Please Whitelist This Site?

I know everyone hates ads. But please understand that I am providing premium content for free that takes hundreds of hours of time to research and write. I don't want to go to a pay-only model like some sites, but when more and more people block ads, I end up working for free. And I have a family to support, just like you. :)

If you like The TCP/IP Guide, please consider the download version. It's priced very economically and you can read all of it in a convenient format without ads.

If you want to use this site for free, I'd be grateful if you could add the site to the whitelist for Adblock. To do so, just open the Adblock menu and select "Disable on tcpipguide.com". Or go to the Tools menu and select "Adblock Plus Preferences...". Then click "Add Filter..." at the bottom, and add this string: "@@||tcpipguide.com^$document". Then just click OK.

Thanks for your understanding!

Sincerely, Charles Kozierok
Author and Publisher, The TCP/IP Guide


NOTE: Using software to mass-download the site degrades the server and is prohibited.
If you want to read The TCP/IP Guide offline, please consider licensing it. Thank you.

The Book is Here... and Now On Sale!

Get The TCP/IP Guide for your own computer.
The TCP/IP Guide

Custom Search







Table Of Contents  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)
                          9  RIP Fundamentals and General Operation

Previous Topic/Section
RIP Route Determination Algorithm and Metric
Previous Page
Pages in Current Topic/Section
1
2
3
Next Page
RIP Protocol Limitations and Problems
Next Topic/Section

RIP General Operation, Messaging and Timers
(Page 2 of 3)

RIP Update Messaging and the 30-Second Timer

RIP Request messages are sent under special circumstances, when a router requires that it be provided with immediate routing information. The most common example of this is when a router is first powered on. After initializing, the router will typically send an RIP Request on its attached networks to ask for the latest information about routes from any neighboring routers. It is also possible for RIP Request messages to be used for diagnostic purposes.

A router receiving an RIP Request will process it and send an RIP Response containing either all of its routing table, or just the entries the Request asked for, as appropriate. Under normal circumstances, however, routers do not usually send RIP Request messages asking specifically for routing information. Instead, a special timer is used on each RIP router that goes off every 30 seconds. (This timer is not given a specific name in the RIP standards; it is just “the 30 second timer”).

Each time the timer expires, an unsolicited (unrequested) broadcast/multicast is made of an RIP Response message containing the router's entire routing table. The timer is then reset and 30 seconds later goes off again, causing another routine RIP Response to be sent. This process ensures that route information is regularly sent around the internet, so routers are always kept up to date about routes.

Key Concept: RIP uses two basic message types, the RIP Request and RIP Response, both of which are sent using the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). RIP Response messages, despite their name, are used both for routine periodic routing table updates as well as to reply to RIP Request messages. Requests are sent only in special circumstances, such as when a router first joins a network.


Preventing Stale Information: The Timeout Timer

When a router receives routing information and enters it into its routing table, that information cannot be considered valid indefinitely. In our example in the previous topic, suppose that after Router B installs a route to Network 1 through Router A, the link to between RA and N2 fails. Once this happens, N1 is no longer reachable from RB, but RB has a route indicating it can reach Network 1.

To prevent this problem, routes are only kept in the routing table for a limited amount of time. A special Timeout timer is started whenever a route is installed in the routing table. Whenever the router receives another RIP Response with information about that route, the route is considered “refreshed” and its Timeout timer is reset. As long as the route continues to be refreshed, the timer will never expire.

If, however, RIP Responses containing that route stop arriving, the timer will eventually expire. When this happens, the route is marked for deletion, by setting the distance for the route to 16 (which you may recall is RIP infinity and indicates an unreachable network). The default value for the Timeout timer is usually 180 seconds. This allows several periodic updates of a route to be missed before a router will conclude that the route is no longer reachable.


Previous Topic/Section
RIP Route Determination Algorithm and Metric
Previous Page
Pages in Current Topic/Section
1
2
3
Next Page
RIP Protocol Limitations and Problems
Next Topic/Section

If you find The TCP/IP Guide useful, please consider making a small Paypal donation to help the site, using one of the buttons below. You can also donate a custom amount using the far right button (not less than $1 please, or PayPal gets most/all of your money!) In lieu of a larger donation, you may wish to consider purchasing a download license of The TCP/IP Guide. Thanks for your support!
Donate $2
Donate $5
Donate $10
Donate $20
Donate $30
Donate: $



Home - Table Of Contents - Contact Us

The TCP/IP Guide (http://www.TCPIPGuide.com)
Version 3.0 - Version Date: September 20, 2005

© Copyright 2001-2005 Charles M. Kozierok. All Rights Reserved.
Not responsible for any loss resulting from the use of this site.