Group 1

 JESSA MAE J. REINANTE

 LUCILL SANCHEZ

 JONNELYN PACTORES

Distance
Vector Routing
Protocol

 The dynamic routing chapters of this course focus on
Interior Gateway Protocols (IGPs). As discussed in Chapter
3, IGPs are classified as either distance vector or link-state
routing protocols.

 This chapter describes the characteristics, operations, and
functionality of distance vector routing protocols. There
are advantages and disadvantages to using any type of
routing protocol. Therefore, the conditions influencing the
operation of distance vector protocols and the pitfalls of
distance vector protocol operation - along with remedies
to overcome such pitfalls - are described. Understanding
the operation of distance vector routing is critical to
enabling, verifying, and troubleshooting these protocols.

 Dynamic routing protocols help the network
administrator overcome the time-consuming and
exacting process of configuring and maintaining
static routes. For example, can you imagine
maintaining the static routing configurations of
the 28 routers shown in the figure? What
happens when a link goes down? How do you
ensure that redundant paths are available?
Dynamic routing is the most common choice for
large networks like the one shown.

 Distance vector routing protocols include
RIP, IGRP, and EIGRP.

 RIP

 Routing Information Protocol (RIP) was
originally specified in RFC 1058. It has the
following key characteristics:
 Hop count is used as the metric for path
selection.
 If the hop count for a network is greater than
15, RIP cannot supply a route to that
network.
 Routing updates are broadcast or multicast
every 30 seconds, by default.

 IGRP

 Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP) is a
proprietary protocol developed by Cisco.
IGRP has the following key design
characteristics:
 Bandwidth, delay, load and reliability are
used to create a composite metric.
 Routing updates are broadcast every 90
seconds, by default.
 IGRP is the predecessor of EIGRP and is now
obsolete.

 EIGRP

 Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP) is a Cisco proprietary
distance vector routing protocol. EIGRP has
these key characteristics:
 It can perform unequal cost load balancing.
 It uses Diffusing Update Algorithm (DUAL) to
calculate the shortest path.
 There are no periodic updates as with RIP
and IGRP. Routing updates are sent only when
there is a change in the topology.

 As the name implies, distance vector means that routes
are advertised as vectors of distance and direction.
Distance is defined in terms of a metric such as hop count
and direction is simply the next-hop router or exit
interface.

 A router using a distance vector routing protocol does not
have the knowledge of the entire path to a destination
network. Instead the router knows only:
 The direction or interface in which packets should be
forwarded and
 The distance or how far it is to the destination network

 For example, in the figure, R1 knows that the distance to
reach network 172.16.3.0/24 is 1 hop and that the
direction is out the interface S0/0/0 toward R2.

 Some distance vector routing protocols call
for the router to periodically broadcast the
entire routing table to each of its neighbors.
This method is inefficient because the
updates not only consume bandwidth but
also consume router CPU resources to
process the updates.

 Distancevector routing protocols share
certain characteristics.

 Periodic Updates are sent at regular intervals (30
seconds for RIP and 90 seconds for IGRP). Even if
the topology has not changed in several
days, periodic updates continue to be sent to all
neighbors.

 Neighbors are routers that share a link and are
configured to use the same routing protocol. The
router is only aware of the network addresses of
its own interfaces and the remote network
addresses it can reach through its neighbors. It
has no broader knowledge of the network
topology. Routers using distance vector routing
are not aware of the network topology.

 Broadcast Updates are sent to 255.255.255.255.
Neighboring routers that are configured with the
same routing protocol will process the updates.
All other devices will also process the update up
to Layer 3 before discarding it. Some distance
vector routing protocols use multicast addresses
instead of broadcast addresses.

 Entire Routing Table Updates are sent, with some
exceptions to be discussed later, periodically to
all neighbors. Neighbors receiving these updates
must process the entire update to find pertinent
information and discard the rest. Some distance
vector routing protocols like EIGRP do not send
periodic routing table updates.

 An algorithm is a procedure for accomplishing a
certain task, starting at a given initial state and
terminating in a defined end state. Different routing
protocols use different algorithms to install routes in
the routing table, send updates to neighbors, and
make path determination decisions.

 The algorithm used for the routing protocols defines
the following processes:
 Mechanism for sending and receiving routing
information.
 Mechanism for calculating the best paths and
installing routes in the routing table.
 Mechanism for detecting and reacting to topology
changes.

 Routing protocols can be compared based on
the following characteristics:
 Time to Convergence - Time to convergence
defines how quickly the routers in the
network topology share routing information
and reach a state of consistent knowledge.
The faster the convergence, the more
preferable the protocol. Routing loops can
occur when inconsistent routing tables are
not updated due to slow convergence in a
changing network.

 Scalability - Scalability defines how large a
network can become based on the routing
protocol that is deployed. The larger the
network is, the more scalable the routing
protocol needs to be.
 Classless (Use of VLSM) or Classful - Classless
routing protocols include the subnet mask in
the updates. This feature supports the use of
Variable Length Subnet Masking (VLSM) and
better route summarization. Classful routing
protocols do not include the subnet mask and
cannot support VLSM.

 Resource Usage - Resource usage includes the
requirements of a routing protocol such as
memory space, CPU utilization, and link
bandwidth utilization. Higher resource
requirements necessitate more powerful
hardware to support the routing protocol
operation in addition to the packet forwarding
processes.
 Implementation and Maintenance -
Implementation and maintenance describes the
level of knowledge that is required for a network
administrator to implement and maintain the
network based on the routing protocol deployed.

 In the figure, all the routing protocols discussed in
the course are compared based on these
characteristics. Although IGRP is no longer supported
by the IOS, it is shown here to compare it with the
Enhanced version. Also, although the IS-IS routing
protocol is covered in the CCNP courses, it is shown
here because it is a commonly used interior gateway
protocol.

 Study the figure, and then click the Reset button to
empty the table. Drag and drop the appropriate
characteristics to each routing protocol. Based on the
information previously discussed, you should be able
to identify the advantages and disadvantages of
distance vector routing protocols.

 When a router cold starts or powers up, it
knows nothing about the network topology. It
does not even know that there are devices
on the other end of its links. The only
information that a router has is from its own
saved configuration file stored in NVRAM.
Once a router boots successfully, it applies
the saved configuration. As described in
Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, if the IP addressing
is configured correctly, then the router will
initially discover its own directly connected
networks.

 Initial Network Discovery

 In the example in the figure, after a cold
start and before the exchange of routing
information, the routers initially discover
their own directly connected networks and
subnet masks. This information is added to
their routing tables:

 R1
 10.1.0.0 available through interface FastEthernet 0/0
 10.2.0.0 available through interface Serial 0/0/0

 R2

 R3
 10.4.0.0 available through interface FastEthernet 0/0

 Play the animation to watch this initial discovery of
connected networks for R1. With this initial
information, the routers start to exchange routing
information.

 Ifa routing protocol is configured, the
routers begin exchanging routing updates.
Initially, these updates only include
information about their directly connected
networks. Upon receiving an update, the
router checks it for new information. Any
routes that are not currently in its routing
table are added.

 Play the animation to see R1, R2, and R3 start the
initial exchange. All three routers send their routing
tables to their neighbors, which at this point only
contains the directly connected networks. Each
router processes updates in the following manner:

 R1
 Sends an update about network 10.1.0.0 out the
Serial0/0/0 interface
 Sends an update about network 10.2.0.0 out the
FastEthernet0/0 interface
 Receives update from R2 about network 10.3.0.0 with
a metric of 1
 Stores network 10.3.0.0 in the routing table with a
metric of 1

 R2
 Sends an update about network 10.3.0.0 out the Serial 0/0/0 interface
 Receives an update from R1 about network 10.1.0.0 with a metric of 1
 Stores network 10.1.0.0 in the routing table with a metric of 1

 R3
 Sends an update about network 10.3.0.0 out the FastEthernet0/0

 Afterthis first round of update
exchanges, each router knows about the
connected networks of their directly
connected neighbors. However, did you
notice that R1 does not yet know about
10.4.0.0 and that R3 does not yet know
about 10.1.0.0? Full knowledge and a
converged network will not take place until
there is another exchange of routing
information.

 At this point the routers have knowledge about
their own directly connected networks and about
the connected networks of their immediate
neighbors. Continuing the journey toward
convergence, the routers exchange the next
round of periodic updates. Each router again
checks the updates for new information.

 Next Update

 Play the animation to see R1, R2, and R3 send
the latest routing table to their neighbors. Each
router processes updates in the following
manner:

 The amount of time it takes for a network to converge is directly
proportional to the size of that network. In the animation, a branch
router in Region 4 (B2-R4) is cold starting. The animation shows the
propagation of new routing information as updates are sent between
neighboring routers. It takes five rounds of periodic update intervals
before most of the branch routers in Regions 1, 2, and 3 learn about the
new routes advertised by B2-R4. Routing protocols are compared based
on how fast they can propagate this information - their speed to
convergence.

 The speed of achieving convergence consists of:
 How quickly the routers propagate a change in the topology in a routing
update to its neighbors.
 The speed of calculating best path routes using the new routing
information collected.

 A network is not completely operable until it has
converged, therefore, network administrators prefer routing protocols
with shorter convergence times.

 Many distance vector protocols employ periodic
updates to exchange routing information with their
neighbors and to maintain up-to-date routing
information in the routing table. RIP and IGRP are
examples of two such protocols.

 In the animation, the routers are periodically sending
the routing table to neighbors. The term periodic
updates refers to the fact that a router sends the
complete routing table to its neighbors at a
predefined interval. For RIP, these updates are sent
every 30 seconds as a broadcast (255.255.255.255)
whether or not there has been a topology change.
This 30-second interval is a route update timer that
also aids in tracking the age of routing information in
the routing table.

 The age of routing information in a routing
table is refreshed each time an update is
received. This way information in the routing
table can be maintained when there is a
topology change. Changes may occur for
several reasons, including:
 Failure of a link
 Introduction of a new link
 Failure of a router
 Change of link parameters

 RIP Timers

 In addition to the update timer, the IOS
implements three additional timers for RIP:
 Invalid
 Flush
 Holddown

 InvalidTimer. If an update has not been
received to refresh an existing route after
180 seconds (the default), the route is
marked as invalid by setting the metric to
16. The route is retained in the routing table
until the flush timer expires.

 FlushTimer. By default, the flush timer is set
for 240 seconds, which is 60 seconds longer
than the invalid timer. When the flush timer
expires, the route is removed from the
routing table.

 Holddown Timer. This timer stabilizes routing information
and helps prevent routing loops during periods when the
topology is converging on new information. Once a route is
marked as unreachable, it must stay in holddown long
enough for all routers in the topology to learn about the
unreachable network. By default, the holddown timer is
set for 180 seconds. The holddown timer is discussed in
more detail later in this chapter.

 Click show ip route in the figure.

 The timer values can be verified with two commands:
show ip route and show ip protocols. Notice in the output
from show ip route that each route learned through RIP
shows the elapsed time since the last update, expressed in
seconds.

 Click show ip protocols in the figure.

 Thisinformation is also repeated in the show
ip protocols output under the heading Last
Update. The show ip protocols command
details when this router, R1, is due to send
out its next round of updates. It also lists the
invalid, holddown, and flush timer default
values.

 Unlikeother distance vector routing
protocols, EIGRP does not send periodic
updates. Instead, EIGRP sends bounded
updates about a route when a path changes
or the metric for that route changes. When a
new route becomes available or when a
route needs to be removed, EIGRP sends an
update only about that network instead of
the entire table. This information is sent only
to those routers that need it.

 EIGRP uses updates that are:
 Non-periodic because they are not sent out
on a regular basis.
 Partial updates sent only when there is a
change in topology that influences routing
information.
 Bounded, meaning the propagation of partial
updates are automatically bounded so that
only those routers that need the information
are updated.

 To speed up the convergence when there is a topology
change, RIP uses triggered updates. A triggered update is a
routing table update that is sent immediately in response
to a routing change. Triggered updates do not wait for
update timers to expire. The detecting router immediately
sends an update message to adjacent routers. The
receiving routers, in turn, generate triggered updates that
notify their neighbors of the change.

 Triggered updates are sent when one of the following
occurs:
 An interface changes state (up or down)
 A route has entered (or exited) the "unreachable" state
 A route is installed in the routing table

 Using only triggered updates would be sufficient if
there were a guarantee that the wave of updates
would reach every appropriate router immediately.
However, there are two problems with triggered
updates:
 Packets containing the update message can be
dropped or corrupted by some link in the network.
 The triggered updates do not happen instantaneously.
It is possible that a router that has not yet received
the triggered update will issue a regular update at
just the wrong time, causing the bad route to be
reinserted in a neighbor that had already received
the triggered update.

 Issues with Synchronized Updates

 When multiple routers transmit routing updates at the same time
on multi-access LAN segments (as shown in the animation), the
update packets can collide and cause delays or consume too
much bandwidth.

 Note: Collisions are only an issue with hubs and not with
switches.

 Sending updates at the same time is known as the
synchronization of updates. Synchronization can become a
problem with distance vector routing protocols due to their usage
of periodic updates. As more routers' timers become
synchronized, more collisions of updates and more delays occur
in the network. Initially, the updates of routers will not be
synchronized. But over time, the timers across a network will
become globally synchronized.

 Toprevent the synchronization of updates
between routers, the Cisco IOS uses a
random variable, called RIP_JITTER, which
subtracts a variable amount of time to the
update interval for each router in the
network. This random jitter, or variable
amount of time, ranges from 0% to 15% of
the specified update interval. In this
way, the update interval varies randomly in a
range from 25 to 30 seconds for the default
30-second interval.

 A routing loop is a condition in which a packet is
continuously transmitted within a series of routers without
ever reaching its intended destination network. A routing
loop can occur when two or more routers have routing
information that incorrectly indicates that a valid path to
an unreachable destination exists.

 The loop may be a result of:
 Incorrectly configured static routes
 Incorrectly configured route redistribution (redistribution
is a process of handing the routing information from one
routing protocol to another routing protocol and is
discussed in CCNP-level courses)
 Inconsistent routing tables not being updated due to slow
convergence in a changing network
 Incorrectly configured or installed discard routes

 A routing loop can have a devastating effect on a
network, resulting in degraded network performance or
even a network downtime.

 A routing loop can create the following conditions:
 Link bandwidth will be used for traffic looping back and
forth between the routers in a loop.
 A router's CPU will be strained due to looping packets.
 A router's CPU will be burdened with useless packet
forwarding that will negatively impact the convergence of
the network.
 Routing updates may get lost or not be processed in a
timely manner. These conditions would introduce
additional routing loops, making the situation even worse.
 Packets may get lost in "black holes."

 There are a number of mechanisms available to
eliminate routing loops, primarily with distance
vector routing protocols. These mechanisms
include:
 Defining a maximum metric to prevent count to
infinity
 Holddown timers
 Split horizon
 Route poisoning or poison reverse
 Triggered updates

 Triggered updates were discussed in the previous
section. The other loop avoidance mechanisms
are discussed later in this chapter.

 Count to infinity is a condition that exists
when inaccurate routing updates increase
the metric value to "infinity" for a network
that is no longer reachable. The animation
shows what happens to the routing tables
when all three routers continue to send
inaccurate updates to each other.

 Toeventually stop the incrementing of the
metric, "infinity" is defined by setting a
maximum metric value. For example, RIP
defines infinity as 16 hops - an "unreachable"
metric. Once the routers "count to infinity,"
they mark the route as unreachable.

 Earlier you learned that distance vector protocols
employ triggered updates to speed up the
convergence process. Remember that in addition to
triggered updates, routers using distance vector
routing protocols also send periodic updates. Let's
imagine that a particular network is unstable. The
interface resets as up, then down, then up again in
rapid succession. The route is flapping. Using
triggered updates, the routers might react too
quickly and unknowingly create a routing loop. A
routing loop could also be created by a periodic
update that is sent by the routers during the
instability. Holddown timers prevent routing loops
from being created by these conditions. Holddown
timers also help prevent the count to infinity
condition.

 Holddown timers are used to prevent regular
update messages from inappropriately
reinstating a route that may have gone bad.
Holddown timers instruct routers to hold any
changes that might affect routes for a specified
period of time. If a route is identified as down or
possibly down, any other information for that
route containing the same status, or worse, is
ignored for a predetermined amount of time (the
holddown period). This means that routers will
leave a route marked as unreachable in that
state for a period of time that is long enough for
updates to propagate the routing tables with the
most current information.

 1. A router receives an update from a neighbor indicating that a network
that previously was accessible is now no longer accessible.

 2. The router marks the network as possibly down and starts the
holddown timer.

 3. If an update with a better metric for that network is received from any
neighboring router during the holddown period, the network is reinstated
and the holddown timer is removed.

 4. If an update from any other neighbor is received during the holddown
period with the same or worse metric for that network, that update is
ignored. Thus, more time is allowed for the information about the change
to be propagated.

 5. Routers still forward packets to destination networks that are marked
as possibly down. This allows the router to overcome any issues
associated with intermittent connectivity. If the destination network
truly is unavailable and the packets are forwarded, black hole routing is
created and lasts until the holddown timer expires.

 Another method used to prevent routing
loops caused by slow convergence of a
distance vector routing protocol is split
horizon. The split horizon rule says that a
router should not advertise a network
through the interface from which the update
came.

 Applying split horizon to the previous example of
route 10.4.0.0 produces the following actions:
 R3 advertises the 10.4.0.0 network to R2.
 R2 receives the information and updates its routing
table.
 R2 then advertises the 10.4.0.0 network to R1 out
S0/0/0. R2 does not advertise 10.4.0.0 to R3 out
S0/0/1, because the route originated from that
interface.
 R1 receives the information and updates its routing
table.
 Because of split horizon, R1 also does not advertise
the information about network 10.4.0.0 back to R2.

 Complete routing updates are
exchanged, with the exception of routes that
violate the split horizon rule. The results
look like this:
 R2 advertises networks 10.3.0.0 and 10.4.0.0
to R1.
 R2 advertises networks 10.1.0.0 and 10.2.0.0
to R3.
 R1 advertises network 10.1.0.0 to R2.
 R3 advertises network 10.4.0.0 to R2.

 Route poisoning is yet another method
employed by distance vector routing
protocols to prevent routing loops. Route
poisoning is used to mark the route as
unreachable in a routing update that is sent
to other routers. Unreachable is interpreted
as a metric that is set to the maximum. For
RIP, a poisoned route has a metric of 16.

 Poison reverse can be combined with the
split horizon technique. The method is called
split horizon with poison reverse. The rule
for split horizon with poison reverse states
when sending updates out a specific
interface, designate any networks that were
learned on that interface as unreachable.

 Theconcept of split horizon with poison
reverse is that explicitly telling a router to
ignore a route is better than not telling it
about the route in the first place.

 Time to Live (TTL) is an 8-bit field in the IP header that
limits the number of hops a packet can traverse through
the network before it is discarded. The purpose of the TTL
field is to avoid a situation in which an undeliverable
packet keeps circulating on the network endlessly. With
TTL, the 8-bit field is set with a value by the source device
of the packet. The TTL is decreased by one by every router
on the route to its destination. If the TTL field reaches
zero before the packet arrives at its destination, the
packet is discarded and the router sends an Internet
Control Message Protocol (ICMP) error message back to the
source of the IP packet.

 The animation shows that even in the case of a routing
loop packets will not loop endlessly in the network.
Eventually the TTL value will be decreased to 0 and the
packet will be discarded by the router.

 RIP

 Over the years, RIP has evolved from a classful routing protocol (RIPv1) to a
classless routing protocol (RIPv2). RIPv2 is a standardized routing protocol that
works in a mixed vendor router environment. Routers made by different companies
can communicate using RIP. It is one of the easiest routing protocols to
configure, making it a good choice for small networks. However, RIPv2 still has
limitations. Both RIPv1 and RIPv2 have a route metric that is based only on hop
count and which is limited to 15 hops.

 Features of RIP:
 Supports split horizon and split horizon with poison reverse to prevent loops.
 Is capable of load balancing up to six equal cost paths . The default is four equal
cost paths.

 RIPv2 introduced the following improvements to RIPv1:
 Includes the subnet mask in the routing updates, making it a classless routing
protocol.
 Has authentication mechanism to secure routing table updates.
 Supports variable length subnet mask (VLSM).
 Uses multicast addresses instead of broadcast.
 Supports manual route summarization.

 Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP) was developed from IGRP another
,
distance vector protocol. EIGRP is a classless, distance
vector routing protocol with features found in link-state
routing protocols. However, unlike RIP or OSPF, EIGRP is a
proprietary protocol developed by Cisco and only runs on
Cisco routers.

 EIGRP features include:
 Triggered updates (EIGRP has no periodic updates).
 Use of a topology table to maintain all the routes received
from neighbors (not only the best paths).
 Establishment of adjacencies with neighboring routers
using the EIGRP hello protocol.
 Support for VLSM and manual route summarization. These
allow EIGRP to create hierarchically structured large
networks.

 One way of classifying routing protocols is by the type of
algorithm they use to determine the best path to a
destination network. Routing protocols can be classified as
distance vector, link state, or path vector. Distance vector
means that routes are advertised as vectors of distance
and direction. Distance is defined in terms of a metric such
as hop count and direction is simply the next-hop router or
exit interface.

 Distance vector routing protocols include:
 RIPv1
 RIPv2
 IGRP
 EIGRP

 Routers that use distance vector routing protocols determine best
path to remote networks based on the information they learn
from their neighbors. If Router X learns of two paths to the same
network, one through Router Y at 7 hops, and another route
through Router Z at 10 hops, the router will choose the shorter
path using Router Y as the next-hop router. Router X has no
knowledge of what the network looks like beyond Routers Y and
Z, and can only make its best path decision based on the
information sent to it by these two routers. Distance vector
routing protocols do not have a map of the topology as do link
state routing protocols.

 Network discovery is an important process of any routing
protocol. Some distance vector routing protocols such as RIP go
through a step-by-step process of learning and sharing routing
information with their neighbors. As routes are learned from one
neighbor, that information is passed on to other neighbors with
an increase in the routing metric.

 The Packet Tracer Skills Integration
Challenge Activity for this chapter is very
similar to the activity you completed at the
end of Chapter 3. The scenario is slightly
different, allowing you to better practice
your skills. In this activity, you build a
network from the ground up. Starting with an
addressing space and network
requirements, you must implement a
network design that satisfies the
specifications. Then implement an effective
static routing configuration.

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