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RIP Messages

RIP exchanges routing information via User Datagram Protocol (UDP) data packets. Each RIP router sends and receives datagrams on UDP port number 520, the RIP version 1/RIP version 2 port. All communications intended for another router’s RIP process area are sent from the RIP port.

Every RIP message contains a RIP header that consists of a command and a version number. The router supports RIP version 1 (RIPv1) and RIP version 2 (RIPv2) extensions.

RIP employs the following message types:

Request—A request for the responding router to send all or part of its routing table.
Response—A message containing all or part of the sender’s routing table. This message is sent in response to a request or is an unsolicited routing update generated by the sender.

The RIP request and response messages also contain a list of route entries. Each route entry contains the following:

Address Entry Identifier—The type of address
Destination IP address—The destination address of the message
Cost to reach the destination—A value between 1 and 15, which specifies the current metric for reaching the destination

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