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A Comparative Study on Routing Protocols: RIP, OSPF and EIGRP and Their
Analysis Using GNS-3

Conference Paper · December 2020

DOI: 10.1109/ICRAIE51050.2020.9358327

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 A Comparative Study on Routing Protocols: RIP,
OSPF and EIGRP and Their Analysis Using GNS-3
Ambresh G. Biradar
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences
Bangalore, India
[email protected]

Abstract—On the Internet, the routing of a data packet is the R1(config)# ip route 13.1.1.1 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.1
most important process. A routing protocol specifies the way The above command makes entry for a static route i.e. if
to a router so that it can be connected to the internetworks any packet destinated to address 13.1.1.1 then its next hop is
with the help of a protocol called an Internet protocol. Internet
applications make use of many routing protocols like RIPv1, 192.168.2.1.
RIPv2, OSPF, EIGRP, IGRP, etc. Each routing protocols have In dynamic routing techniques, routers communicate with
their own methods of routing a packet. This paper presents a each other and learn the topology of the network and adapt to
basic comparative study of RIP, OSPF, and EIGRP protocols. a changing environment, and prepares their routing table. This
The RIP makes use of a distance vector algorithm to choose the type of routing is called adaptive routing since while sending
best path for a packet, OSPF makes use of a link state algorithm
to decide the best path for a packet and EIGRP makes use of data, the router makes use of dynamic routes automatically
diffusing update algorithms to decide a path for a packet. In by adapting to network changes or failure. Routing protocols
this paper, we are comparing and analyzing the performance of like RIP, OSPF, EIGRP, IGRP, and IS-IS are belonging to a
routing protocols such as RIP, OSPF, and EIGRP to decide the dynamic protocol [4].
best protocol for routing packets.
Index Terms—Routing, Routers, RIPv1, RIPv2, OSPFv2, A. Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
EIGRP
Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is a distance vector
type of routing protocol, which use a simple algorithm and
I. I NTRODUCTION
its implementation is easy, so it is widely used in most of the
Brisk development of technology results in the advance- networks [5]. The number of in-between devices by which
ment of communication network technologies. In Internet net- data reaches to a destination from the source is called a hop
works, dynamic routing protocols are used more commonly count. RIP uses number hop count (distance) as a metric to
rather than static routing protocols. So we need to design a decide the best route from the source to the destination [6].
new dynamic routing protocol which can update the changes • Each router in the network maintains a routing table,
in the network automatically without the human intervention which indicates the distances to other routers in the
[1]. network.
Some dynamic routing protocols are using in networks, • The routing table of a router keeps the information of
such as RIP version 1 and 2, OSPF version 2 and 3, EIGRP. each network it knows and how to reach along with the
All these routing protocols have their own merits and demer- next hop router address of the same network through
its. Based on the application and parameters either one or which a packet has to reach its destination.
many of the protocols are used in any network [2] [3]. • In case any update receives by a router about a new

II. ROUTING M ETHODS IN N ETWORKS path and is shorter, then the router will update its routing
table entry with the length and next-hop address of the
In static routing, an entry for a route is configured to shortest path; else router will wait for later updates till
the router manually. This type of routing is also called non- the “hold-down” period if later updates show the higher
adaptive routing since while sending data, the router makes metric then it leaves routing table as it is.
use of a static route. In this technique, network administrator • RIP makes every routers to transmit their whole routing
writes routing entries in the routing table manually using table to closest neighbor every 30 seconds.
commands while configuring. For network securities static • The network discovers crashes of router/s or severed net-
routing is useful. Static routing does not re-route the routes work connection since such routers stop sharing updates
if there is any modification or failure in the network. Static to their neighbors, or stops receiving updates from the
routing configuration in GNS3 software is done using the severed connection.
following commands: • When a routing entry of any route in the routing table
R1# configure terminal //Enter to the configuration mode for any router is not updated across six successive update
978-1-7281-8867-6/20/$31.00 © 2020 IEEE cycles i.e. 180 seconds, then a RIP drops such route.
 • Routing loops are prevented in RIP by limiting the • Loading: Actual routing information between routers
number of hops allowed in a path between source and will be exchanged. Routers use Link State Update(LSU)
destination. to exchange LSAs.
1) RIPv1: Routing Information Protocol version 1 (RIPv1) • Full state: Routers under state indicate that routers have
is a basic distance vector type protocol. It has been incor- exchanged all LSAs from Link State Request (LSR) list.
porated with various techniques such as Split Horizon and Routers have identical LSDB.
Poison Reverse to enable it to perform better in complicated C. Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP)
networks.
The Enhanced interior gateway routing protocol (EIGRP)
• Its longest path is 15 hops and 16 hops or above is treated is an advanced distance based vector type of routing protocol.
as not reachable. It finds the best path using distance vector and link state
• RIP uses a static metric to compare routes. algorithm. Its design is simple and easy to configure. It uses
• RIP uses the broadcast address to update. both delay and bandwidth as a metric [8].
• Maximum datagram size is 512 bytes without IP or UDP Whenever a network topology changes by the addition or
bytes. deletion of a router, EIGRP applies three steps viz discovering
2) RIPv2: Routing Information Protocol version 2 (RIPv2) a neighbor, exchanging of topology, and choose a router. Hello
is an updated version of RIPv1 it has been added with several packet containing essential parameters is used by EIGRP
features compared with RIPv1 as listed below: routers to decide whether the router should become neighbor
• External route tags. or not. Routers broadcast a topology change information
• Subnet masks. when there is a topology change in the network so that
• Next hop router addresses. they can update the changes. Each router in the network
• Authentication. refers to the topology table to decide the best path as per
• Multi-cast support. the metric. A route with the lowest metric is chosen for the
best path. EIGRP algorithm makes every router to calculate
B. Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) the two paths for every destination: successor and feasible
successor. In case of failure in the successor path, EIGRP
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a link state type of makes the router to follow the feasible successor without
routing protocol. It is an open standard protocol. It uses cost any route calculation like OSPF. Thus EIGRP provides better
as a metric for its operation. It assumes that speed is high convergence time compared with OSPF and RIP.
for lower cost i.e. speed is indirectly proportional to the cost. Every router refers to the topology table for choosing the
OSPF chooses a low cost path for the transmission. In OSPF best route based on the cost metric. The lowest cost route will
router makes use of Hello packet exchanges to identify its be selected. EIGRP performs better in large enterprise level
neighbors. The router checks its neighbor table for the entry networks since it utilizes fewer resources compared to that of
if it exists ignore otherwise it will be added. Once the routers link state Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP). Therefore EIGRP
become neighbors they exchange Link State Advertisement is one of the best distance vector IGP available.
(LSA) packets to build their Link State Database (LSDB)
table. The shortest path algorithm is used to select the best III. D ESIGNED N ETWORK T OPOLOGY
path [7]. The designed network topology consists of nine ethernet
OSPF uses seven states through which routers have to switches and nine Cisco c2691 routers and nine Virtual
undergo to form neighborship which is mentioned below: Personal computers (VPCs) as shown in Fig. 1. The details
• Down: Routers choose their Router ID (RID) in this of the router and switches used in the network topology are
state. RID is unique within the autonomous system. shown below:
Router identifies each other using the RID. • Ethernet Switch has eight ports of type “access” and with
• Attempt/Init: Neighborship building process starts from VLAN 1.
this state. In this state, a router generates and sends • Cisco c2691 Router has eighteen Fast Ethernet and five
Hello packet to all its active interfaces. The Hello packet Serial ports.
contains RID and a few essential configuration values.
Routers refer to their neighboring table and update it. IV. P ROPOSED W ORK
• Two way: Routers enters to two way state when two An enterprise level network is designed using GNS3. A
routers becomes a neighbor by exchanging Hello pack- real-time device environment is created in GNS3 and applied
ets. RIP, OSPF, and EIGRP routing algorithms for a chosen
• Exstart: In this state routers builds adjacency and de- device environment. Packets are analyzed to compare the
cides who is going to be master and who is slave. Initial performances of the algorithms.
sequence number will be established. In RIP, routers exchange the routing table information every
• Exchange: Master and slave routers decide how much 30 seconds whereas in OSPF routers exchanges Hello packets
information needs to be exchanged. at every 10 seconds by default, and in EIGRP Hello packet
exchanges at every 5 seconds by default. In the case of determine the convergence time of RIP, OSPF, and EIGRP
OSPF when there is any addition or deletion of a router for the chosen network topology shown in Fig. 1
or any route is updated because of any link down or up, it For the topology shown in Fig. 1 we considering source
sends the updated data and not the whole routing database. as PC1 and targeted destination as a PC9. PC1 is connected
When a change occurs (addition or deletion of a router or to router R1 and PC9 is connected to router R9. PC1 is
any route changed), EIGRP sends only modified data of the configured with an IP address of 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0
routing table instead of the whole table. Therefore OSPF with a gateway address of 192.168.1.1. PC9 is configured with
outperforms RIP and EIGRP in terms of delay time and, an IP address of 192.168.9.2 255.255.255.0 with a gateway
EIGRP outperforms OSPF and RIP in terms of convergence address of 192.168.9.1.
time. If we configure RIP protocol for routing on all the routers
of the network shown in Fig. 1 then the router R1 has the
routing table as shown in Fig. 2

Fig. 1. Designed and Simulated Network Topology.

V. R ESULT
A. Delay time
Delay time is also called an end to end delay time. It is
the time required for a packet to a destination from its source.
The average delay time taken by different protocols are shown
in a Table I.

TABLE I
C OMPARISON OF D ELAY TIME OF RIP, OSPF AND EIGRP PROTOCOLS

Sl. No. Protocol Type Delay Time

1 RIP 27.6 ms
2 OSPF 23.4 ms
3 EIGRP 25.4 ms Fig. 2. RIP Configured Routing Table of Router R1.

From Fig. 2 it is observed that source(PC1) has two paths to

the targeted destination(192.168.9.0) i.e. via 19.1.1.2 through
B. Convergence Time R6 and via 12.1.1.2 through R3.
Convergence time is the time taken by a routing protocol A packet with a datagram size of 200 and a timeout of 3s
to decide the new best path from a source to a destination transmit from the source user (PC1) to the targeted user(PC9)
when a path is failed or a new path is added in the network. with a repeat count of 600. During the transmission of
To find the convergence time of RIP, OSPF and EIGRP we packets, we have blocked port S1/0 of router R6 to calculate
are transmitting packets with datagram size 200 and timeout the convergence time. We found the loss of a few packets
of 3s to the targeted destination from a source with a repeat during the convergence of traffic. We know that the packets
count of 600. We are blocking a path between the source and have time out of 3s. Convergence time can be calculated by
the targeted destination to determine the convergence time. multiplying the number of packets lost with packet timeout
By blocking a path few packets start dropping depends upon and this process we have continued six times and the average
the type of routing protocol until the new path is chosen and is taken. Protocol feature to react to a path failure and offer
decided by a router. Convergence time will be calculated by a new best path based on the type of routing protocol.
multiplying the number of packets lost with a timeout. This Figures 3, 4 and 5 shows the number packets lost during the
process is repeated six times and the average convergence convergence for RIP protocol and which are noted in Table II
time is calculated. The time taken to converge the traffic From Table II it is found that average convergence time using
depends upon the routing protocol type. In this paper, we RIP protocol of six attempts is 30.5 seconds.
 Fig. 3. RIP Configuration when port S1/0 of R6 is blocked attempt 1. Fig. 6. OSPF Configuration when port S1/0 of R6 is blocked attempt 1.

Fig. 4. RIP Configuration when port S1/0 of R6 is blocked attempt 2. Fig. 7. OSPF Configuration when port S1/0 of R6 is blocked attempt 2.

Fig. 8. OSPF Configuration when port S1/0 of R6 is blocked attempt 3.

Fig. 5. RIP Configuration when port S1/0 of R6 is blocked attempt 3.
TABLE III
TABLE II C ONVERGENCE T IME FOR OSPF C ONFIGURATION WHEN P ORT S1/0 OF
C ONVERGENCE T IME FOR RIP C ONFIGURATION WHEN P ORT S1/0 OF R6 R6 IS B LOCKED
IS B LOCKED
Average
Packets Packets Convergence
Average Sl. No. convergence
Packets Packets Convergence lost received time (s)
Sl. No. convergence time (s)
lost received time (s) 1 3 597 9 9
time (s)
1 10 590 30 30.5 2 3 597 9
2 9 591 27 3 3 597 9
3 11 589 33 4 3 597 9
4 8 592 24 5 3 597 9
5 12 588 36 6 3 597 9
6 11 589 33

Figures 6, 7 and 8 shows the number packets lost during

the convergence for OSPF protocol and which are noted in
Table III. From Table III it is found that average convergence
time using OSPF protocol of six attempts is 9 seconds.
Figures 9, 10 and 11 shows the number packets lost during
the convergence for EIGRP protocol and which are noted in Fig. 9. EIGRP Configuration when port S1/0 of R6 is blocked attempt 1.
Table IV. From Table IV it is found that average convergence
time using EIGRP protocol of six attempts is 3 seconds.
Table I shows that OSPF has the lowest delay time and failure in the best path). So EIGRP offers a new path within a
from the results of Table II, III and IV we found that EIGRP few seconds. Therefore we found that EIGRP performs better
has the lowest convergence time; because EIGRP maintains than OSPF and RIP with respect to delay and convergence
a feasible successor (which is the next best path in case of time.
 [4] M. Jayakumar, N. Ramya Shanthi Rekha, and B. Bharathi, “A compara-
tive study on rip and ospf protocols,” in 2015 International Conference
on Innovations in Information, Embedded and Communication Systems
(ICIIECS), 2015, pp. 1–5.
[5] S. Yang and Z. Z. Yong, “Rip internet protocol failure analysis and
research,” in 2012 International Conference on Industrial Control and
Electronics Engineering, 2012, pp. 1221–1224.
[6] K. Atefi, A. H. Shahin, S. Yahya, and A. Erfanian, “Performance
evaluation of rip and eigrp routing protocols in ieee 802.3u standard,”
in 2016 3rd International Conference on Computer and Information
Fig. 10. EIGRP Configuration when port S1/0 of R6 is blocked attempt 2. Sciences (ICCOINS), 2016, pp. 209–214.
[7] M. Athira, L. Abrahami, and R. G. Sangeetha, “Study on network
performance of interior gateway protocols rip, eigrp and ospf,” in 2017
International Conference on Nextgen Electronic Technologies: Silicon to
Software (ICNETS2), 2017, pp. 344–348.
[8] S. U. Masruroh, F. Robby, and N. Hakiem, “Performance evaluation of
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Fig. 11. EIGRP Configuration when port S1/0 of R6 is blocked attempt 3.

TABLE IV
C ONVERGENCE T IME FOR EIGRP C ONFIGURATION WHEN P ORT S1/0 OF
R6 IS B LOCKED

Average
Packets Packets Convergence
Sl. No. convergence
lost received time (s)
time (s)
1 1 599 3 3
2 1 599 3
3 1 599 3
4 1 599 3
5 1 599 3
6 1 599 3

VI. C ONCLUSION
Routing protocols like RIP, OSPF, and EIGRP are applied
for an enterprise level designed topology and analyzed their
performances using GNS3. The RIP algorithm is simple and
easier to configure and implement the routers compared with
EIGRP and OSPF. An Authenticated secure connection is
established between the routers by providing username and
password through point to point protocol. parameters like
delay and convergence time are determined for the designed
topology. Convergence time is the primary concern in any
network Performance. Results of the simulation(Table I) show
that EIGRP and OSPF have a better delay time compared
with RIP. Results of the simulation (Tables II-IV) show that
the EIGRP has the least convergence time compared with
OSPF and RIP. It can be concluded that for an enterprise
level network EIGRP is the best routing protocol.

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