Routing Protocols and

Concepts

Dr. Muazzam A. Khan

Version 4.0 © 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Public 1
Objectives
 Identify the characteristics of distance vector routing
protocols.
 Describe the network discovery process of distance
vector routing protocols using Routing Information
Protocol (RIP).
 Describe the processes to maintain accurate routing
tables used by distance vector routing protocols.
 Identify the conditions leading to a routing loop and
explain the implications for router performance.
 Recognize that distance vector routing protocols are
in use today.

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Distance Vector Routing Protocols
 Examples of Distance Vector routing protocols:
– Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
– Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP)
– Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
(EIGRP)

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Distance Vector Routing Protocols
 Distance Vector Technology - the Meaning of
Distance Vector
– A router using distance vector routing protocols
knows 2 things:
• Distance to final destination
• Vector, or direction, traffic should be directed

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Distance Vector Routing Protocols
 Characteristics of Distance Vector routing
protocols:
– Periodic updates
– Neighbors
– Broadcast updates
– Entire routing table is included with routing update

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Distance Vector Routing Protocols
 Routing Protocol Algorithm:
– Defined as a procedure for accomplishing a certain task

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Distance Vector Routing Protocols
 Routing Protocol Characteristics
– Criteria used to compare routing protocols includes
• Time to convergence
• Scalability
• Resource usage
• Implementation & maintenance

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Network Discovery
 Router initial start up (Cold Starts)
– Initial network discovery
• Directly connected networks are initially placed in
routing table

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Network Discovery
 Initial Exchange of Routing Information
– If a routing protocol is configured then:
• Routers will exchange routing information
• Routing updates received from other routers
 Router checks update for new information
– If there is new information:
• Metric is updated
• New information is stored in routing table

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Network Discovery
 Exchange of Routing Information
– Router convergence is reached when
• All routing tables in the network contain the same network
information
– Routers continue to exchange routing information
• If no new information is found then Convergence is reached

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Network Discovery
 Convergence must be reached before a network is
considered completely operable
 Speed of achieving convergence consists of 2
interdependent categories
– Speed of broadcasting routing information
– Speed of calculating routes

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Routing Table Maintenance
 Periodic Updates: RIPv1 & RIPv2
– These are time intervals in which a router sends out its entire
routing table

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Routing Table Maintenance
 Bounded Updates: EIGRP
 EIRPG routing updates are:
– Partial updates
– Triggered by topology changes
– Non periodic

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Routing Table Maintenance
 Triggered Updates
–Conditions in which triggered updates are sent
– Interface changes state
– Route becomes unreachable
– Route is placed in routing table

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Routing Table Maintenance
 Random Jitter
– Synchronized updates - a condition where multiple routers on
multi access LAN segments transmit routing updates at the
same time.
• Problems with synchronized updates
– Bandwidth consumption
– Packet collisions

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Routing Loops
 Routing loops are
– A condition in which a
packet is continuously
transmitted within a
series of routers without
ever reaching its
destination.

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Routing Loops
 Routing loops may be caused by:
– Incorrectly configured static routes
– Incorrectly configured route redistribution
– Slow convergence

 Routing loops can create the following issues:

– Excess use of bandwidth
– CPU resources may be strained
– Network convergence is degraded
– Routing updates may be lost or not processed in a timely
manner

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Routing Loops
 Count to Infinity
– This is a routing loop whereby packets bounce infinitely
around a network

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Routing Loops
 Setting a maximum
 Distance Vector routing protocols set a specified
metric value to indicate infinity
– Once a router “counts to infinity” it marks the route as
unreachable

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Routing Loops
 Preventing loops with holddown timers
– Holddown timers allow a router to not accept any changes to a
route for a specified period of time
– Point of using holddown timers
• Allows routing updates to propagate through network with
the most current information

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Routing Loops
 The Split Horizon Rule is used to prevent routing
loops
 Split Horizon rule:
– A router should not advertise a network through the interface
from which the update came

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Routing Loops
 Split horizon with
poison reverse
– The rule states that
once a router learns of
an unreachable route
through an interface,
advertise it as
unreachable back
through the same
interface

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Routing Loops
 IP & TTL
– Purpose of the TTL field
• The TTL field is found in an IP header and is used to
prevent packets from endlessly traveling on a network

 How the TTL field works

– TTL field contains a numeric value
• The numeric value is decreased by one by every router on
the route to the destination
• If numeric value reaches 0 then Packet is discarded

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Routing Protocols Today
 Factors used to determine whether to use RIP or
EIGRP include
– Network size
– Compatibility between models of routers
– Administrative knowledge

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Routing Protocols Today
 RIP
– Features of RIP:
• Supports split horizon & split horizon with poison
reverse
• Capable of load balancing
• Easy to configure
• Works in a multi vendor router environment

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Routing Protocols Today
 EIGRP
– Features of EIGRP:
• Triggered updates
• EIGRP hello protocol used to establish neighbor
adjacencies
• Supports VLSM & route summarization
• Use of topology table to maintain all routes
• Classless distance vector routing protocol
• Cisco proprietary protocol

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Summary
 Characteristics of Distance Vector routing protocols
– Periodic updates
– RIP routing updates include the entire routing table
– Neighbors are defined as routers that share a link and are
configured to use the same protocol

 The network discovery process for D.V. routing

protocol
– Directly connected routes are placed in routing table 1st
– If a routing protocol is configured then
• Routers will exchange routing information
– Convergence is reached when all network routers have the
same network information

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Summary
 D.V. routing protocols maintains routing tables by
– RIP sending out periodic updates
– RIP using 4 different timers to ensure information is accurate
and convergence is achieved in a timely manner
– EIGRP sending out triggered updates

 D.V. routing protocols may be prone to routing loops

– routing loops are a condition in which packets continuously
traverse a network
– Mechanisms used to minimize routing loops include defining
maximum hop count, holddown timers, split horizon, route
poisoning and triggered updates

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Summary
 Conditions that can lead to routing loops include
– Incorrectly configured static routes
– Incorrectly configured route redistribution
– Slow convergence
– Incorrectly configured discard routes

 How routing loops can impact network performance

includes:
– Excess use of bandwidth
– CPU resources may be strained
– Network convergence is degraded
– Routing updates may be lost or not processed

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Summary
 Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
– A distance vector protocol that has 2 versions
• RIPv1 - a classful routing protocol
• RIPv2 - a classless routing protocol

 Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol

(EIGRP)
– A distance vector routing protocols that has some features of
link state routing protocols
– A Cisco proprietary routing protocol

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