3com WX3000 User Manual

 

3-1 

When configuring RIP, go to these sections for information you are interested in: 

z 

z 

z 

z 

Troubleshooting RIP Configuration 

 

The term router in this chapter refers to a router in a generic sense or a WX3000 series device running 

a routing protocol. 

 

Routing information protocol (RIP) is a simple interior gateway protocol (IGP) suitable for small-sized 

networks. RIP is not recommended in complicated large networks. 

RIP is a distance-vector (D-V) algorithm–based protocol. It uses port 520 to exchange routing 

information through UDP packets. 

RIP uses hop count (also called routing cost) to measure the distance to a destination address. In RIP, 

the hop count from a router to its directly connected network is 0, and that to a network which can be 

reached through another router is 1, and so on. To restrict the time to converge, RIP prescribes that the 

cost is an integer ranging from 0 and 15. The hop count equal to or exceeding 16 is defined as infinite; 

that is, the destination network or host is unreachable. This limitation makes RIP not suitable for large 

networks. 

To improve performance and avoid routing loop, RIP supports split horizon. Besides, RIP can import 

routes discovered by other routing protocols. 

Each RIP router has a routing table containing routing entries of all reachable destinations, and each 

routing entry contains: 

z 

Destination address: IP address of a host or network. 

z 

Next hop: IP address of an interface on the adjacent router that IP packets should pass through to 

reach the destination.