Information About EIGRP
Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP) is a Cisco proprietary enhanced version of the IGRP. EIGRP uses the same distance vector algorithm and distance information as IGRP; however, the convergence properties and the operating efficiency of EIGRP are significantly improved.
The convergence technology employs an algorithm referred to as the Diffusing Update Algorithm (DUAL), which guarantees loop-free operation at every instant throughout a route computation and allows all devices involved in a topology change to synchronize at the same time. Routers that are not affected by topology changes are not involved in recomputations.
IP EIGRP provides increased network width. With RIP, the largest possible width of your network is 15 hops. Because the EIGRP metric is large enough to support thousands of hops, the only barrier to expanding the network is the transport-layer hop counter. EIGRP increments the transport control field only when an IP packet has traversed 15 routers and the next hop to the destination was learned through EIGRP. When a RIP route is used as the next hop to the destination, the transport control field is incremented as usual.
EIGRP IPv6
Switches support the Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) for IPv6. It is configured on the interfaces on which it runs and does not require a global IPv6 address. Switches running Network Essentials only support EIGRPv6 stub routing.
Before running, an instance of EIGRP IPv6 requires an implicit or explicit router ID. An implicit router ID is derived from a local IPv6 address, so any IPv6 node always has an available router ID. However, EIGRP IPv6 might be running in a network with only IPv6 nodes and therefore might not have an available IPv6 router ID.
For configuring EIGRP for IPv6, see the Configuring EIGRP for IPv6 section.
For more information about EIGRP for IPv6, see the Cisco IOS IPv6 Configuration Library on Cisco.com.
EIGRP Features
EIGRP offers these features:
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Fast convergence.
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Incremental updates when the state of a destination changes, instead of sending the entire contents of the routing table, minimizing the bandwidth required for EIGRP packets.
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Less CPU usage because full update packets need not be processed each time they are received.
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Protocol-independent neighbor discovery mechanism to learn about neighboring routers.
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Variable-length subnet masks (VLSMs).
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Arbitrary route summarization.
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EIGRP scales to large networks.
EIGRP Components
EIGRP has these four basic components:
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Neighbor discovery and recovery is the process that routers use to dynamically learn of other routers on their directly attached networks. Routers must also discover when their neighbors become unreachable or inoperative. Neighbor discovery and recovery is achieved with low overhead by periodically sending small hello packets. As long as hello packets are received, the Cisco IOS software can learn that a neighbor is alive and functioning. When this status is determined, the neighboring routers can exchange routing information.
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The reliable transport protocol is responsible for guaranteed, ordered delivery of EIGRP packets to all neighbors. It supports intermixed transmission of multicast and unicast packets. Some EIGRP packets must be sent reliably, and others need not be. For efficiency, reliability is provided only when necessary. For example, on a multiaccess network that has multicast capabilities (such as Ethernet), it is not necessary to send hellos reliably to all neighbors individually. Therefore, EIGRP sends a single multicast hello with an indication in the packet informing the receivers that the packet need not be acknowledged. Other types of packets (such as updates) require acknowledgment, which is shown in the packet. The reliable transport has a provision to send multicast packets quickly when there are unacknowledged packets pending. Doing so helps ensure that convergence time remains low in the presence of varying speed links.
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The DUAL finite state machine embodies the decision process for all route computations. It tracks all routes advertised by all neighbors. DUAL uses the distance information (known as a metric) to select efficient, loop-free paths. DUAL selects routes to be inserted into a routing table based on feasible successors. A successor is a neighboring router used for packet forwarding that has a least-cost path to a destination that is guaranteed not to be part of a routing loop. When there are no feasible successors, but there are neighbors advertising the destination, a recomputation must occur. This is the process whereby a new successor is determined. The amount of time it takes to recompute the route affects the convergence time. Recomputation is processor-intensive; it is advantageous to avoid recomputation if it is not necessary. When a topology change occurs, DUAL tests for feasible successors. If there are feasible successors, it uses any it finds to avoid unnecessary recomputation.
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The protocol-dependent modules are responsible for network layer protocol-specific tasks. An example is the IP EIGRP module, which is responsible for sending and receiving EIGRP packets that are encapsulated in IP. It is also responsible for parsing EIGRP packets and informing DUAL of the new information received. EIGRP asks DUAL to make routing decisions, but the results are stored in the IP routing table. EIGRP is also responsible for redistributing routes learned by other IP routing protocols.
EIGRP Nonstop Forwarding
The device stack supports two levels of EIGRP nonstop forwarding:
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EIGRP NSF Awareness
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EIGRP NSF Capability
EIGRP NSF Awareness
The supports EIGRP NSF Awareness for IPv4. When the neighboring router is NSF-capable, the Layer 3 device continues to forward packets from the neighboring router during the interval between the primary Route Processor (RP) in a router failing and the backup RP taking over, or while the primary RP is manually reloaded for a nondisruptive software upgrade. This feature cannot be disabled.
EIGRP NSF Capability
When an EIGRP NSF-capable active switch restarts or a new active switch starts up and NSF restarts, the device has no neighbors, and the topology table is empty. The device must bring up the interfaces, reacquire neighbors, and rebuild the topology and routing tables without interrupting the traffic directed toward the device stack. EIGRP peer routers maintain the routes learned from the new active switch and continue forwarding traffic through the NSF restart process.
To prevent an adjacency reset by the neighbors, the new active switch uses a new Restart (RS) bit in the EIGRP packet header to show the restart. When the neighbor receives this, it synchronizes the stack in its peer list and maintains the adjacency with the stack. The neighbor then sends its topology table to the active switch with the RS bit set to show that it is NSF-aware and is aiding the new active switch.
If at least one of the stack peer neighbors is NSF-aware, the active switch receives updates and rebuilds its database. Each NSF-aware neighbor sends an end of table (EOT) marker in the last update packet to mark the end of the table content. The active switch recognizes the convergence when it receives the EOT marker, and it then begins sending updates. When the active switch has received all EOT markers from its neighbors or when the NSF converge timer expires, EIGRP notifies the routing information database (RIB) of convergence and floods its topology table to all NSF-aware peers.
EIGRP Stub Routing
The EIGRP stub routing feature improves network stability, reduces resource utilization, and simplifies the stub device configuration.
Stub routing is commonly used in hub-and-spoke network topologies. In a hub-and-spoke network, one or more end (stub) networks are connected to a remote device (the spoke) that is connected to one or more distribution devices (the hub). The remote device is adjacent to one or more distribution devices. The only route for IP traffic to reach the remote device is through a distribution device. This type of configuration is commonly used in WAN topologies, where the distribution device is directly connected to a WAN. The distribution device can be connected to many remote devices, which is often the case. In a hub-and-spoke topology, the remote device must forward all nonlocal traffic to a distribution device, so it becomes unnecessary for the remote device to have a complete routing table. Generally, the distribution device need not send anything more than a default route to the remote device.
When using the EIGRP stub routing feature, you need to configure the distribution and remote devices to use EIGRP and configure only the remote device as a stub. Only specified routes are propagated from the remote (stub) device. The stub device responds to all queries for summaries, connected routes, redistributed static routes, external routes, and internal routes with the message “inaccessible.” A device that is configured as a stub will send a special peer information packet to all neighboring devices to report its status as a stub device.
Any neighbor that receives a packet informing it of the stub status will not query the stub device for any routes, and a device that has a stub peer will not query that peer. The stub device will depend on the distribution device to send proper updates to all peers.
The figure below shows a simple hub-and-spoke network.
The stub routing feature by itself does not prevent routes from being advertised to the remote device. In the above example, the remote device can access the corporate network and the Internet only through the distribution device. Having a complete route table on the remote device would serve no functional purpose because the path to the corporate network and the Internet would always be through the distribution device. The large route table would only reduce the amount of memory required by the remote device. Bandwidth and memory can be conserved by summarizing and filtering routes in the distribution device. The remote device need not receive routes that have been learned from other networks because the remote device must send all nonlocal traffic, regardless of the destination, to the distribution device. If a true stub network is desired, the distribution device should be configured to send only a default route to the remote device. The EIGRP stub routing feature does not automatically enable summarization on distribution devices. In most cases, the network administrator will need to configure summarization on distribution devices.
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When configuring the distribution device to send only a default route to the remote device, you must use the ip classless command on the remote device. By default, the ip classless command is enabled in all Cisco images that support the EIGRP stub routing feature. |
Without the EIGRP stub routing feature, even after routes that are sent from the distribution device to the remote device have been filtered or summarized, a problem might occur. If a route is lost somewhere in the corporate network, EIGRP could send a query to the distribution device, which in turn would send a query to the remote device, even if routes are being summarized. If there is a communication problem (over the WAN link) between the distribution device and the remote device, an EIGRP stuck in active (SIA) condition could occur and cause instability elsewhere in the network. The EIGRP stub routing feature allows a network administrator to prevent queries from being sent to the remote device.
EIGRPv6 Stub Routing
The EIGRPv6 stub routing feature, reduces resource utilization by moving routed traffic closer to the end user.
In a network using EIGRPv6 stub routing, the only allowable route for IPv6 traffic to the user is through a switch that is configured with EIGRPv6 stub routing. The switch sends the routed traffic to interfaces that are configured as user interfaces or are connected to other devices.
When using EIGRPv6 stub routing, you need to configure the distribution and remote routers to use EIGRPv6 and to configure only the switch as a stub. Only specified routes are propagated from the switch. The switch responds to all queries for summaries, connected routes, and routing updates.
Any neighbor that receives a packet informing it of the stub status does not query the stub router for any routes, and a router that has a stub peer does not query that peer. The stub router depends on the distribution router to send the proper updates to all peers.
In the figure given below, switch B is configured as an EIGRPv6 stub router. Switches A and C are connected to the rest of the WAN. Switch B advertises connected, static, redistribution, and summary routes to switch A and C. Switch B does not advertise any routes learned from switch A (and the reverse).
For more information about EIGRPv6 stub routing, see “Implementing EIGRP for IPv6” section of the Cisco IOS IP Configuration Guide, Volume 2 of 3: Routing Protocols, Release 12.4.
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