Information About RIP
This section includes the following topics:
RIP Overview
RIP uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) data packets to exchange routing information in small internetworks. RIPv2 supports IPv4. RIPv2 uses an optional authentication feature supported by the RIPv2 protocol (see the RIPv2 Authentication section).
RIP uses the following two message types:
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Request—Sent to the multicast address 224.0.0.9 to request route updates from other RIP-enabled routers.
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Response—Sent every 30 seconds by default (see the Verifying the RIP Configuration section). The router also sends response messages after it receives a Request message. The response message contains the entire RIP route table. RIP sends multiple response packets for a request if the RIP routing table cannot fit in one response packet.
RIP uses a hop count for the routing metric. The hop count is the number of routers that a packet can traverse before reaching its destination. A directly connected network has a metric of 1; an unreachable network has a metric of 16. This small range of metrics makes RIP an unsuitable routing protocol for large networks.
RIPv2 Authentication
You can configure authentication on RIP messages to prevent unauthorized or invalid routing updates in your network. Cisco NX-OS supports a simple password or an MD5 authentication digest.
You can configure the RIP authentication per interface by using key-chain management for the authentication keys. Key-chain management allows you to control changes to the authentication keys used by an MD5 authentication digest or simple text password authentication. See the Cisco Nexus 3548 Switch NX-OS Security Configuration Guide for more details about creating key-chains.
To use an MD5 authentication digest, you configure a password that is shared at the local router and all remote RIP neighbors. Cisco NX-OS creates an MD5 one-way message digest based on the message itself and the encrypted password and sends this digest with the RIP message (Request or Response). The receiving RIP neighbor validates the digest by using the same encrypted password. If the message has not changed, the calculation is identical and the RIP message is considered valid.
An MD5 authentication digest also includes a sequence number with each RIP message to ensure that no message is replayed in the network.
Split Horizon
You can use split horizon to ensure that RIP never advertises a route out of the interface where it was learned.
Split horizon is a method that controls the sending of RIP update and query packets. When you enable split horizon on an interface, Cisco NX-OS does not send update packets for destinations that were learned from this interface. Controlling update packets in this manner reduces the possibility of routing loops.
You can use split horizon with poison revers to configure an interface to advertise routes learned by RIP as unreachable over the interface that learned the routes. Figure below shows a sample RIP network with split horizon with poison reverse enabled.
Router C learns about route X and advertises that route to router B. Router B in turn advertises route X to router A, but sends a route X unreachable update back to router C.
By default, split horizon is enabled on all interfaces.
Route Filtering
You can configure a route policy on a RIP-enabled interface to filter the RIP updates. Cisco NX-OS updates the route table with only those routes that the route policy allows.
Route Summarization
You can configure multiple summary aggregate addresses for a specified interface. Route summarization simplifies route tables by replacing a number of more-specific addresses with an address that represents all the specific addresses. For example, you can replace 10.1.1.0/24, 10.1.2.0/24, and 10.1.3.0/24 with one summary address, 10.1.0.0/16.
If more specific routes are in the routing table, RIP advertises the summary address from the interface with a metric equal to the maximum metric of the more specific routes.
Note |
Cisco NX-OS does not support automatic route summarization. |
Route Redistribution
You can use RIP to redistribute static routes or routes from other protocols. When you configure redistribution use a route policy to control which routes are passed into RIP. A route policy allows you to filter routes based on attributes such as the destination, origination protocol, route type, route tag, and so on. For more information, see Configuring Route Policy Manager.
Whenever you redistribute routes into a RIP routing domain, by default Cisco NX-OS does not redistribute the default route into the RIP routing domain. You can generate a default route into RIP, which can be controlled by a route policy.
You also configure the default metric that is used for all imported routes into RIP.
Load Balancing
You can use load balancing to allow a router to distribute traffic over all the router network ports that are the same distance from the destination address. Load balancing increases the utilization of network segments and increases effective network bandwidth.
Cisco NX-OS supports the Equal Cost Multiple Paths (ECMP) feature with up to 32 equal-cost paths in the RIP route table and the unicast RIB. You can configure RIP to load balance traffic across some or all of those paths.
Virtualization Support
Cisco NX-OS supports multiple instances of the RIP protocol that runs on the same system. RIP supports Virtual Routing and Forwarding instances (VRFs).
By default, Cisco NX-OS places you in the default VRF unless you specifically configure another VRF.