EIGRP

(Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol)

Group Members
Asghar Faiz 939/FET/BSEE/F08
Farrukh Shahzad 925/FET/BSEE/F08
Danish Naveed 936/FET/BSEE/F08
Baseer Ahmed 795/FET/BSEE/F08

1
 INTRUDUCTION
• Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing
Protocol (EIGRP) is an advanced version
of IGRP.
• Released in 1994 as successor to IGRP
• Compatible with IGRP
• Provides superior convergence, operating
efficiency and combines link-state protocol
with distance-vector protocols.
 INTRUDUCTION

• Uses partial updates and neighbour

discovery
• Good for large multiprotocol networks that
primarily use Cisco routers
 How EIGRP Works?

A typical distance vector protocol saves the following

information when computing the best path to a destination: the
distance (total metric or distance, such as hop count) and the
vector (the next hop).
For instance, all the routers in the network in Figure 1 are
running Routing Information Protocol (RIP). Router Two
chooses the path to Network A by examining the hop count
through each available path.
 How EIGRP Works?

Since the path through Router Three is 3 hops, and the path
through Router One is 2 hops, Router Two chooses the path
through One and discards the information it learned through
Three. If the path between Router One and Network A goes
down, Router Two loses all connectivity with this destination
until it times out the route of its routing table (three update
periods, or 90 seconds), and Router Three re-advertises the
route (which occurs every 30 seconds in RIP).
 How EIGRP Works?

EIGRP, instead of counting on full periodic updates to re-

converge, builds a topology table from each of its neighbor's
advertisements (rather than discarding the data), and
converges by either looking for a likely loop-free route in the
topology table, or, if it knows of no other route, by querying its
neighbors. Router Two saves the information it received from
both Routers One and Three
 How EIGRP Works?

It chooses the path through One as its best path (the

successor) and the path through Three as a loop-free path (a
feasible successor). When the path through Router One
becomes unavailable, Router Two examines its topology table
and, finding a feasible successor, begins using the path
through Three immediately.
 EIGRP vs. IGRP
• Similarities • Differences
– Both developed by Cisco
– Both calculate metrics
using bandwidth and
delay
– Use autonomous system
numbers
– EIGRP scales metric of
IGRP by a factor of 256
(EIGRP=32 bits,
IGRP=24 bits)
– Hop count, IGRP=255,
EIGRP=224
– EIGRP supports
CIDR/VLSM
– EIGRP offers multi-
protocol support
 EIGRP v.s Other Routing Protocols
Feature RIP v1 RIP v2 OSPF IGRP EIGRP
classful or  classful classless classless classful classless
classless

metric hop count hop count cost composite composite

(100,000/b (BDRLM) (BDRLM)
w)
periodic  30 seconds 30 seconds none 90 seconds 30
advertisement seconds

advertising 255.255.255.2 224.0.0.9 224.0.0.5 255.255.255.2 224.0.0.10

address 55 (multi-cast) 224.0.0.6 55 (multi-cast)
(broadcast) (multi-cast) (broadcast)

administrative  120 120 110 100 Internal 90

distance External
170
category distance vector distance link-state distance- hybrid
vector vector
 EIGRP Concepts and Terminology

• Like OSPF, EIGRP saves data in RAM in

one of several databases for fast
availability.
• Three databases are:
– Neighbor table
– Topology table
– Routing table
 Neighbor Table
• Lists adjacent routers. A table is created for each
protocol EIGRP supports. (IP)
• Neighbor router’s interface and address are
recorded.
• Hold time information received from HELLO
packets determine if route is still accessible or
route changes need to be made.
• Number of packets waiting to be sent.
 Neighbor Table

• The following fields are found in the

Neighbor Table
– Neighbor address
– Hold time
– Smooth Round-Trip Timer (SRTT)
– Queue count (Q Cnt)
– Sequence Number (Seq No)
 Topology Table

• Made up of all EIGRP routing tables from

Autonomous system.
• DUAL uses this information to determine
the best routes to a destination. (Successor
Route)
• A separate topology table is created for
each network protocol supported.
 Topology Table Contents
• Feasible Distance-the lowest calculated metric to each
destination.
• Route source-identification number of the router that
originally advertised that route. Only used routes
originated outside of EIGRP.
• Reported distance-the distance reported by an adjacent
neighbor
• Interface information – The interface through which the
destination is reachable
• Router Status- A (Active), P (Passive)
 DUAL finite-state machine
algorithm
• Diffusing Update Algorithm is the EIGRP
route-calculation engine.
• Tracks all the routes advertised by
neighbors, uses composite metrics to
compare them and determine if they are
loop-free.
DUAL finite-state machine algorithm
 Routing Table

• Holds best routes to each destination.

• Maintains separate table for each supported
protocol.
• Successor routes- Route selected to
destination.
 EIGRP Design Features
• Rapid convergence-DUAL provides Loop-free
operation with all routers being updated at same
time.
• Efficient use of bandwidth-Sends Partial-
Bounded updates only to those routers who need
updates.
• Supports multiple protocols-IP, IPX and
AppleTalk are supported through Protocol-
dependant Modules, PDM’s. Modules can change
but EIGRP can stay the same.
 EIGRP Data Structure

• The five EIGRP packet types are:

– Hello
– Acknowledgment
– Update
– Query
– Reply
 Acknowledgement Packets
• EIGRP is Routed-protocol independent.
• Reliable Transport Protocol (RTP) provides
acknowledgement of all packets sent.
• Acknowledgement packets are Hello packets
without data.
• Acknowledgement packets are Unicast.
 Update Packets

• Update packets are used when a new

neighbor is located or when the topology
changes.
• New neighbor packets are Unicast
• Topology changes are Multicast.
• Update packets are sent reliably.
 Query Packets
• Query packets are used to gain specific
information from a neighbor.
• If a router loses it’s successor route and
cannot determine a feasible successor, query
packets are multicast to all neighbors
searching for a new route.
 Reply Packets

• Reply packets are responses to query

packets.
• If a router receives a query from a router
looking for a new route, it must send a
reply, indicating a new route or that no info
is available.
• Replies are Unicast.
 Advantages:
 The Diffusing Update Algorithm (DUAL) is the heart of EIGRP.  In
essence, DUAL always keeps a backup route in mind, in case the
primary route goes down.  DUAL also limits how many routers are
affected when a change occurs to the network

 There is no maximum allowable number of hops.  In a EIGRP

network, each router multi-casts "hello" packs to discover its
adjacent neighbor. This adjacency database is shared with other
router to build a topology database.  From the topology database
the best route (Successor) and the second best route (Feasible
Successor) is found
 Advantages:
• EIGRP is classless, meaning it does include the subnet mask in
routing updates. However, by default 'auto-summary' is enable.  You
must disable if you want subnet information from other major
networks
• The EIGRP metric is a can be a complex calculation, but by default it

• only uses bandwidth and delay to determine the best path .

Thank You