Process of Migration of Routing Protocols in a LAN: RIP to OSPF
M. Hernández Pérez and A. Medina Santiago
Department Tecnociencias, UVM Villahermosa, Unit Guadalupe, Villahermosa, Tabasco.
Tel: (936) 3621472 E-mail: vono82@hotmail.com
Summary - This paper presents the theoretical and practical
foundations of the migration of two routing protocols, they are
RIP and OSPF. To increase and to improve the performance
maximizing the resources inside a network of information
exchanged. Mentioning the advantages and disadvantages that
present the protocols selected for the process, using Cisco Ios.
Key words –– LAN, Migration, RIP, OSPF, Protocol, WAN.
I. INTRODUCTION
The migration of protocols, the definition more basic
consists of happening from the utilization of a protocol to
other one, on condition of which the process must be
transparent for all the users of the net. It is important to
indicate that before initiating with the most detailed
concepts one recommends to study some basic topics.
A LAN network, in a wide sense a local area network, is a
set of interconnected computing devices, which are inside
the same building or campus, and its principal function is
share resources and the interchange information.
The protocols are rules by means of which it do the
communication between the different devices inside
network environment. Several types and classification of
protocols exist, in this writing we will focus on two classes
especially, routed protocols and routing protocols [3, 4].
a. Routed protocol: It is any network protocol that
provides sufficient information in it network layer
direction to allow that a package should be sent
from a host to other one taking the base as
addressing scheme. The protocol Internet (IP) is an
example of routed protocol.
b. Routing Protocols: The routing protocols determine
the routes that follow the routed protocols towards
the destinies. Between the examples of routing
protocols there can include the Routing
Information Protocol (RIP), the Interior Gateway
Routing Protocol (IGRP), the Enhanced Interior
Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) and the Open
Short Path First (OSPF), later in another chapter
we will recapture these protocols as base for our
process of migration.
In the part 2 of this paper, it is shown the methodology of
the basic concepts of router and routing protocols as well as
their classification. A brief summary is also shown of what
are the protocols to use: RIP and OSPF. The part 3 will
present the simulation of a migration of protocols in a
network LAN. It shows up the migration of the protocol RIP
to the protocol OSPF. In a same way the commands are
explained to use for the migration. The part 4 presents the
conclusions of this work, and a recommendation of the use
of protocols of link state in large networks.
II. METHODOLOGY
The devices of internetworking that operate in the layer 3 of
the model OSI (network layer) join between them, or
interconnect segments of network or complete networks.
These devices name routers. The routers transfer data
packets between networks being based on the information of
the network protocol, or of the layer 3. And it’s in this layer
at which the routing protocols are employed. A router has
the aptitude to take intelligent decisions with regard to the
best route for the delivery of information in the network.
The routers are useful to divide the LAN in diffusion
domain (broadcast) separated, and it is necessary to use on
having connected these LAN on a WAN. They have
interfaces WAN and LAN. The routers take logical
decisions with regard to the best route for the sending of
information across an Internet work and then they direct the
packages to the suitable segment and the port of exit. The
environment of implementation for the migration is 100 %
Cisco equipments, for what it is necessary to know the basic
configuration of the above mentioned equipments.
Both principal functions with which counts a Router are:
• Determination of the best routes for the incoming
data packets.
• Commutation of the packages to the correct out
interface.
These two functions are achieved by the construction of
routing tables and by the interchange of the information of
network that these contain with other routers
A. Route Determination [2, 3]
The determination of route is in the layer 3 (network layer)
and it is allowed that the router should evaluate the available
routes towards a destiny and decides which is the best way
to administer a package. The routing services use the
information of network topology to evaluate networks
routes. The determination of route is the process that the
router uses to choose the following hop of the route of the
package towards its destiny.
The network layer provides delivery of packages of
maximum strengthen and end to end across interconnected
networks. The network layer uses the IP routing table to
send packages from the source network to the destiny
network. After the router determines what route it must use,
it proceeds to send the package. It takes the package that
accepted in one interface and it is sent towards other one or
port that represents the best route towards the destiny of the
package.
B. Protocols
The protocols that were in use are inside the classification of
routing protocols. The routing protocols allow that the
connected routers should create an internal map of other
routers of the network or of Internet. This allows that there
should do the routing (is to say, the selection of the best
route and commutation).These maps take a part of the
routing table of every router. The routers use routing
protocols to interchange routing tables and to share routing
information. In other words, the routing protocols determine
the way in the routed protocols are routing.
Most of the routing algorithms they are possible to be
classified like one of two basic algorithms [2]:
• Distance Vector,
• Link-State.
Distance Vector characteristics:
1. The routing by distance vector collects data of the
information of the routing table of its neighbors.
2. The routing by distance vector determines the best
route adding the metric value that receives as the
routing information happens from router to another
one.
3. With most of the protocols of routing by distance
vector, the updates for the changes of topology
consist of periodic updates of the tables. The
information happens from router to another one,
giving generally like result one more a slower
convergence.
RIP and IGRP are examples of vector distance protocols.
Link state characteristics:
1. The link state routing obtains a great vision of the
topology of complete internetwork accumulating
all the necessary LSA.
2. In the link state routing, each router it works
independently to calculate its own shorter route
towards the networks destiny.
3. With the protocols of routing of connection state,
the updates are caused generally by changes in the
topology. The relatively small LSA that have gone
to all the others routers generally give like result
faster times of convergence with any change of
topology of the internetwork.
OSPF it’s an example of link state protocol.
C. Routing information protocol (rip) [3, 2, 5]
The RIP allows that routers update their routing tables at
programmable intervals, generally every 30 seconds. One of
the disadvantages of routers that use RIP is that constantly
they are connected with routers neighboring to update his
tables of routing, generating therefore a great amount of
network traffic.
The RIP allows that a router determines which is the route
that is due to use to send the data. This makes by means of a
denominated concept vector-distance. A jump is entered
whenever the data cross to router that is to say, happen
through a new number of network, this is considered
equivalent to a jump. A route that has an equal number of
jumps to 4 indicates that the data which they are transported
must cross 4 routers before arriving at their final destiny in
the network. If there are multiple routes towards a destiny,
the route with the smaller number of jumps is the route
selected by router.
As the number of jumps is only metric of routing used by
the RIP, not necessarily it selects the fastest route towards
its destiny. A metric one is a measurement unit that allows
making decisions and next will learn that other protocols of
routing use other metric ones in addition to the number of
jumps to find the best route of data transfer. Nevertheless,
the RIP continues being very popular and it is continued
implementing widely. The main reason of this is that he was
one of the first protocols of routing that were developed.
RIP characteristics:
• Distance vector routing protocol.
• It metric is the number of jumps.
• The maximum number of jumps is 15
• One updates every 30 seconds
• Not always it selects the fastest route for the
packages
 • It generates great amount of traffic of network with
updates.
Another one of the problems that the use of the RIP presents
is that sometimes a destiny can be located too much far like
being attainable. The RIP allows fifteen as maximum limit
for the number of jumps through which data can be sent.
The network destiny is considered unreachable if there are
more than fifteen jumps of router.
D. Open shortest path first (OSPF) [2, 4]
In 1988, the group: Internet Engineers Task Force (IETF)
began to develop a new protocol of routing that it would
replace to protocol RIP. Then development the Open
Shortest Path First protocol (OSPF).
Protocol OSPF proposes the use of shorter and accessible
routes by the construction of a map of the network and data
base maintenance with information on local and neighboring
systems, this way he is able to calculate the metric for each
route, and then the shorter routing routes are chosen. In this
process the metric of state of the connection and distance are
calculate in the case of RIP calculates only the distance and
not the link traffic, by this cause OSPF is a routing protocol
designed for networks with growth constant and able to
handle a distributed routing table and fast propagation,
between the best characteristics of OSPF are:
• Fast detection of changes in the topology and very
fast reestablishment of routes without loops.
• Low overload, use updates that inform about
changes on routes.
• Division of traffic by several equivalent routes
• Routing according type of service.
• Use of multisend in local area networks.
• Subnet and Supernet mask.
• Authentication
III. SIMULATION
A. Basic routing Commands [2, 3, 5]
Show ip protocols: To display the parameters and current
state of the active routing protocol process, use the show ip
protocols command.
Router# show ip protocols
Routing Protocol is "rip"
Sending updates every 30 seconds, next due in 2 seconds
Invalid after 180 seconds, hold down 180, flushed after 240
Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Redistributing: rip
Default version control: send version 2, receive version 2
Interface Send Recv Key-chain
Ethernet0 2 2 trees
Fddi0 2 2
Routing for Networks:
172.19.0.0
2.0.0.0
10.3.0.0
Routing Information Sources:
Gateway Distance Last Update
Distance: (default is 120)
Show ip route: Is use to display the current state of the
routing table.
Router# show ip route
O E2 172.150.0.0 [160/5] via 10.119.254.6, 0:01:00, Ethernet2
E 172.17.10.0 [200/128] via 10.119.254.244, 0:02:22, Ethernet2
O E2 172.70.132.0 [160/5] via 10.119.254.6, 0:00:59, Ethernet2
O E2 10.130.0.0 [160/5] via 10.119.254.6, 0:00:59, Ethernet2
E 172.30.0.0 [200/128] via 10.119.254.244, 0:02:22, Ethernet2
E 10.129.0.0 [200/129] via 10.119.254.240, 0:02:22, Ethernet2
E 172.80.129.0 [200/128] via 10.119.254.244, 0:02:22, Ethernet2
E 10.10.0.0 [200/128] via 10.119.254.244, 0:02:22, Ethernet2
E 172.60.139.0 [200/129] via 10.119.254.240, 0:02:23, Ethernet2
E 172.90.208.0 [200/128] via 10.119.254.244, 0:02:22, Ethernet2
Redistribute: Is use to redistribute routes from one routing
domain into another routing domain, to disable
redistribution, use the no form of this command.
redistribute protocolo [id del proceso] {level-1 | level-1-
2 | level-2} [as-number] [metric valor de la metrica] [metric-
type tipo de valor] [match {internal | external 1 | external 2}]
[tag tag-value] [route-map map-tag] [subnets]
router ospf 109
redistribute igrp 108 metric 100 subnets
redistribute rip metric 200 subnets
router rip: Is use to configure the Routing Information
Protocol (RIP) routing process. To turn off the RIP routing
process, use the no form of this command.
network: To specify a list of networks for the routing
process, use the network command. To remove an entry,
use the no form of this command.
network ip-address
no network ip-address
router ospf: To configure an Open Shortest Path First
(OSPF) routing process, use the router ospf command. To
terminate an OSPF routing process, use the no form of this
command.
router ospf process-id [vrf vpn-name]
no router ospf process-id [vrf vpn-name]
network area[3,5,9]: To define the interfaces on which
OSPF runs and to define the area ID for those interfaces, use
the network area command. To disable OSPF routing for
interfaces defined with the address wildcard-mask pair, use
the no form of this command.
network ip-address wildcard-mask area area-id
no network ip-address wildcard-mask area area-id
Version :
Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS (tm) 5800 Software (C5800-P4-M), Version 12.1(2)
Copyright (c) 1986-2002 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
advertisement version: 2
Duplex: half
B. Configuration of the protocols and accomplishment of the
migration
In order to configure RIP in each router the following steps
are due to follow:

show ip interface: To display the usability status of 1. Connect to router.

interfaces configured for IP, use the show ip interface 2. Enable RIP protocol (router rip command).
command. 3. Specify all the networks connected directly to the
router (network command).
show ip interface [brief] [type] [number] 4. Verify interfaces status (show ip interface
command).
Router# show ip interface brief 5. Check the generate routing table (show ip route
command).
Interface IP-Adress OK? Method Status Protocol
Ethernet0 1.0.46.10 YES manual administratively down down
6. Verify the connection with the neighbors (show
PCbus0 198.135.1.43 YES manual administratively down down cdp neighbors command).
Serial0 198.135.2.49 YES manual administratively down down
When following these steps and verifying all the interfaces
and commands before mentioned, is correctly and in
show cdp neighbors: To display detailed information execution in the entire network the RIP protocol. In order to
about neighboring devices discovered using Cisco qualify protocol OSPF and to execute the migration the
Discovery Protocol (CDP), use the show cdp neighbors following steps are due to follow:
command.
show cdp neighbors [type number] [detail] 1. Connect to router
2. Enable the redistribution to RIP to OSPF
Router#show cdp neighbors (redistribute command)
Capability Codes: R - Router, T - Trans Bridge, B - Source 3. Enable the OSPF protocol (router ospf command).
Route Bridge 4. Define the interfaces that executed OSPF (network
S - Switch, H - Host, I - IGMP, r - Repeater area command).
Device ID Local Intrfce Holdtme Capability Platform Port ID 5. Enable the redistribution to OSPF to RIP
lab-7206 Eth 0 157 R 7206VXR Fas 0/0/0 (redistribute command)
lab-as5300-1 Eth 0 163 R AS5300 Fas 0 6. Verify interfaces status (show ip interface
lab-as5300-2 Eth 0 159 R AS5300 Eth 0 command).
lab-as5300-3 Eth 0 122 R AS5300 Eth 0 7. Check the generate routing table (show ip route
lab-as5300-4 Eth 0 132 R AS5300 Fas 0/0 command).
lab-3621 Eth 0 140 R S 3631-telcoFas 0/0 8. Verify the connection with the neighbors (show cdp
008024 2758E0 Eth 0 132 T CAT3000 1/2 neighbors command).
9. If the exit of steps 6.7 and 8 does not present any
router#show cdp neighbors detail problem the following step it is to eliminate RIP
------------------------- protocol (no router rip command).
Device ID: lab-7206
Entry address(es): When finishing executing the commands of the previous list
IP address: 172.19.169.83 it was successfully configure the new routing protocol,
Platform: cisco 7206VXR, Capabilities: Router being for the users transparent this modification.
Interface: Ethernet0, Port ID (outgoing port):
FastEthernet0/0/0
Holdtime : 123 sec
 IV. CONCLUSION

The correct configuration of protocol OSPF offers us a time

convergence very superior to the time that RIP presented to
us, besides to remarkably improve the load of the links
thanks to the mechanisms on which it counts for the balance
of the loads, therefore it is possible to be said that the
implementation of this migration is useful for extensive
networks and redundant topologies. Concluding that the
migration process fulfills the objectives for which they were
thought and it is always recommended to make this process
in extensive networks.

Example of network whit redundant topology:

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