Routing Information Protocol

(RIP)
Sungsu Kim

March 25, 2008

Contents
         

Autonomous systems Interdomain and intradomain routing RIP Overview, history Distance vector algorithm Protocol Specification and Message Format Potential problems of RIP Timers Security considerations in RIP2 What is RIPng advantages and usage Disadvantages of RIP2 and proposed solutions Conclusion

Autonomous Systems


An autonomous system (AS) is a region of the Internet that is administered by a single entity and that has a unified routing policy Each autonomous system is assigned an Autonomous System Number (ASN). (ASN). Examples of autonomous regions are:
  

UofT UofTs campus network MCI MCIs backbone network Regional Internet Service Provider

Routing is done differently

within an autonomous system (intradomain routing) and (intradomain routing) routing). between autonomous systems (interdomain routing).

Interdomain and Intradomain Routing

Routing protocols for intradomain routing are called interior gateway protocols (IGP) Routing protocols for interdomain routing are called exterior gateway protocols (EGP)

Interdomain and Intradomain Routing

Intradomain Routing
 

Interdomain Routing
 

Routing within an AS Ignores the Internet outside the autonomous system Protocols for Intradomain routing are also called Interior Gateway Protocols or IGPs. IGP Popular protocols are
RIP (simple, old) OSPF (better)

Routing between ASs AS Assumes that the Internet consists of a collection of interconnected ASs AS Protocols for interdomain routing are also called Exterior Gateway Protocols or EGPs. EGP Routing protocol:
BGP

RIP - History
 

 

Late 1960s : Distance Vector protocols were used in the ARPANET MidMid-1970s: XNS (Xerox Network system) routing protocol is the precursor of RIP in IP (and Novell Novells IPX RIP and Apples Apple routing protocol) 1982 Release of routed for BSD Unix 1988 RIPv1 (RFC 1058) - classful routing 1993 RIPv2 (RFC 1388) - adds subnet masks with each route entry - allows classless routing 1998 Current version of RIPv2 (RFC 2453)

Components of a Routing Algorithm



A procedure for sending and receiving reachability information between neighboring routers A procedure for calculating optimal routes
Routes are calculated using a shortest path algorithm:


Goal: Goal: Given a network were each link is assigned a cost. Find the path with the least cost between two networks.

A procedures for reacting to and advertising topology changes

Approaches to Shortest Path Routing



There are two basic routing algorithms found on the Internet. 1. Distance Vector Routing
Each node knows the distance (=cost) to its directly connected neighbors A node sends periodically a list of routing updates to its neighbors. If all nodes update their distances, the routing tables eventually converge New nodes advertise themselves to their neighbors

2. Link State Routing

 

Each node knows the distance to its neighbors The distance information (=link state) is broadcast to all nodes in the network Each node calculates the routing tables independently

RIP updating algorithm

1. Add on 1 hop to the hop count for each advertised destination 2. Repeat the following steps for each advertised destination 1. If (destination no in the routing table) 1. Add the advertised information to the table 2. Else 1. If (next-hop field is the same) 1. Replace entry in the table with the advertised one 2. Else 1. If (advertised hop count smaller than one in the table) 2. Replace entry in the routing table 3. return

13.2 RIP (routing table)



update periodically by updating algorithm

Destination ------------163.5.0.0 197.5.13.0 189.45.0.0 115.0.0.0 Hop Count ------------7 5 4 6 Next Hop -----------172.6.23.4 176.3.6.17 200.5.1.6 131.4.7.19

Updating routing table by RIP

RIP N2 1 N4 1 N5 1 N2 N2 1 N4 1 N5 1 N4 B N5

N1 A N1 1 N2 1 N3 1 N1 N2 N3 N4 N5 1 1 1 2 2 B B

N3 N6 C N3 1 N6 1 Hop count Next hop

RIPv1 Packet Format

IP header UDP header

RIP Message

1: RIPv1

1: request 2: response
Command Version Set to 00...0 Set to 00.00 o n e ro u te e n try (2 0 b y te s )

2: for IP 00: request full routing table Address of destination Cost (measured in hops) One RIP message can have up to 25 route entries

address family

32-bit address Unused (Set to 00...0) Unused (Set to 00...0) metric (1-16) Up to 24 more routes (each 20 bytes)

32 bits

Operations - Input Processing

 

 

Handles the datagram received on RIP port (520). Do validation ( such as version number etc) If validation fails log the error Check command field (Request or Response) Handling Input Request Message Message Initialization Request -- Send entire routing table. Specific request -- Send only entries requested. Send response immediately Handling Input Response Message- A response can be Messagereceived for one of several following reasons. Response to a specific query (direct UDP connection for the router). Regular update (Unsolicited response). Triggered update caused by a route change.

RIP Request
 

When a router is powered on Used for diagnostic purposes

Operations Output Processing

 

Describes the processing used to create response and request messages. The out put processing is triggered by the following ways. By input processing By regular routing update ( broadcast/multi cast at every 30 secs) By the triggered updates ( When a route changes) Generating Request Message Can send one Request Request for entire routing table. Generating Response Messages Response to Request  Sent to only one destination Regular updates  Send the entire routing table Triggered Updates  Create Response messages to neighbors.

RIP Response


Response to request, deliver routing information every 30 seconds

Example of RIP massage

Timer RIP message

  

periodic timer : controlling the sending of messages expiration timer : governing the validity of a route garbage collection : advertising the failure of a route

Potential Problems and Solutions

Potential Problems: Count to infinity problem Routing loops SOLUTION: Triggered Updates/Split Horizon for Preventing Two-hop Loops TwoSplit Horizon: "Split horizon" is a scheme for avoiding problems caused by including routes in updates sent to the router from which they were learned. Simple - The information about destination routed on the link is omitted With poisonous reverse -The corresponding distance is set to infinity if the destination is routed on the link Triggered updates: Split horizon with poisoned reverse will prevent any routing loops that involve only two routers. However, it is possible to end up with patterns in which three routers are engaged in mutual deception. A timer is associated with each entry in the routing table - much longer than the period of transmission of information Triggered updates request nodes to send messages as soon as they notice a change in the routing table

Count to infinity problem

hop count as 16  If hop count is 16, then destination is unreachable
 Limit

Disadvantages of RIP


Slow convergence
meaning that a change somewhere in the Internet propagates very slowly through the rest of the internet . For example, suppose there is a change in network 1 .


since each router sends its periodic update every 30 seconds, it means an average of 15 seconds (range of 0 to 30 sec)

Instability
 Happening

when a packet could go from one router to another in a loop

For the stability of RIP



Triggered update
If there are no changes, updates are sent at 30sec interval  If there is change, router immediately sends out the its new table-update in less time than 15sec table

Spilt horizons
Utilizes selectivity in sending of routing message Router must distinguish between different interfaces If a router has received route updating info from an interface, then this same updated info must not be sent back through this interface

Poison Reverse
 

Variation of split horizons Information received by the router is used to update the RT and then passed out to all interfaces But, a table entry that has come through one interface is set to a metric of 16 as it goes out throughout the same

Advantages of RIP and Disadvantages of RIP1



Advantages of RIP: RIP is very useful in a small network, where it has very little overhead in terms of bandwidth used and configuration and management time. Easy to implement than newer IGPs Many implementations are available in the RIP field.

Disadvantages of RIP1: minimal amount of information for router to route the packet and also very large amount of unused space. Subnet support : Supports subnet routes only within the subnet network Not secure; anyone can act as a router just by sending RIPRIP-1 messages RIP1 was developed for an AS that originally included less than a 100 routers

RIP2


Latest version of RIP, RFC: 2453,Build in 1990 Advantages:

An AS can include several hundred routers with RIPRIP-2 protocol. Compatible upgrade of RIPv1 including subnet routing, authentication, CIDR aggregation, route tags and multicast transmission Subnet Support : uses more convenient partitioning using variable-length subnets variable An end system can run RIP in passive mode to listen for routing information without supplying any. Low requirement in memory and processing at the node

RIP and RIP2 are for the IPv4 network while the RIPng is designed for the IPv6 network.

Practical use in Yahoo Chat IM



Routing information protocol: gives command, version ip domain and address information.

Distance Vector Protocol



Compatible upgrade of RIPv1 including subnet routing, authentication, CIDR aggregation, route tags and multicast transmission Subnet support: RIPv1 supports subnet routes only within the subnet network while RIPv2 includes subnet mask in the messages. This allows for subnet knowledge outside subnet. More convenient partitioning using variable length subnet. RIPv2 is a distance vector based routing protocol. RIP2 supports variablevariable-length subnet masks (VLSM). Distance vector routing protocols: Distance-based vector routing Distanceprotocols base the optimal route on the number of hops (i.e., devices) a packet must pass through to reach a destination.  Neighboring nodes send information in regular time intervals  Install routes directly in tables, lowest cost wins  The information sent (the distance vectors) are all routes from the table The shortest path tree is contained in the routing table Calculations are based on the Bellman-Ford algorithm Bellman-

 

RIP 2 Packet Format



Protocol Structure - RIP & and RIP2: Routing Information Protocol



Command -- The command field is used to specify the purpose of the datagram. Version -- The RIP version number. The current version is 2. Address family identifier -- Indicates what type of address is specified in this particular entry. Route tag -- Attribute assigned to a route which must be preserved and readvertised with a route. The route tag provides a method of separating internal RIP routes from external RIP routes, which may have been imported from an EGP or another IGP. IP address -- The destination IP address. Subnet mask -- Value applied to the IP address to yield the non-host portion of nonthe address. If zero, then no subnet mask has been included for this entry. Next hop -- Immediate next hop IP address to which packets to the destination specified by this route entry should be forwarded. Metric -- Represents the total cost of getting a datagram from the host to that destination.

Max pkt size 512

http://www.colasoft.com/resources/protocol.php?id=RIP2

RIPv2 Packet Format (With/Without Authentication Header)

RIPv2 packet with no Authentication

RIPv2 packet with Authentication header Authentication type (2) is password

Example and Routing Table Structure



IP Routing table for Router R1

Included in RIP routing table -Address of (net/subnet/host) destination -Metric associated with destination -Address of next hop router -Recently updated flag -Several timers

RIP2 Extensions
 authentication  routing

per subnet  support of multiple metrics  routing domains  multicasting

Addressing Consideration


IP address field in RIP2 message (Request/ Response ) format can be networks, hosts, or a special code used to indicate a default address - example
128.6 Network Address 128.6.4.1 Host address 0.0.0.0 Default address

Subnet addresses must not be sent outside the network of which the subnet is a part. 0.0.0.0 is used to describe a default route.

Initialization
 Initialization

This is done when host first comes online. Determine who the neighbors are. Set command field to 1 Send request for entire routing table from neighbors.

Interaction between RIPV1 and RIPV2

 Limiting

Networks  Disable Auto-Summarization Auto Single Subnetmask

Security Considerations
 Authentication

1. Plaintext Authentication Algorithm 2.Cryptographic Authentication 1.Keyed Message Digest 5 2.HMAC2.HMAC-SHA1  Peer Security  Router Filters

RIPng
   

IPv6 compatible version of RIP complete new protocol Uses distance vector algorithm Uses standard port nuber 521 and runs over UDP Installs the best route in the RIPng routing table

RIPng v/s RIP-2 RIPRIPng Learns IPv6 route information Uses port number 521. RIPRIP-2 Learns IPv4 route information Uses port number 520

Requires no Requires authentication authentication for RIPng for RIP protocol packets protocol packets. No support for multiple instances of RIPng. Support for multiple instances of RIP-2 RIP-

RIP2 - Disadvantages


RIP-2 supports generic notion of authentication, but only password is defined so far. Still not very secure. RIP2 packet size increases as the number of networks increases hence it is not suitable for large networks. RIP2 generates more protocol traffic than OSPF, because it propagates routing information by periodically transmitting the entire routing table to neighbor routers RIP2 may be slow to adjust for link failures.

Solution:OSPF within an AS
Can support fine-grained metrics (vs. fineRIP)  Multiple metrics


Throughput, Delay, Cost, Reliability

Can compute a different routing table for each metric.  OSPFv2 supports an extension that allows the metric to be used specified in the packet.


Conclusion
RIP2 offers many substantial features used to increase the efficiency of RIP1  RIP2 have one negative feature of RIP1 - the path between two subnets is based on the fewest number of router hops  RIPng is a complete new protocol designed for Ipv6. It uses the same operations as that of RIP1 and RIP2


References
     

    

<http://www.pmg.com/otw_nwsl/97_w_rip1.htm> http://www.pmg.com/otw_nwsl/97_w_rip1.htm> <http://www.javvin.com/protocolRIP.html> http://www.javvin.com/protocolRIP.html> <http://www.colasoft.com/resources/protocol.php?id=RIP2> http://www.colasoft.com/resources/protocol.php?id=RIP2> <http://www.protocols.com/pbook/tcpip4.htm> http://www.protocols.com/pbook/tcpip4.htm> <http://www.soi.wide.ad.jp/soi-asia/pkg1/06/43.html> http://www.soi.wide.ad.jp/soi-asia/pkg1/06/43.html> <http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~kfall/EE122/lec16/sld010.htm > <http://www.uniar.ukrnet.net/tcpip/crhbook/chap04.html> <http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2453.html> <http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1723.html> <http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1058.html> <http://www.cs.odu.edu/~sudheer/technical/presentations/In troductionToRIP2.pdf> troductionToRIP2.pdf> http://www.networkdictionary.com/protocols/rip.php?PHPSES SID=c2a79111d168faf http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_RIPOverviewHistoryStanda rdsandVersions.htm http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software/i os121/121cgcr/ip_c/ipcprt2/1cdrip.htm http://www.duke.edu/~yy7/ee156/rip.htm

Questions???