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Unicast routing, Overview, 20 u – LevelOne GTL-2691 User Manual

Page 649: Nicast, Outing, Overview 649

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20

U

NICAST

R

OUTING

This chapter describes how to configure the following unicast routing

protocols:

RIP

– Configures Routing Information Protocol.

OSPFv2

– Configures Open Shortest Path First (Version 2) for IPv4.

O

VERVIEW

This switch can route unicast traffic to different subnetworks using the

Routing Information Protocol (RIP) or Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)

protocol. It supports RIP, RIP-2 and OSPFv2 dynamic routing. These

protocols exchange routing information, calculate routing tables, and can

respond to changes in the status or loading of the network.

RIP and RIP-2 Dynamic Routing Protocols
The RIP protocol is the most widely used routing protocol. RIP uses a

distance-vector-based approach to routing. Routes are determined on the

basis of minimizing the distance vector, or hop count, which serves as a

rough estimate of transmission cost. Each router broadcasts its

advertisement every 30 seconds, together with any updates to its routing

table. This allows all routers on the network to learn consistent tables of

next hop links which lead to relevant subnets.

N

OTE

:

RIPng, which supports IPv6, will be supported in a future release.

OSPFv2 Dynamic Routing Protocols
OSPF overcomes all the problems of RIP. It uses a link state routing

protocol to generate a shortest-path tree, then builds up its routing table

based on this tree. OSPF produces a more stable network because the

participating routers act on network changes predictably and

simultaneously, converging on the best route more quickly than RIP.

Moreover, when several equal-cost routes to a destination exist, traffic can

be distributed equally among them.

Non-IP Protocol Routing
The switch supports IP routing only. Non-IP protocols such as IPX and

Appletalk cannot be routed by this switch, and will be confined within their

local VLAN group unless bridged by an external router.