Two basic category of routing are:

• Distance Vector Routing protocol
• Link State Routing Protocol

Distance Vector Routing Protocol:

• In this protocol, the route selected for packet transfer depends only on the hop count, that is route with the minimum number hops in between is chosen as best path to reach the destination.
• It does not consider the other parameters of the path like bandwidth, link state or congestion.
• One of the biggest flaw with this protocol is the chances of having a routing loop, causing count to infinity problem.
• Example : RIP

Link Vector Routing Protocol:

• In this protocol, the route selected for packet transfer depends upon how they are connected including the type, cost(metric) and state of the link(Up or Down).
• All the nodes will have same topology to create a routing table, but the routing table for each node will be unique because the calculations are based on different interpretations of the topology.
• This is analogous to a city map. While each person may have the same map, each needs to take a different route to reach her specific destination.
• Example: OSPF, BGP

Categories: Networking