RIPng Overview

The RIPng IGP uses the Bellman-Ford distance-vector algorithm to determine the best route to a destination. RIPng uses the hop count as the metric. RIPng allows hosts and routers to exchange information for computing routes through an IP-based network. RIPng is intended to act as an IGP for moderately-sized autonomous systems (ASs).

The JUNOS software implementation of RIPng is similar to RIPv2. However, RIPng is a distinct routing protocol from RIPv2 and has the following differences:

• RIPng does not need to implement authentication on packets.
• There is no support for multiple instances of RIPng.
• There is no support for RIPng routing table groups.

RIPng is a User Datagram Protocol (UDP)-based protocol and uses UDP port 521.

RIPng has the following architectural limitations:

• The longest network path cannot exceed 15 hops (assuming that each network, or hop, has a cost of 1).
• RIPng depends on counting to infinity to resolve certain unusual situations. When the network consists of several hundred routers, and when a routing loop has formed, the amount of time and network bandwidth required to resolve a next hop might be great.
• RIPng uses only a fixed metric to select a route. Other IGPs use additional parameters, such as measured delay, reliability, and load.

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