Rip Overview - 3Com Switch 4800G 24-Port Configuration Manual

27

RIP Overview

RIP Working Mechanism
RIP C
ONFIGURATION
n
The term "router" in this document refers to a router in a generic sense or a
■
Layer 3 switch.
The Switch 4800G only support single RIP process.
■
When configuring RIP, go to these sections for information you are interested in:
"RIP Overview" on page 257
■
"Configuring RIP Basic Functions" on page 261
■
"Configuring RIP Route Control" on page 263
■
"Configuring RIP Network Optimization" on page 266
■
"Displaying and Maintaining RIP" on page 269
■
"RIP Configuration Examples" on page 269
■
"Troubleshooting RIP" on page 271
■
RIP is a simple Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP), mainly used in small-sized
networks, such as academic networks and simple LANs. RIP is not applicable to
complex networks.
RIP is still widely used in practical networking due to easier implementation,
configuration and maintenance than OSPF and IS-IS.
Basic concepts
RIP is a distance vector routing protocol, using UDP packets for exchanging
information through port 520.
RIP uses a hop count to measure the distance to a destination. The hop count is
known as the metric. The hop count from a router to a directly connected network
is 0. The hop count from one router to a directly connected router is 1. To limit
convergence time, the range of RIP metric value is from 0 to 15. A metric value of
16 (or bigger) is considered infinite, which means the destination network is
unreachable. That is why RIP is not suitable for large-scaled networks.
RIP prevents routing loops by implementing the split horizon and poison reverse
functions.
RIP routing table
A RIP router has a routing table containing routing entries of all reachable
destinations, and each routing entry contains:
Destination address: IP address of a host or a network.
■