10

Routing Protocols

10.1 Routing Protocols Overview

Routing protocols give the ZyWALL routing information about the network from other routers. The ZyWALL stores this routing information in the routing table it uses to make routing decisions. In turn, the ZyWALL can also use routing protocols to propagate routing information to other routers.

Routing protocols are usually only used in networks using multiple routers like campuses or large enterprises.

10.1.1What You Can Do in this Chapter

•Use the RIP screen (see Section 10.2 on page 199) to configure the ZyWALL to use RIP to receive and/or send routing information.

•Use the OSPF screen (see Section 10.3 on page 201) to configure general OSPF settings and manage OSPF areas.

•Use the OSPF Area Add/Edit screen (see Section 10.3.2 on page 206) to create or edit an OSPF area.

10.1.2What You Need to Know

The ZyWALL supports two standards, RIP and OSPF, for routing protocols. RIP and OSPF are compared here and discussed further in the rest of the chapter.

Table 72 RIP vs. OSPF

 

RIPOSPF

Network Size

Small (with up to 15 routers)

Large

 

 

 

Metric

Hop count

Bandwidth, hop count, throughput, round trip time and

 

 

reliability.

 

 

 

Convergence

Slow

Fast

 

 

 

Finding Out More

See Section 10.4 on page 208 for background information on routing protocols.

10.2 The RIP Screen

RIP (Routing Information Protocol, RFC 1058 and RFC 1389) allows a device to exchange routing information with other routers. RIP is a vector-space routing protocol, and, like most such protocols, it uses hop count to decide which route is the shortest. Unfortunately, it also broadcasts

 

199

ZyWALL 110/310/1100 Series User’s Guide