About RIP
The Routing Information Protocol, or RIP, as it is more commonly called, is one of the most enduring of all routing protocols. RIP has four basic components: routing update process, RIP routing metrics, routing stability, and routing timers. Devices that support RIP send routing-update messages at regular intervals and when the network topology changes. These RIP packets include information about the networks that the devices can reach, as well as the number of routers or gateways that a packet must travel through to reach the destination address. RIP generates more traffic than OSPF, but is easier to configure.
RIP is a distance-vector routing protocol that uses hop count as the metric for path selection. When RIP is enabled on an interface, the interface exchanges RIP broadcasts with neighboring devices to dynamically learn about and advertise routes.
The Secure Firewall Threat Defense device supports both RIP Version 1 and RIP Version 2. RIP Version 1 does not send the subnet mask with the routing update. RIP Version 2 sends the subnet mask with the routing update and supports variable-length subnet masks. Additionally, RIP Version 2 supports neighbor authentication when routing updates are exchanged. This authentication ensures that the Secure Firewall Threat Defense device receives reliable routing information from a trusted source.
RIP has advantages over static routes because the initial configuration is simple, and you do not need to update the configuration when the topology changes. The disadvantage to RIP is that there is more network and processing overhead than in static routing.
Routing Update Process
RIP sends routing-update messages at regular intervals and when the network topology changes. When a router receives a routing update that includes changes to an entry, it updates its routing table to reflect the new route. The metric value for the path is increased by 1, and the sender is indicated as the next hop. RIP routers maintain only the best route (the route with the lowest metric value) to a destination. After updating its routing table, the router immediately begins transmitting routing updates to inform other network routers of the change. These updates are sent independently of the regularly scheduled updates that RIP routers send.
RIP Routing Metric
RIP uses a single routing metric (hop count) to measure the distance between the source and a destination network. Each hop in a path from source to destination is assigned a hop count value, which is typically 1. When a router receives a routing update that contains a new or changed destination network entry, the router adds 1 to the metric value indicated in the update and enters the network in the routing table. The IP address of the sender is used as the next hop.
RIP Stability Features
RIP prevents routing loops from continuing indefinitely by implementing a limit on the number of hops allowed in a path from the source to a destination. The maximum number of hops in a path is 15. If a router receives a routing update that contains a new or changed entry, and if increasing the metric value by 1 causes the metric to be infinity (that is, 16), the network destination is considered unreachable. The downside of this stability feature is that it limits the maximum diameter of a RIP network to less than 16 hops.
RIP includes a number of other stability features that are common to many routing protocols. These features are designed to provide stability despite potentially rapid changes in network topology. For example, RIP implements the split horizon and hold-down mechanisms to prevent incorrect routing information from being propagated.
RIP Timers
RIP uses numerous timers to regulate its performance. Following are the timer stages for RIP:
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Update—The routing-update timer is the interval between periodic routing updates. This is how often the device sends routing updates. Generally, it is set to 30 seconds, with a small random amount of time added whenever the timer is reset. This is done to help prevent congestion, which could result from all routers simultaneously attempting to update their neighbors.
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Invalid—Each routing table entry has a route-timeout timer associated with it. This is the number of seconds since the device received the last valid update. When the route-timeout timer expires, the route is marked invalid but is retained in the table until the route-flush timer expires. Once this timer expires, the route goes into holddown. The default is 180 seconds (3 minutes).
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Holddown—The holddown period is the number of seconds the system waits before accepting any new updates for the route that is in holddown (that is, routes that have been marked invalid). The default is 180 seconds (3 minutes).
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Flush—The route-flush timer is the number of seconds since the system received the last valid update until the route is discarded and removed from the routing table. The default is 240 seconds (4 minutes).
As an example, when the interface on an adjacent router goes down, the system no longer receives routing updates from the adjacent router. At this time, the Invalid and Flush timers start increasing. In the first 180 seconds, nothing will happen. After 180 seconds, the invalid timer expires, making the route invalid, and the Holddown timer starts and holds the route for another 60 seconds. If there is still no update regarding the interface status on the adjacent router (that is, it is still down), then the route enters into the Flush state where in total the system has waited for 240 seconds from the last update (180 seconds for the Invalid timer and 60 seconds for Holddown timer), and the system flushes the route. Even if the adjacent routers interface comes up immediately, the system does not accept a routing update until the Holddown timer completes the remaining 120 seconds.
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