RIP (Routing Information Protocol) is a distance-vector routing protocol used in computer networking to enable routers to exchange information about the best path to reach a network. RIP is one of the oldest and simplest routing protocols and is commonly used in small to medium-sized networks.
RIP works by broadcasting routing updates periodically to its neighboring routers, providing information about the networks it knows how to reach and the cost or distance to those networks. Each router receives the updates, processes them, and adds the new information to its routing table. This process continues until all routers in the network have updated their routing tables and are aware of the best paths to reach all networks in the network topology.
One of the limitations of RIP is that it has a maximum hop count of 15, which means that it is not suitable for large networks with many hops between networks. This limitation can lead to routing loops and other issues in complex network topologies. Another limitation is that RIP does not support variable-length subnet masks (VLSMs), which limits its ability to handle network address space efficiently.
Despite these limitations, RIP is still widely used in some environments and can be a useful routing protocol for simple network topologies with a limited number of routers and networks.