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Performance Comparison of Routing Protocols

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Performance Comparison of Routing Protocols

Abdulbaset Albaour1, Yousef Aburawi2
1Lecturer, Misurata University, Information Technology-Misrata, Libya
2Lecturer, Misurata University, Information Technology-Misrata, Libya
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Abstract - This paper focuses the study of different routing is based on the Bellman-Ford algorithm to calculate the
protocols used in computer networks. A routing protocol is a optimal path. [1] [2]
protocol that specifies how routers communicate with each
other, disseminating information that enables them to select 2. Metrics and Routing
routes between any two nodes in a computer network. The
choice of route is done by routing algorithms. Each router The route cost can be estimated based on metric
possesses prior knowledge of networks that has been directly parameters of the path. To determine the best path among
related. A routing protocol shares this information first all the available routes, routing protocols select the route
among immediate neighbors, and then throughout the with the smallest metric value (or cost).Every routing
network. By this way, routers gain knowledge of topology of protocol has its own metric calculation.[3]There are many
network. There are many routing protocols used for routing scenarios where routing protocols find more than one
purposes like RIP, EIGRP and OSPF. In order to reach results route to the same destination. To select the most suitable
and compare them, Optimized Network Engineering Tool between the accessible paths, routing protocols should be
(OPNET MODELER) was used. able to estimate and select between these paths. Therefore,
for this goal, many metrics are used. A metric is a value
Key Words: Routing Protocols, RIP, EIGRP, OSPF, appropriated by the routing protocols to attach a cost to
OPNET arrive at the destination or remote network. When there
are multiple paths to the same destination, metrics are
1. INTRODUCTION used to determine the best path.. [4]

In IP networks, the main responsibility of a routing Routing Information Protocol:

protocol is to carry packets forwarded from one node to
different. In a network, routing can be defined as The routing information protocol (RIP) is one of the basic
transmitting information from a source to a destination by and simplest forms of distance vector routing protocol
one-hopping or multi hopping. Routing protocols should being implemented today. This protocol is available in two
provide at least two facilities: selecting routes for different versions: RIPv1 (RFC 1058)[5] and RIPv2 (RFC 1723)[6].
pairs of source/destination nodes and, successfully However, we will be discussing the newest version (RIPv2)
transmitting data to a given destination. Routing protocols since the older version is not a classless routing protocol
are used to describe how routers communicate to each and does not support variable length subnet masks (VLSM)
other, learn available routes, build routing tables, make for the network entries available in the routing tables.
routing decisions and share information with neighbors. RIPv2 emerges with all the features available in RIPv1 and
Routers are used to connect various networks and to contains some extra features such as update
provide packet forwarding for other types of networks. authentication, multicasting and etcetera along with
The main goal of routing protocols is to discover the best backward compatibility.
path from a source to a destination.
Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is a distance vector
Routing is a fundamental process for choosing the shortest routing protocol that measures its metrics by counting the
path from various paths in order to forward a packet from number of hops between source and destination nodes. RIP
source to destination nodes at the smallest cost. The selects the minimum number of hops for reaching a
routing protocols can be categorized into the interior and destination. RIP allows a maximum hop count of 15 hops in
exterior gateway protocols. Border Gateway Protocol a path, in the case of the hop count exceeding 15 hops for
(BGP) is an exterior gateway protocol. BGP is accepted to reaching a destination network, it is considered
share routing information between autonomous systems unreachable network. RIP updates its full routing table
(AS) on the internetwork that is a distance vector routing with its closest neighbors every 30 seconds, and the
protocol. An interior gateway protocol is used to share administrative distance in RIP is 120 [2].
routing information between gateways within an AS. It is
divided into distance vector and link-state routing 1) RIPv2
protocols. A distance-vector algorithm forms a vector that
RIPv2 is an improvement to the first RIP protocol
includes costs to all different nodes and advertises a vector
produced in 1994.RIPv2 is additionally, a distance vector
to its neighbors whereas each node in a link-state
routing protocol but has some improvements to perform it
algorithm advertises the state of the link to its neighbors
further efficiently than RIPv1.AlthoughRIPv2 is more
and the cost of by link. A distance vector routing protocol is
productive than RIPv1, it is not fitting for larger, more
a hop count metric and the next-hop presents a direction. It
heterogeneous networks.

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RIPv2 does the identical routing metric as RIPv1, hop IGRP consequently they are fit in their performance, where
count. Hop count is the number of routers among a source the applied metric in one protocol can be interpreted into
and destination.RIPv2 also has the equivalent hop count the metrics of the other protocol .EIGRP sends updates
frontier as RIPv1.If a route has higher than 15 hops, the only when changes executed, and the only changes part are
route will be ignored as unreasonable. transferred, not the entire routing table. This will begin
rapid convergence and reduce the load of the routing
a) Routing Updates protocol [10].

Updates with RIPv2 are sent through multicasts and not OPEN SHORTEST PATH FIRST
broadcasts like the original RIP protocol. The multicasts
are sent utilizing a multicast address of 224.0.0.9. This Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a link state routing
helps limit RIP routing table advertisements from being protocol which was initially developed in 1987 by the
processed by every system on the network. Only systems Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working group of
that listen to the multicast address of 224.0.0.9 will process OSPF [3]. In RFC 1131, OSPF v1 specification was
the updates. published in 1989. The second version of OSPF was
released in 1998 and published in RFC 2328 [3].
RIPv2 can similarly be configured to create classless
routing. When configured for classless routing, RIPv2 will OSPF allows sets of networks to be grouped together. Such
carry submit masks when it transfers routing updates. This grouping is called an area. The topology of an area is
grants for the use of subnetting and discontiguous hidden from the rest of the Autonomous System. This
networks. information hiding enables a significant reduction in
routing traffic. Also, routing within an area is determined
RIPv2 accepts for authentication to be needed for updates. only by its (the area's) own topology, lending the area
While authentication is permitted, each router is protections from bad routing data. An area is a
configured with the RIP update password. The password generalization of an IP sub-netted network.
transferred with the RIP update must meet the password
configured on the target router. If the passwords seem not A link-state routing protocol is based on Dijkstra's
to match, then the receiving router will not process the algorithm to determine the optimal path between source
update.[7] and destination nodes. Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
and Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS)
ENHANCED INTERIOR GATEWAY ROUTING PROTOCOL: are a link-state routing protocol. OSPF is systematized by
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as an interior
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocols (EIGRP) is a gateway protocol. The OSPF is designed to support large
CISCO proprietary protocol and it is an enhancement of the networks efficiently. OSPF protocol is used to find the
Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP).EIGRP was optimal for the information to reach an appropriate
issued in 1992 as a more It is a popularly applied interior destination. OSPF uses cost as its metric, which is
gateway routing protocol that uses the Diffusion Update computed based on the bandwidth of the link. OSPF has no
Algorithm (DUAL) for computing routes .EIGRP is hop-count limit and its administrative distance is 110, it
additionally known as a hybrid protocol because it has the supports the classless protocol. OSPF advertises the status
characteristics of a link-state protocol for creating of directly connected links using Link-State
neighbor relationships and a distance vector routing Advertisements (LSAs). OSPF sends updates (LSAs) only to
protocol for advertising routes..[8] the part that has changed and only when a change has
taken place. LSAs are additionally renewed every 30
Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP) is based on a
minutes. [11]
distance vector routing protocol, and IGRP handles
maximum hop count up to 255 hops, where 100 is a default 3. PERFORMANCE METRICS
hop count in IGRP.IGRP sends a full routing table every 90
seconds, and the official distance of IGRP is 100, and IGRP There are several metrics to analyze routing protocols over
uses bandwidth, delay, reliability, load, and maximum Riverbed Modeler. Delay, throughput, and convergence
transmission unit (MTU) in its metric, where bandwidth duration as performance metrics can supply us a wide
and delay are the default enhanced Interior Gateway aspect of how a given routing protocol over different
Routing Protocol(IGRP) [9]. networks topology behaves and we can recover from that
whether the protocol is proper for the topology or not,
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) with this we will also determine there are different metrics
is an enhancement of IGRP that uses a distribution update to examine routing protocols over Riverbed Modeler.
algorithm instead of hop count compared with IGRP to Delay, throughput, and convergence duration as
select the optimal path among source and destination performance metrics can give us a wide view of how a
nodes. The standard distance used by EIGRP is 170 for given routing protocol over different network topology
external routes outside the local AS and 90 for routes behaves and we can retrieve from that whether the
originating within the local AS.EIGRP is a follower to the

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protocol is suitable for the topology or not, with this we

will also discover the performance of the protocols, over a
given data rates to see how it adopts with different data
Rates (increasing) as (1, 2, 4, 8) Mbps. Performance
metrics are detailed below:

End-to-End delay: or E-to-E delay is the average of

successfully completed packets from one source to
destination over a network[12].

Throughput: is the average of successfully delivered

packets (messages) per unit of time (seconds) through a
communication channel. In computer networks,
throughput is measured in bits per second and some
situations in data packets per second[13][14].

Convergence: duration is the time in which a group of

routers reaches the state of convergence by creating
routing tables after the convergence each router gets a
map of the topology it resides from there each router
decides which packet should be sent in which route.
Optimally the routing protocols must have a quick
convergence time. It is measured by the rate per
second[15][16]. Figure 1. Simple Mesh Topology.

4. SIMULATION STUDY AND ANALYSIS

This section will also discuss the results obtained from

simulating the scenario in this paper, so we analyze and
compare the simulation results for the proposed scenarios,
and then decide on the scenarios in terms of the
appropriate applications for each scenario.

Further, in this part, topologies have been used to

configure various protocols and simulation parameters.
The following stage presents the obtained simulation
results and compares the performance of the three routing
protocols in order to compare RIP, OSPF, and EIGRP. As
shown in figure1.

Figure 2. Point to point throughput bits/sec.

From the above observation and the study of the

comparisons, it has been noticed that EIGRP has faster
throughput than RIP while OSPF has the fastest
throughput among them in all the stages.

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10.17487/rfc2453.

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[5] C. L. Hedrick, “Routing Information Protocol,” Jun. 1988.

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[9] Charles L. Hedrick Rutgers, “An Introduction to IGRP

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