In static routing, an administrator will need to manually add the routes to networks in the routing table of routers (Forouzan 651). In a dynamic routing scenario however, algorithms and protocols are used for the automatic propagation of routing information to neighbour routers. In default routing, all the routers are configured to forward all packets to a single router. Because of the input of the network administrator in the static routing scenario, this configuration is not suitable for very large networks. Static routing is not also suitable for use in large networks. Dynamic routing would be advised to a client when the size of the network is large.
Routing protocols are used between routers to communicate information on the routes packets can take to get to the destination network (Tanenbaum and Wetherall 474). RIP, OSPF and EIGRP are dynamic routing protocols under a classification known as Interior Gateway Protocols (IGP) (Rakheja et al. 2). IGPs are used for the exchange of routing information between routers that are within a single administrative domain or Autonomous System (AS). Most routing protocols are classified as either a distance vector routing protocol which is based on the number of routers in a path (or hop count) or a link state routing protocol based on knowledge of the state of the network links to determine the best path to a router.
RIP is a distance vector routing protocol that determines the best path to a node by using the hop count as a metric, the path with the least number of hops being the best path. It has a limit of 15 hops (Balchunas n.p). For a client, RIP cannot be implemented on a large network with routers greater than 15.
OSPF is a link state routing protocol that calculates the best path to a network by first determining whether the status of the link is up or down before calculating the shortest path if the link is up (Ramya and Vinod 2). Contrary to RIP, OSPF can handle Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM), making it suitable for clients implementing subnets.
EIGRP is a proprietary Cisco routing protocol and as such is found only on Cisco networking devices. It is referred to as a hybrid routing protocol as it has both the features of a distance vector and a link state routing protocols to determine the best path to a router (Vetriselvan Patil and Mahendran 4).
Works Cited
Balchunas, Aaron. "Routing Information Protocol." 2012. Web. 19th July, 2016. http://www.routeralley.com
Forouzan, Behrouz. "Data Communications and Networking (4th ed.)". New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Print.
Rakheja, Pankaj, kaur, Prabhjot., Gupta, Anjali. and Sharma, Aditi. "Performance Analysis of RIP, OSPF, IGRP and EIGRP Routing Protocols in a Network." International Journal of Computer Applications 48.18 (2012): 0975 –888.
Ramya, P. and Vinod, V. "Implementing OSPF Protocol in CISCO 2800 Series Router" International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology (IJIET) 1.4 (2012): 77 - 82.
Tanenbaum, Andrew & Wetherall, David. “Computer Networks (5th ed.)” Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc., 2011. Print.
Vetriselvan, V., Patil, P.R. and Mahendran, M. "Survey on the RIP, OSPF, EIGRP Routing Protocols". International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technologies, 5.2 (2014): 1058-1065.
