RIP Protocol – Routing Information Protocol

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Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is an acronym for Routing Information Protocol. Within an autonomous system, RIP is an intra-domain routing protocol. Intra-domain routing is when packets are routed inside a defined domain, such as web browsing within an institutional area. To comprehend the RIP protocol, we must first comprehend the packet’s structure, the number of fields it contains, and how these fields determine the routing table.

Concept of RIP Protocol:

  • Because RIP is based on a distance vector-based strategy, we treat the entire structure as a graph, with nodes representing routers and links representing networks.
  • The first column in a routing table is the destination, also known as a network address.
  • The number of hops required to reach the destination is the cost metric. The cost of a network is determined by the number of hops available. The hop count refers to the number of networks that must be traversed in order to reach the desired location.
  • In RIP, infinity is defined as 16, implying that the protocol is appropriate for smaller networks or autonomous systems. The maximum number of hops that RIP can have is 15, so it shouldn’t have more than that because 16 is infinity.
  • The next column contains the address of the router to which the packet should be sent in order to reach its intended destination.

Calculation of Hop Count:

calculation of hop count

It is counted as a single hop when the router sends the packet to the network segment.

When the packet is forwarded from Router 1 to Router 2, it counts as one hop. When the packet is forwarded from router 2 to router 3, it counts as 2 hops, and when the packet is forwarded from router 3 to router 4, it counts as 3 hops. RIP, on the other hand, can support up to 15 hops, which means that a RIP can support up to 16 routers.

RIP Message Format:

rip message format

 

1. Command:

It’s an 8-bit field that’s used to send or receive requests. The request has a value of 1 and the response has a value of 2.

2. Version:

The term “version” refers to the protocol version we’re using. If we’re using version 1 of the protocol, we’ll enter 1 in this field.

3. Reserved:

Because this is a reserved field, it is empty.

4. Family:

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It’s a 16-bit value. We put two values in this field because we are using the TCP/IP family.

5. Network Address:

It’s a 14-byte field that’s been defined. If we use IPv4, we only use 4 bytes, and the remaining 10 bytes are all zeros.

6. Distance:

The hop count, or the number of hops required to reach the destination, is specified in the distance field.

How does RIP work?

Let us assume a network has eight routers and Router 1 wants to send data to Router 3. If the network is set up with RIP, the network will choose the route with the fewest hops. Route 1, Route 2, and Route 3 are the three routes in the above network. Because Route 2 has the fewest hops, namely two, compared to Route 1’s three and Route 3’s four, RIP will choose Route 2.

Advantages of RIP Protocol:

1. It’s simple to set up.

2. It is less complicated.

3. CPU usage is less.

Disadvantages of RIP Protocol:

1. The hop count metric is used to choose the route in RIP. Even if another route with more bandwidth was available, it would not be chosen.

2. The VLSM is not supported by the RIP because it is a classful routing protocol (Variable Length Subnet Mask). The classful routing protocol excludes the subnet mask information from routing updates.

3. It sends routing updates out to the entire network, resulting in a lot of traffic. The routing table in RIP is updated every 30 seconds. When an update occurs, a copy of the update is sent to all neighbours except the one who caused the update. The process of sending updates to all of your neighbours generates a lot of traffic. A split-horizon rule is the name for this rule.

4. It is confronted with the issue of slow convergence. When a router or link fails, it can take minutes for the system to stabilise or find a new route; this is known as slow convergence.

5. The maximum number of hops supported by RIP is 15, which means that a RIP can have up to 16 hops.

6. The value of the administrative distance is 120. (Ad value). When the Ad value is lower, the protocol is more reliable than when the Ad value is higher.

7. Because the RIP protocol has the highest Ad value, it is less reliable than the others.

Timers used in RIP Protocol:

1. RIP Update Timer (30 Sec):

Every 30 seconds, routers configured with RIP send updates to all neighbouring routers.

2. RIP Invalid Timer (180 Sec):

The RIP invalid timer is 180 seconds, which means that if the router is disconnected from the network or a link fails, the neighbour router will wait 180 seconds before accepting the update. If it does not receive the update within 180 seconds, the route will be marked as unreachable.

3. RIP Flush Timer (240 Sec):

The RIP flush timer is 240 seconds, which is nearly 4 minutes. This means that if the router does not receive the update within 240 seconds, the neighbour route will remove that route from the routing table, which is a slow process because 4 minutes is a long time to wait.

Summary:

In this article, we looked at the detailed functioning of the Routing Information Protocol. We explored the working of RIP, and the calculation of hop counts in RIP. We also looked at the advantages and disadvantages of RIP, and the different timers involved in the functioning of RIP.

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