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The TCP/IP Guide  9  TCP/IP Lower-Layer (Interface, Internet and Transport) Protocols (OSI Layers 2, 3 and 4)       9  TCP/IP Internet Layer (OSI Network Layer) Protocols            9  TCP/IP Routing Protocols (Gateway Protocols)                 9  TCP/IP Interior Routing Protocols (RIP, OSPF, GGP, HELLO, IGRP, EIGRP)                      9  TCP/IP Routing Information Protocol (RIP, RIP-2 and RIPng)

TCP/IP Routing Information Protocol (RIP, RIP-2 and RIPng) 1 RIP Overview, History, Standards and Versions

The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) was one of the first interior routing protocols used in TCP/IP. Over 20 years later, it continues to be widely used. Even though RIP has important limitations that have caused some to malign it and in fact led to the development of newer routing protocols that are technically superior to it, RIP continues to have an important place in TCP/IP routing to this day. Evidence that RIP has a future can be seen in the creation of an IPv6 version of the protocol: RIPng.

In this section, I provide an overall description of the characteristics of RIP and how it works in general terms. I begin with an overview and history of the protocol, including a brief discussion of its different versions and the standards that define them. I describe the method that RIP uses to determine routes and the metric used to assess route cost. I describe the general operation of the protocol including message types and when they are sent. I then describe the most important limitations and issues with RIP, and the special features that have been added to the protocol to resolve several problems with the basic RIP algorithm.

TCP/IP Routing Information Protocol (RIP, RIP-2 and RIPng) 1 RIP Overview, History, Standards and Versions