares the cost of each route. It
selects the route that has the lowest cost.

If there is a tie between two routes, EIGRP adds both routes to the routing table.
This feature is known as the load balancing between equal-cost routes.

Now, change the default bandwidth of a serial link and run the "show ip
route" command again. You can also use the "show ip route eigrp" command to
view only EIGRP routes.

The following image shows this practice.

The following points explain the above exercise.

Serial 0/0/0 connects Router0 to Router2 via Route1. Serial 0/0/1 connects Router0
to Router2 via Route2. With the default bandwidth on both interfaces, the cost of
both routes is 2684416.

Later, we changed the bandwidth of Serial 0/0/0 to 64. As soon we changed the
bandwidth of Serial 0/0/0, EIGRP recalculated the cost of both routes. Since we had
reduced the bandwidth of a link on Route1, the cost of Route1 increased.

Since EIGRP keeps only the route that has the lowest cost in the routing table, it
excludes Route1 from the routing table. However, it keeps Route1 in the Topology
table for backup.

To verify this and view the new cost of Route1, you can use the 'show ip eigrp
topology' command. The following image shows the output of this command.
This way, an administrator can easily force EIGRP to select a specific route without
making any physical change in the physical layout.

To learn how EIGRP calculates the metric of a route or how the EIGRP metric
calculation formula works, you can check the following tutorial.

EIGRP metric calculation formula explained

The show ip route Command Explained

This tutorial explains how to read the output of the show ip route command. Learn
how the routing table organizes the routing information and how to view it.

The 'show ip route' command displays the structure and contents of the routing
table. You can use the 'show ip route' for the following purposes.

 To list the routing table's entries

 To view how many routes available for a particular destination
 To view the route the router uses to forward data packets for a specific
destination
 To know the routes added by a routing protocol
  To know the routes added by the router from the IP configurations
 To view the current status of a route
 To verify and troubleshoot the routing

To use the 'show ip route' command, enter privileged-exec mode and run the
following command.

#show ip route
The output of this command is organized into three sections. These sections are
Codes, Default route, and Routes. The following image shows the output of this
command.

Codes

The routing table uses the abbreviated code to store the type of route. This section
displays the meaning of each abbreviated code.

Default route

This section displays the default route. The router uses the routing table's routes to
forward data packets. If there is no route available for the destination address of a
data packet, the router uses the default route to forward the data packet. If the
default route is not set, the router discards the data packet.

Routes

The routing table puts all routes in this section. To arrange routes, the routing table
uses blocks. Each block contains a classful network and the classless networks
created from the classful network. If a classful network is subnetted into small
classless networks and the router knows the routes for the classless networks, the
routing table uses a heading to group all classless networks of the same classful
network.
The routing table uses the heading for a classful network only if it knows more than
one route for the classful network. If there is only one route for the network, the
routing table adds the route without the heading.

The following image shows routes with the heading and without the heading.

The heading includes three things: the classful network, the total number of subnets,
and the total number of masks used to create the subnets. Let's understand these
things.

The classful network

The routing table organizes routes by classful networks. If a classful network is

subnetted into classless networks and the routes for the classless networks are
available, the router arranges all classless networks under the classful network.

Total number of subnets

A router learns routes from various sources. This part shows the total number of
routes the router learned from all sources for the classful network. The total number
includes all routes for the classful network and all classless networks created from
the same classful network.

When you assign an IP configuration to the interface, the router automatically

creates two routes from the IP configuration and adds them to the routing table. The
router adds the first route for the network address of the IP configuration. The router
uses this route to forward data packets. The router adds the second route for the
interface. The router uses this route to reach the interface. The router uses the prefix
/32 for this route.

Total number of masks

This is the total number of different masks used in all routes for all subnets created
from the classful network mentioned in the heading.

The routing table uses a heading to organize all routes created from the same
classful network. We have already discussed the things the routing table uses to
create the heading. Now let's discuss the things the routing table uses to build route
entries.

Legend code

The legend code is the first thing in a route entry. A router can learn a route from
various sources. The legend code shows the source from which the router learned
the route. The routing table stores the legend code in the abbreviated form. The first
section of the output of the 'show ip route' command shows the meaning of each
code.
Network address / Subnet mask

Each route reaches a specific destination. Each route entry includes only one
destination network. After the legend code, the routing table places the destination
network address with the subnet mask in the route entry.

Routers use the routing table to make a forwarding decision. A router compares the
destination address of the data packet to the network address stored in each entry of
the routing table. If the network address mentioned in an entry matches the
destination address of the data packet, the router forwards the data packet from the
interface or to the next-hop router's interface mentioned the matching entry.

To learn how this process works or how routers take a routing decision, you can
check the following tutorial.
Routing Decision Longest Match Explained

AD(Administrative Distance)/Metric

The routing table stores only one route for each destination. If the router learns more
than one route for a destination from different sources, the router adds only the best
route to the routing table. To select the best route, the router uses the AD
(Administrative Distance) value.

The AD value is the trustworthiness of a source. A source with a lower AD value is

considered more reliable than a source with a higher AD value.

Let's take an example. A router learned two routes for the same destination. The AD
value of the first source is 10 and the AD value of the second source is 20. The
router will add the route learned from the first source to the routing table.

A router can also learn more than one route from the same source. If the router
learns more than one route for a destination from the same source, the router uses
the metric value of the routes to select the best route. Sources use the metric value
to calculate the best route for the destination.

In simple words, a router uses the AD value to select the best route learned from
different sources and the metric value to select the best route learned from the same
source.
The IP address of the next-hop router

This is the IP address of the next-hop router. A router forwards the packet to the
next-hop router if the destination address and the address specified in the route
match.

EIGRP/OSPF Timer
EIGRP and OSPF routing protocols use a timer for each learned route. If the route is
learned by EIGRP or OSPF, the routing protocol includes the timer in the routing
information.

Exit interface

This is the local interface the router uses to forward the data packet.
Routing Decision Longest Match
Explained
This tutorial explains how routers make a routing decision. Learn what a routing
decision is and how a router takes the routing decision.

Routers connect different networks. To connect different networks, routers learn all
the routes of the network and store them in the routing table. Routers store each
route in a separate entry. A routing table entry contains the network address and the
route to reach the network address.

When a router receives a data packet, the router reads the destination address of
the data packet and compares the destination address to the routing table's entries.
The router may find no matching entry, one matching entry, or multiple matching
entries.

If the router finds no matching entry, the router discards the data packet. If the router
finds only one matching entry, the router forwards the data packet from the route
defined in the entry. If the router finds multiple matching entries, the router selects
the entry that matches the maximum of the destination address and forwards the
data packet from the route defined in the selected entry.

The process of comparing a destination address to the routing table entries and
selecting the matching entry is known as a routing decision. In other words, a routing
decision is a process in which the router decides the route to forward data packets to
a particular destination.

Let's take an example to understand how a router makes a routing decision. The
following image shows the routing table of router R1 in a sample network.
Now suppose, R1 receives five data packets. The following table lists the destination
address of each data packet.

Data packet Destination address

first data packet 192.168.1.1/24

second data packet 20.0.0.10/8

third data packet 90.0.0.10/8

fourth data packet 90.1.0.10/16

fifth data packet 90.2.0.10/24

The destination address of the first packet is 192.168.1.1/24. The network address in
this address is 192.168.1.0/24. Since there is no route for the network
192.168.1.0/24, the router discards the first data packet.

The destination address of the second data packet is 20.0.0.10/8. The network
address in this address is 20.0.0.0/8. There is one route for the network address
20.0.0.0/8. This route is available on the local interface (C- Directly connected). The
router forwards the second data packet to the connected local network from the
interface mentioned in the route.

The destination address of the third data packet is 90.0.0.10/8. The network address
in this address is 90.0.0.0/8. The router has three routes for the network 90.0.0.0/8.
These routes are 90.0.0.0/8, 90.1.0.0/16, and 90.2.0.0/24. These routes belong to
the same classful network 90.0.0.0/8 but different classless networks.

You can break a classful network into small classless networks. The process of
breaking a large classful network into small classless networks is called subnetting.
You can check the following tutorial to learn more about subnetting.

Subnetting Tutorial - Subnetting Explained with Examples

When you break a large classful network into small classless networks, each
classless network works independently. A router treats each classless network as a
separate network. It does not use the route of a classless network for another
classless network even if both classless networks are created from the same classful
network.

A router lists all routes for classless networks created from the same classful
network under the classful network. It also shows how many routes it knows for
classless networks created from the same classful network.
Routing decision and the longest prefix match
If the destination address of a data packet matches only one route of the routing
table, the router uses the matched route to forward the data packet. But if the
destination address of a data packet matches more than one route of the routing
table, the router uses the best route to forward the data packet. To select the best
route, the router matches the network bits of the destination address and the
address defined in the route. The route which matches the maximum number of
network bits is considered the best route. If there is a tie, the router uses the route
which belongs to the same subnet.

In our example, the router uses the first route for the third data packet. The first route
(via – 30.0.0.0/8) matches the network address 90.0.0.0/8. However, the second
route (via 40.0.0.0.2) and the third route (via - 50.0.0.2) also have 90 in the first octet
and also match the network address of the destination address (90.0.0.10/8), yet the
router does not use them to forward the data packet as they belong to other
classless networks.

For the fourth data packet, the router uses the second route. The second route (via –
40.0.0.2) matches 16 network bits. The first route and the third route match 8
network bits.

For the fifth data packet, the router uses the third route. The third route (via –
50.0.0.2) matches 24 network bits. The first route and the second route match 8
network bits.

The following image shows how the router takes the routing decision for the third,
fourth, and fifth data packets.
Identifying the route with the longest prefix length mask

There are two ways to identify the route the router will use to forward the packet.
These ways are using subnetting math and using the 'show ip route address'
command.

To use the subnetting math, use the following steps.

 Identify the routes that match the address.

 If multiple routes match the address, use the route that matches the longest prefix.
 If there is a tie, use the route that belongs to the same subnet or exactly matches the
address.

Let's take an example to understand this process.

The following table lists five routes with their subnet prefix and the address they
match.

Route Subnet prefix Address range

First 10.0.0.0/8 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255

Second 10.1.0.0/16 10.1.0.0 – 10.1.255.255

Third 10.1.1.0/24 10.1.1.0 – 10.1.1.255

Fourth 10.1.1.1/32 10.1.1.1

Fifth 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0 - 255.255.255.255

The/32 and /0 are two special subnet prefixes. The /32 matches only one address.
The /0 matches all addresses. If /32 prefix matches, the router always uses this
route. A route with /32 prefix is known as the host route. The router uses /0 as the
last route. A route with /0 prefix is known as the default route. The router uses the
default route only when no other route matches.

Now, can you guess the route for the following addresses?

10.0.0.1, 10.1.0.36, 10.1.1.25, 10.1.1.1, and 20.0.0.1.

Let's start with the first address.

The first address (10.0.0.1) is available in the address range of the first route
(10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255) and the last route or the default route (0.0.0.0 –
255.255.255.255). As mentioned earlier, the router uses the default route only when
no other route is available. Since a route is available, the router will not use the
default route. If we exclude the default route, only the first route will be available for
the first address. Thus, the router will use the first route for the first address.

The second address (10.1.0.36) is available in the address range of the first route
(10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255), second route (10.1.0.0 – 10.1.255.255), and the last
route (0.0.0.0 – 255.255.255.255). If we exclude the default route, the first route and
the second route remain for the second address. The subnet prefix of the first route
is /8. The subnet prefix of the second route is /16. Since /16 is more than /8, the
router will use the second route for the second address.

The third address (10.1.1.25) is available in the address range of the first route
(10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255), second route (10.1.0.0 – 10.1.255.255), third route
(10.1.1.0 – 10.1.1.255), and the last route (0.0.0.0 – 255.255.255.255). After
excluding the default route, the first route, second route, and third route remain for
the third address. Subnet prefixes of these routes are /8, /16, and /24, respectively.
Since the router uses the longest prefix to select the best route, the router will use
the route with /24 prefix for the third address.

The fourth address (10.1.1.1) is available in the address range of all routes. The
fourth route (10.1.1.1/32) with the /32 prefix exactly matches the address. The router
will use the fourth route for this address.

The fifth address (20.0.0.1) is available only in the address range of the last or the
default route. The router will use this route for the fifth address.

The 'show ip route address' command

If you don't want to do the subnetting math, you can use the 'show ip
route address' command. This command prints the route the router will use for the
given address. For example, if you want to know which route the router will use for
the address 10.0.0.1, you can use the following command.

#show ip route 10.0.0.1

The following image shows some examples of the 'show ip
route address' command.
That's all for this tutorial. In this tutorial, we learned how routers take a routing
decision.

Delay command on Cisco routers

This tutorial explains how to view and configure interface delay on Cisco routers and
use the delay command to influence the EIGRP metric.
Delay is the time a data packet takes to reach the destination. It is measured in
fractions of a second. Usually, it is calculated between the source and the
destination. But if the path involves multiple devices, you can calculate the delay of
each device separately.

There are many types of a delay. Each type measures the delay of a particular
device used in the path or the delay of a specific stage in the transmission. The most
common types of delay are the following.

Transmission delay
It is the time the source takes to put the data packet on the transmission medium or
the link.

Propagation delay
It is the time the transmission medium or the link takes to transfer the data packet.

Queueing delay
A destination device or a router can process only one data packet at a time. If it
receives more than one packet, it puts them in the queue. Queuing delay is the time
the data packet spends in the queue.

Processing delay
It is the time the destination device or the router takes to process the data packet.

Interface delay
A router interface organizes all the data packets into a serial queue and loads them
one by one onto the connected medium. An interface delay is the amount of time a
data packet spends in the serial queue.

Uses and Purposes of the delay command

Cisco routers include the delay command. The delay command allows an
administrator to configure the interface delay in the running configuration. Many
services and protocols running on the router use the interface delay for various
purposes. For example, the EIGRP routing protocol uses it to calculate the metric of
a path. If you change the interface delay in the running configuration, the protocols
that read the interface delay from the running configuration will use the modified
delay. Administrators can use the delay command to influence the protocols that
use the interface delay.

A delay is the physical property of the transmission. The delay command does not change
the physical delay of the interface. It allows you to configure a new delay of the interface in
the running configuration.

Using the delay command to influence the EIGRP metric

To select the best path for a destination, EIGRP calculates and compares the
metrics of all available paths for the destination. EIGRP uses interface delay as a
metric component. If you modify the delay of an interface, EIGRP will recalculate the
metric of the paths associated with the interface.
By changing the interface delay, you can force EIGRP to select a specific route to a
particular destination. Let's understand this process through an example.

The following image shows a network. In this network, Router0 has two routes to
reach the network 50.0.0.0/8.

Route1: - via Router2

Route2: - via Router1 and Router2

You can download the practice lab of this network from the following link.

Packet Tracer Lab for the delay command

Since many services and protocols depend on the interface delay, Cisco assigns a
default delay to each interface. The default delay of a serial interface is 2000. If you
don't change the default delay, protocols will use the default delay. If you change the
default delay, protocols will use the modified delay.

To view the delay of an interface, you can use the "show interface [interface
name]" command. The output of this command shows the delay in the tens of
microseconds (usec). For example, if the configured delay is 2000, then the output of
this command will show the delay 20000 (2000*10 = 20000).

The following image shows how to use the "show interface" command on Router0
to view the delay of both serial interfaces.
With the default configuration, EIGRP selects Route1 to reach the network
50.0.0.0/8. To view EIGRP routes, you can use the "show ip route
eigrp" command. The following image shows the output of this command on
Router0.

Now suppose, for some reason, we want EIGRP to pick Route2 to reach the network
50.0.0.0/8. But, at the same time, we don't want to make any change in the physical
layout of the network.

In this situation, we can use the delay command to force EIGRP to select Route2.
We can configure the delay on the Serial 0/0/1 interface higher than the total delay of
Route2.
To configure the delay on an interface, we use the delay command in the interface
mode of the interface. For example, the following commands configure the delay of
the Serial 0/0/1 interface to 8000.

Router(config)#interface serial 0/0/1

Router(config-if)#delay 8000
The following image shows how to use the above commands on the router.

This change will force EIGRP to recalculate the metric of all paths related to the
Serial 0/0/1 interface. As we have increased the delay of the serial 0/0/1 interface,
the metric of all paths belonging to the serial 0/0/1 interface will also increase.

To learn how EIGRP metric calculation formula works or how EIGRP calculates the
metric of each route, you can check the following tutorial.

EIGRP Metric K Values Explained with Examples

If EIGRP has more than one path to a destination, it selects the path that has the
lowest metric. After recalculation, the metric of Route1 (Via - Serial 0/0/1 interface)
will exceed the metric of Route2 (Via - Serial 0/0/0). This change will force EIGRP to
choose Route2 to reach the network 50.0.0.0/8.

The following image show this exercise step-by-step.

In the Routing table, EIGRP inserts only the route that has the lowest metric. To view
all available routes and their metrics, you can use the "show ip eigrp
topology" command. This command prints all entries from the Topology table.
EIGRP uses the Topology table to store information about all available routes for
each destination.

The following image shows the output of this command.

OSPF LSA Types and LSA Flooding
Explained
This tutorial explains what an LSA is, LSA types, LSA data structure, LSA flooding,
and how OSPF uses an LSA to exchange network information.

What is an LSA?
An LSA (Link State Advertisement) is a data packet that describes a specific part of
the OSPF network. There are 11 types of LSA. OSPF routers use each type of LSA
to share or exchange different information. Since an LSA describes a part of the
OSPF network, each OSPF router learns all LSAs that it needs to function and
stores them into the LSDB (Link-State Database).

In other words, an LSA is an OSPF data packet that contains some specific
information about network topology. The LSDB is the collection of all LSA packets
the router knows. The state, when all OSPF routers on the OSPF network learn all
required LSAs is called convergency.

LSA flooding

LSA flooding is a process that OSPF routers use to share and learn all required
LSAs. In the process of LSA flooding, all routers collectively advertise all known
LSAs to all the other routers. At the end of this process, every router on the network
has every required LSA.

After this process, if any information changes, the affected router creates an LSA
describing the change and floods the LSA into the network. Each recipient validates
the LSA update and sends an acknowledgment back to the sending router that
confirms that it received the flooded update.

Based on the network type, OSPF routers use the following addresses to flood
LSAs.

 In a point-to-point network, they use the reserved multicast address 224.0.0.5.

 In a broadcast network, they use the multicast address 224.0.0.6.
 In a point-to-multipoint network, they use the adjacent router’s unicast IP address.

Types of LSAs

Instead of using the same LSA type for all purposes, OSPF routers use a different
type of LSA for each purpose. They use 11 types of LSAs. The following table
describes each type of LSA and its purpose.

Typ Name Originated by Distance Description

e

1 Router LSA by all routers within the area Within the area Contain information about RID an
2 Network LSA DR (Designated router) Within the area Contain information about all path

3 Summary LSA ABR (Area Border Router) Within the Contain summarized information
network

4 ASBR Summary ABR (Area Border Router) Within the Contain information about the AS
network

5 AS-external LSA ASBR (Autonomous System Within the Contain information about routes
Boundary Router) network

6 Group Membership LSA It was defined for multicast extens

7 NSSA External LSA ASBR (Autonomous System Intra-area Identical to type-5 but are flooded
Boundary Router) routing information for redistributi

8 Link-local LSA (OSPFv3) by all routers within the area OSPFv3 uses it to share informatio
Link link.

9 Link-local opaque Link-local In OSPFv2, it contains extended in

(OSPFv2)

9 Intra-Area-Prefix Link-local In OSPFv3, it contains prefixes for

(OSPFv3)

10 Area-local opaque Area-local Contain information that should b

understand the extended informa

11 Autonomous System Within the Identical to type-10 but are not flo
opaque network

The opaque LSA types are designed for application-specific purposes. For example,
an application can use them to flood bandwidth information. Opaque LSA types are
9,10, and 11. Each type of LSA has a different flooding scope.

Important LSA types for the CCNA exam

If you are learning LSA types for CCNA Routing and Switching exam, you should
focus only on LSA types 1, 2, and 3. The remaining LSA types are not covered in the
CCNA exam syllabus. The CCNP exam covers them. Since the CCNA exam
syllabus includes OSPF topics related to LSA types 1, 2, and 3, we will discuss these
types in detail.

Before we learn these types, we need to understand the OSPF area concept and
roles of IR, ABR, and DR routers in the OSPF network.

Basic of OSPF area concept

OSPF uses a hierarchical design to control network traffic. In the hierarchical design,
OSPF uses two levels. In OSPF terminology, a hierarchical level is called an area.
There are types of OSPF areas: backbone area or area 0 and area-off backbone.
Backbone area
The backbone area is the central point of this implementation. Routers running in this
area are required to maintain a complete database of the entire network. All areas
need to connect with this area through a physical link or a virtual link.

Area off backbone

The area-off backbone is an extension of the backbone area. Routes running in this
area maintain an area-specific database instead of the complete database. This
feature reduces network traffic and speeds up the convergence process.

Roles of IR, ABR, and DR routers in an OSPF network

IR, ABR, and DR routers use LSA 1, LSA 2, and LSA 3 for many purposes. To
understand these types in detail, we have to understand the role of IR, ABR, and DR
routers in an OSPF network.

IR (Internal Router)

An IR router has the least responsibilities in the OSPF network. It maintains only
area-specific routing information.

ABR (Area Border Router)

An ABR connects the area to another area. It keeps the area-specific routing
information and summarized routing information of the entire network.

DR (Designated Router)

In Ethernet/Broadcast environment, IR routers don't share routing information

directly. They elect a DR router. The DR router is responsible for maintaining,
sharing, and updating area-specific routing information.

The following image shows an example OSPF network.

LSA type 1

An LSA type 1 message is called router LSA. OSPF routers use LSA type 1
messages to advertise their RID and information about directly connected networks.
A RID is the unique ID of the router in the OSPF network. Since all routers running in
the area need this information about the other routers, all OSPF routers generate
and advertise LSA type 1 messages. LSA type 1 messages do not cross the area
boundary. They remain within the area.

LSA type 2

An LSA type 2 message is known as network LSA. As mentioned earlier, in

Ethernet/broadcast environment, routers do not share routing information directly.
They elect a DR, and then the DR shares the routing information. To share routing
information, the DR uses LSA type 2 messages. LSA type 2 messages also do not
cross the area boundary. They stay within the area.

LSA type 3

An LSA type 3 message is called summary LSA. ABR routers use LSA type 3
messages to exchange routing information with the other ABR routers. By default,
LSA type 3 messages contain detailed routing information. But if required, an
administrator can instruct the ABR router to summarize the routing information
before sharing it with another ABR. For this, the administrator can use
the summary command.

That’s all for this tutorial. In this tutorial, we discussed what LSA is, LSA types, the
meaning of each LSA type, and the information LSA type 1, 2, and 3 carry.

OSPF Features, Advantages,

Disadvantages
This tutorial compares OSPF and RIP routing protocols and lists the features of
OSPF. Learn the advantages and disadvantages of the OSPF routing protocol.

OSPF stands for Open Shortest Path First. It is an open standard routing protocol. It
has three versions: OSPFv1, OSPFv2, and OSPFv3. OSPFv1 was developed in the
mid-1980s to overcome the limitations, deficiencies, and scalability problems that
RIP had in large networks. In 1998, OSPFv1 was updated by OSPFv2 to support
modern infrastructure and networks. OSPFv1 is not used in modern networks.
Similarly, to support modern infrastructure, RIP was also updated by RIPv2.

The following table compares the features of OSPFv2, RIP, and RIPv2.
Feature OSPFv2 RIPv1
Protocol type Link state Distance
Algorithm Dijkstra Bellman
Metric Bandwidth Hops
Hop count limit None 15
VLSM support Yes No
Classless support Yes No
Non-contiguous network support Yes No
Auto-summarization No Yes
Manual summarization Yes No
Route propagation Multicast Broadcas
Convergence Fast Slow
Use authentication Yes No
Update On event periodic
Supported network type All types Flat only
Since OSPFv2 includes all features and characteristics that modern networks need,
it is one of the two most popular and widely used routing protocols. It was developed
when IPv6 was not in use. Because of this, support for IPv6 was not added to
OSPFv2.

To support IPv6, instead of updating the OSPFv2, developers developed a new

version of OSPF. It was OSPFv3. It was released in 2008. The following table
compares the features of OSPFv2 and OSPFv3.

OSPFv2 OSPFv3
It supports IPv4. It supports IPv6.
It is specified in RFC2328. It is specified in RFC 5340.
The header size is 24 bytes. The header size is 16 bytes.
It uses seven link-state advertisements. It uses nine link-state advertainments. Two new include
You can run only one instance per link. You can run many instances per link.
It needs a network mask to form an adjacency. It does not need a network mask to form an adjacency.
It uses MD5 hashing for authentication. It uses IPSec for authentication.
It uses networks. It uses links.
It can configure its RID automatically. It can't configure its own RID. You have to configure R
Since OSPFv1 has been updated and replaced by OSPFv2, network administrators
commonly use the term OSPF to refer to OSPFv2. Because of this, unless the
version of OSPF is explicitly mentioned, you can consider all references to OSPF to
be OSPFv2.

Advantages of OSPF

 It is based on an open standard. It can run on most routers.

 It uses the SPF algorithm to provide a loop-free topology.
 It uses both trigger updates and incremental updates to provide fast
convergence.
 It supports VLSM and route summarization for a hierarchical design.
  It supports both versions of IP protocol. OSPFv2 supports IPv4 and OSPFv3
supports IPv6.
 It supports load balancing with equal-cost routes for the same destination.
 It supports networks of all sizes.

Disadvantages OSPF

 It needs lots of information to calculate the best route for each destination. To
store this information, OSPF consumes more memory than other routing
protocols.
 To calculate the best route, it runs the SPF algorithm that requires extra CPU
processing.
 It is complex to configure and difficult to troubleshoot. In a large network, only
experienced network administrators can configure it.

Usages of OSPF

Typically, OSPF is used in large enterprise networks that use routing equipment from
different vendors. OSPF is also used in companies that have the policy to use an
open standard protocol for routing which gives them flexibility when they need to
replace an existing router or add a new router.

It is recommended to use an advanced routing protocol if you have more than 50

routers in your network. Currently, there are only two advanced routing protocols in
use that can scale any size of the network. These protocols are EIGRP and OSPF.
EIGRP is a Cisco proprietary protocol. It means if you want to use EIGRP, you have
to use only Cisco routers in your network. If you have a non-Cisco router in your
network, EIGRP will not work on it. In such a situation, you can use OSPF. Basically,
in a mixed vendor environment, OSPF is the only choice we have for routing.

Key features of OSFP

 OSPF is an interior gateway protocol (IGP).

 It runs within a single routing domain, such as an autonomous system (AS).
 It uses a concept called areas, to optimize network traffic and simplify
administration.
 It uses Dijkstra's algorithm to compute the shortest route to each destination.
 It runs over IP protocol but does not use a transport protocol (such as TCP or
UDP) to encapsulate its data.
 It encapsulates its data directly in IP packets with protocol number 89.
 It uses its own error detection and correction mechanism.

That’s all for this tutorial. In this tutorial, we discussed the features, advantages, and
disadvantages of OSPF.

Administrative Distance (AD) Explained

This tutorial explains what administrative distance is and how routers use it to select
the best route to a destination. Learn the AD values of some most common routing
protocols.

A router can learn routing information from a variety of sources. If it learns routing
information for the same destination from two or more sources, it uses the sources'
AD values to decide which source is more reliable. An AD value is the
trustworthiness of the source. Routers assign an AD value to each source from the
range 0 – 255. In this range, a smaller number is considered more reliable than a
bigger number. For example, if a source has an AD value of 40, it will be considered
more reliable than a source that has an AD value of 50. Routers assign the value 0
to the most reliable source and the value 255 to the most unreliable source.

In simple words, Administrative Distance (AD) is a scale the router uses to measure
the trustworthiness of a source that provides routing information.

The following table lists the default AD value of some most common routing sources.

Source

Connected

Static

BGP (external routes [eBGP])

EIGRP (internal routes)

IGRP

OSPF
IS-IS

RIP

EIGRP (external routes)

BGP (internal routes [iBGP])

DHCP default route

Unreliable source

If required, you can change default AD values. You can change the default AD value
of a particular routing protocol, a particular route, or even a static route. If you
change the AD value of a source, the router's IOS will use the updated AD value to
compare the source with other sources.

How does Administrative Distance (AD) work?

A router can learn routing information from the following sources: Interface
configuration, Manual configuration, and Routing protocols. Let's discuss how AD
works for each source.

Interface configuration
A router's interface is used as the default gateway. When you assign the IP
configuration to an interface, the router automatically extracts the network
information from the IP configuration and adds that information to the routing table.
For example, if you assign the IP address 10.0.0.1 255.0.0.0 to the F0/0 interface,
the router adds the following entry to the routing table.

Network 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 exit interface F0/0

Manual configuration
You can manually add routing information to the routing table.

Routing protocols
You can configure a routing protocol. The routing protocol will learn and add all
routing information to the routing table. Depending on the network topology, multiple
routes to the same destination can exist.

To select the best route for each subnet, the routing protocol uses the metric. A
metric is the cost of a route. The routing protocol computes the metric of all routes
and compares the metrics to select the best route for each subnet. After selecting a
single best route for each subnet, the routing protocol provides all routing information
to the Router's IOS. The Router's IOS checks each route and adds the route to the
routing table if it meets certain conditions.

If only one routing protocol is running in the network, the routing protocol's metric is
sufficient to select the best route for each subnet. Different routing protocols use
different metrics to select the best route. Because of this, if two or more routing
protocols are running in the network, they can select different routes as the best
route for the same destination.

In such a situation, the router's IOS checks the AD value of each routing protocol.
The router's IOS selects the routing information of the routing protocol which has the
lower AD value. For example, a router receives the routing information for the same
destination from RIP and EIGRP. The AD values of RIP and EIGRP are 120 and 90,
respectively. Since the AD value of EIGRP is lower than the AD value of RIP, the
router will select the routing information it receives from EIGRP.

Let's take an example to understand how this process works. The following image
shows a network.

In this network, Router0 has two routes to reach the network 200.0.0.0/24. The first
route is via the S0/0/1 interface and the second route is via the S0/0/0 interface.
Which route the router will use is depend on the routing configuration. We have two
options. We can manually add the route to the routing table or we can configure a
routing protocol that will select and add the best route to the routing table. If we
select the first option, the router will use that. The default AD value (1) of a static
route is less than all routing protocols.

If we select the second option and configure only one routing protocol in the network,
the router will use the route selected by the routing protocol. Now let's suppose, we
configured RIP routing protocol in this network. In this situation, Router0 will select
the second route (via S0/0/0) to reach the network 200.0.0.0/24.

RIP uses the number of routers (hops) in the path to select the best route. It selects
the route that has the least number of routers in the path. The following image shows
the selection process.
To verify it, we can use the 'show ip route' command. The following image shows
the output of this command.

Currently, only one routing protocol is running in the network. The router uses the
route the routing protocol selects. If we configure another routing protocol without
removing the current routing protocol and both routing protocols select different
routes for the same destination, the router will use the route selected by the routing
protocol that has the lower AD value. Let's understand it through the example.

Currently, RIP is running on this network. Now suppose, we configure EIGRP in this
network. By default, EIGRP uses the configured bandwidth and delay on all exit
interfaces of the path to compute the metric of the path. After computing the metric of
all paths, it selects the path that has the least metric value.

The metric of the first route is 2684416. The metric of the second route is
256514560. Since the first route has a lower metric, EIGPR will select this route to
reach the network 200.0.0.0/8. To verify this, you can use the 'show ip eigrp
topology' command. The following image shows the output of this command.
Now, Router0 has two different routes reported as the best routes to reach the
network 200.0.0.0/24. RIP says the second route (via - serial0/0/0) is the best route
to reach the network 200.0.0.0/24. EIGRP says the first route (via – serial0/0/1) is
the best route to reach the network 200.0.0.0/24.
In this situation, the router will compare the AD value of both routing protocols and
will select the route reported by the routing protocol that has a lower AD value. The
AD value of EIGRP is 90 and the AD value of RIP is 120. Since the AD value of
EIGRP is lower than the AD value of RIP, the router will select the route reported by
EIGRP. To verify, this you can use the 'show ip route' command. The following
image shows the output of this command.
That's all for this tutorial. In this tutorial, we discussed what administrative distance is
and how routers use it to select the best route.