Overview of EIGRP

Overview of EIGRP
Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) is an hybrid routing protocol possessing
characteristics of both distance-vector and and link-state routing protocols. It was a proprietary
Cisco routing protocol but Cisco decided to convert it to an open standard in 2013.
Let’s see some key features that makes EIGRP helpful especially for large and complex networks.
 It supports both IPv4 and IPv6
 Supports classless routing and VLSM (Variable Length Subnet Masking)
 Allows route summarization on any router in the network
 Supports load balancing
 Supports MD5 authentication
EIGRP uses a multicast address of 224.0.0.10 and uses Cisco’s Reliable Transport Protocol (RTP) to
send messages to the multicast address. It has a default administrative distance of 90, which is less
than the default administrative distances of RIP and OSPF, implying that EIGRP routes will be
preferred over RIP and OSPF routes.
For EIGRP, routing metric is calculated using bandwidth, delay, reliability and load.
EIGRP Neighborhood establishment
Before exchanging routing information, routers that run EIGRP must first become neighbors. EIGRP
Routers send hello packets to the multicast address of 224.0.0.10 to dynamically discover neighbors
on directly attached networks.
In order for routers in a network to become neighbors:
 They must be configured with the same ASN (Autonomous System Number). An
autonomous system number is a group of EIGRP-enabled routers that should become EIGRP
neighbors and exchange routes.
 The routers must also be using the same parameters to calculate metric.These parameters
are called K values (components of metric). Just as we’ve seen, the K values are
bandwidth,delay,reliability and load.
By default, the only parameters used to calculate EIGRP metric are bandwith and delay.The other
two parameters are disabled by default ; so the network admin has to enable them on the router
when desired for use.
EIGRP tables Explained
Each EIGRP router uses three tables to store routing information.
Neighborhood table -which stores information about EIGRP neighbors. Remember we said that
routers need first to become neighbors before they can exchange routing information. A
neighborhood table is thus used to keep neighborhood information such as the IP address of the
neighbor, the local interface on which hellos were received , the hold down timer and others
neighbor information.
Topology table– stores routing information learnt from neighbor routing tables. Every EIGRP route
inside the autonomous system is stored here.The topology table also holds the metrics for each of
the listed EIGRP routes, the feasible successor and the successor routes.
Routing table -Stores only the best routes to reach a remote network.
EIGRP configuration on a Router
Now we’re ready to configure EIGRP. It is configured using these commands:
1. (config) router eigrp ASN – This command starts EIGRP on the router.In order to become EIGRP
neighbors,routers must be configured with the same AS number.You can use any number between 1
and 65,535
2.(config-router) network SUBNET [WILCARD_MASK]. This command advertises a network directly

connected to the router to other routers.
Let’s configure this on Packet tracer
1.Build the network topology as shown below.
2. Do IP configurations on the PCs and the routers
At global configuration mode
Router1
R1(config)#
R1(config)#int fa0/0
R1(config-if)#ip add 10.0.0.1 255.0.0.0
R1(config-if)#no shut
R1(config-if)#int fa0/1
R1(config-if)#ip address 20.0.0.1 255.0.0.0
R1(config-if)#no shut
Router 2
R2(config)#
R2(config)#int fa0/0
R2(config-if)#ip add 30.0.0.1 255.0.0.0
R2(config-if)#no shutdown
R2(config-if)#int fa0/1
R2(config-if)#ip address 20.0.0.2 255.0.0.0
R2(config-if)#no shutdown
PC IP configuration
Click on PC ->Desktop->IP configuration. Here, fill in static IP addresses.
PC1 IP address: 10.0.0.2 Subnet mask: 255.0.0.0 Default Gateway 10.0.0.1
PC2 IP address: 30.0.0.2 Subnet mask: 255.0.0.0 Default Gateway 30.0.0.1
PC1
PC2
3. Configure EIGRP on the routers. Remember to use the same ASN number on both routers. Once
configured, the routers become EIGRP neighbors.
Router 1:
R1(config)#
R1(config)#router eigrp 1
R1(config-router)#network 10.0.0.0
Router 2:
R2(config)#
R2(config)#router eigrp 1
You can see that we’re simply enabling EIGRP on the routers, then advertising networks directly
connected to each router. Simple!
4. Now verify EIGRP configuration.
First let’s verify EIGRP neighborhood relationship of the routers.
Lets do this on Router 1
At privilege Mode
R1#
R1#show ip eigrp neighbors
Then observe the neighborhood:
In the picture above,you can see that R1 has a single neighbor with the IP address of 20.0.0.2
Secondly, we’ll verify whether R1 has received a route to reach the 30.0.0.0/8 network. We can use
the show ip route eigrp command.
Lastly, let’s ping PC2 from PC1. Ping should succeed because. R1 has learnt the route to 30.0.0.0/8
through EIGRP as denoted by letter D.
Try also to ping PC1 from PC2. Ping should work.

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Overview of EIGRP

 It supports both IPv4 and IPv6

 Supports classless routing and VLSM (Variable Length Subnet Masking)

 Allows route summarization on any router in the network

 Supports load balancing

 Supports MD5 authentication

EIGRP Neighborhood establishment

In order for routers in a network to become neighbors:

EIGRP tables Explained

Each EIGRP router uses three tables to store routing information.

EIGRP configuration on a Router

Now we’re ready to configure EIGRP. It is configured using these commands:

2.(config-router) network SUBNET [WILCARD_MASK]. This command advertises a network directly

Let’s configure this on Packet tracer

1.Build the network topology as shown below.

2. Do IP configurations on the PCs and the routers

At global configuration mode

R1(config-if)#ip add 10.0.0.1 255.0.0.0

R1(config-if)#ip address 20.0.0.1 255.0.0.0

R2(config-if)#ip add 30.0.0.1 255.0.0.0

R2(config-if)#ip address 20.0.0.2 255.0.0.0

Click on PC ->Desktop->IP configuration. Here, fill in static IP addresses.

PC1 IP address: 10.0.0.2 Subnet mask: 255.0.0.0 Default Gateway 10.0.0.1

PC2 IP address: 30.0.0.2 Subnet mask: 255.0.0.0 Default Gateway 30.0.0.1

First let’s verify EIGRP neighborhood relationship of the routers.

Lets do this on Router 1

R1#show ip eigrp neighbors

Then observe the neighborhood:

Try also to ping PC1 from PC2. Ping should work.

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