 - EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) is a network protocol that lets routers exchange information more efficiently than with earlier network protocols. EIGRP evolved from IGRP (Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) and routers using either EIGRP and IGRP can interoperate because the metric (criteria used for selecting a route) used with one protocol can be translated into the metrics of the other protocol. EIGRP can be used not only for Internet Protocol (IP) networks but also for AppleTalk and Novell NetWare networks.
Using EIGRP, a router keeps a copy of its neighbor's routing tables. If it can't find a route to a destination in one of these tables, it queries its neighbors for a route and they in turn query their neighbors until a route is found. When a routing table entry changes in one of the routers, it notifies its neighbors of the change only (some earlier protocols require sending the entire table). To keep all routers aware of the state of neighbors, each router sends out a periodic "hello" packet. A router from which no "hello" packet has been received in a certain period of time is assumed to be inoperative.
EIGRP uses the Diffusing-Update Algorithm (DUAL) to determine the most efficient (least cost) route to a destination. A DUAL finite state machine contains decision information used by the algorithm to determine the least-cost route (which considers distance and whether a destination path is loop-free).
| CONTRIBUTORS: |
Vern Muller |
| LAST UPDATED: |
16 Apr 2007
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