RIP Overview
Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is an IP route exchange protocol that uses a distance vector (a number representing distance) to measure the cost of a given route. The distance vector used to define cost is often equivalent to the number of hops between the RUCKUS device and the destination network. A hop is another router through which packets must travel to reach the destination.
A RUCKUS device can receive multiple paths to a destination. The software evaluates the paths, selects the best path, and saves the path in the IP routing table as the route to the destination. Typically, the best path is the path with the fewest hops. If a RIP update is received from another router that contains a path with fewer hops than the path stored in the RUCKUS device route table, the older route is replaced with the newer one. The new path is included in the updates sent to other RIP routers, including RUCKUS devices.
RIP routers, including RUCKUS devices, can modify a route cost, generally by adding to it, to bias the selection of a route for a given destination. In this case, a route may have the same number of hops as other routes, but because it has a higher administrative cost, it is less likely to be used.
A RIP route can have a maximum cost of 15. Any destination with a higher cost is considered unreachable. Although limiting to larger networks, the low maximum hop count prevents endless loops in the network.
RUCKUS devices support the following RIP versions: