1-11 RIP ConfigurationThe term “router” in this document refers to a router in a generic sense or a Layer 3 switch.When configuring RIP, go to these sections for information you are interested in:z RIP Overviewz Configuring RIP Basic Functionsz Configuring RIP Route Controlz Configuring RIP Network Optimizationz Displaying and Maintaining RIPz RIP Configuration Examplesz Troubleshooting RIPRIP OverviewRIP is a simple Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP), mainly used in small-sized networks, such asacademic networks and simple LANs. RIP is not applicable to complex networks.RIP is still widely used in practical networking due to easier implementation, configuration andmaintenance than OSPF and IS-IS.Operation of RIPIntroductionRIP is a distance vector routing protocol, using UDP packets for exchanging information through port520.RIP uses a hop count to measure the distance to a destination. The hop count from a router to a directlyconnected network is 0. The hop count from a router to a directly connected router is 1. To limitconvergence time, the range of RIP metric value is from 0 to 15. A metric value of 16 (or greater) isconsidered infinite, which means the destination network is unreachable. That is why RIP is not suitablefor large-scaled networks.RIP prevents routing loops by implementing the split horizon and poison reverse functions.RIP routing tableA RIP router has a routing table containing routing entries of all reachable destinations, and eachrouting entry contains:z Destination address: IP address of a host or a network.z Next hop: IP address of the adjacent router’s interface to reach the destination.
