Cabletron Systems CyberSWITCH CSX400 User Manual

Also see for CyberSWITCH HSIM-W6: Setup guide Configuration guide User guide Installation guide

Contents

Local Management1-42Local Management User’s GuideMetrics — The RIP-1 and RIP-2 protocols use fixed “metrics” to compare alternative routes. Thisis not appropriate where routes need to be chosen based on real-time parameters such as measureddelay, reliability, or load. RIP is intended to allow routers to exchange information for computingroutes through an IPv6-based network. Any router that uses RIP is assumed to have interfaces toone or more networks, otherwise it isn’t a router. These are referred to as directly connectednetworks.The RIP protocol relies on access to certain information about each of these networks, the mostimportant of which is its metric. This metric represents the total “cost” of getting a datagram fromthe router to that destination.The routing table has the entries listed below for each destination that is reachable:• The IPv6 prefix of the destination• A metric, described above• The IPv6 address of the next router along the path (the Next Hop)• A flag to indicate the information about the route has changed recently• Various timers associated with the routeSplit Horizon — Split Horizon is an algorithm for avoiding problems caused by including routesin the updates sent to the gateway from which they were learned. The basic split horizon algorithmomits routes learned from one neighbor in updates sent to that neighbor.Authentication — Authentication is a function of RIP-2 protocol only. It is not usually importantto conceal the information in the routing messages, but it is essential to prevent the insertion ofbogus routing information into the routers. Authentication prevents someone who cannot directlyaccess the network (i.e., someone who cannot sniff the packets to determine the password) frominserting bogus routing information. Currently the authentication type is simple password andMD5.Multicasting — The RIP-2 protocol provides for the IP multicasting of periodic advertisements.This feature was added to RIP-2 to decrease the load on systems that do not support RIP-2. It alsoprovides a mechanism whereby RIP-1 routers will never receive RIP-2 routes. This feature isuseful when the correct use of an advertised route depends on knowing the precise subnet mask,which would be ignored by a RIP-1 router.