All posts must be a minimum of 250 words. APA reference. 10…
All posts must be a minimum of 250 words. APA reference. 100% original work. no plagiarism. Routing protocols use metrics to decide on the best path on the network. Name two different metrics and explain how routing protocols use these metrics to decide on the best path.
Answer
Routing protocols use metrics to determine the best path on a network by calculating the cost or value associated with each potential route. The choice of metrics depends on the specific protocol being used. In this response, I will discuss two commonly used routing metrics: hop count and bandwidth.
Hop count is a metric that measures the number of routers or network nodes that a packet must pass through to reach its destination. Each time a packet traverses a router, the hop count for that packet is incremented. Routing protocols that use hop count, such as the Routing Information Protocol (RIP), generally favor paths with fewer hops. The rationale behind this is that shorter paths typically result in lower latency and improved overall network performance. For example, in a network with three routers, a packet with a hop count of 1 would be preferred over a packet with a hop count of 2, as the former would require fewer router hops to reach its destination.
Bandwidth is another widely employed routing metric. It measures the available capacity (in terms of data transmission rate) along a particular route. Routing protocols that consider bandwidth, such as the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol, strive to select paths with greater bandwidth. Higher bandwidth paths can handle more traffic and are generally preferred over lower bandwidth paths. By utilizing this metric, routing protocols aim to distribute network traffic evenly and prevent congestion on heavily utilized links. For instance, if a network has two possible paths to a destination, with one path offering a bandwidth of 100 Mbps and another path offering a bandwidth of 10 Mbps, the routing protocol would typically choose the former path since it can accommodate more traffic.
Routing protocols use these metrics to make informed decisions about the best path for forwarding packets. By assigning a cost or value to each available path, the protocol examines various factors such as latency, link utilization, and network topology to determine the most optimal path. Once the metrics have been calculated for each path, the routing protocol selects the path with the lowest cost or highest value as the best route. This chosen path is then advertised to other routers in the network, allowing them to update their routing tables accordingly.
In conclusion, routing protocols rely on metrics such as hop count and bandwidth to determine the best path on a network. Hop count measures the number of router hops a packet must pass through, while bandwidth measures the available capacity along a particular route. These metrics enable routing protocols to make informed decisions and efficiently route network traffic.