Question

Distance Vector Routing was replaced with Link State Routing mainly because of two
primary problems. What are they? Name them and elaborate briefly.

Answers

Before delving into the discussion of the day, I will lie to explain briefly what routing is and

the meaning of Distance Vector Routing and Link State Routing.

Routing according to (Techdifferences, n.d) “it is the mechanism of transferring information

from a source to destination across an internetwork. The distance vector routing and link state

routing are the two of routing algorithms, categorised depending on the way the routing

tables are updated.” (para. 1). In other words, these protocols are responsible for keeping

track of network changes as well as sharing or distributing these changes within routers

across the entire network.

(Dordal, 2019) shared that in distance vector, “the routers exchange information with their

immediately neighboring routers; while tables are built up this way through a sequence of

such periodic exchanges.” In other words, it only needs to know the direction in through

which to send the packet. However, “this distance vector approach are often used at smaller

sites, while in the link-state approach, each router rapidly propagate information about the

state of each network link; all routers in the organization receive this link-state information

and each one uses it to build and maintain a map of the entire network”. (p. 263).
Figure 1: Pictorial view of Distance Vector & Link State Routing by (Techdifferences, n.d)

Furthermore there are some key difference between the two, consequently, (Techdifferences,

n.d) highlighted some major differences in the diagram below. “In distance vector routing the

router share the knowledge of the entire autonomous system whereas in link state routing it

shares the knowledge of only their neighbour routers in the autonomous system”. (para. 2).
Figure 2:- Key Differences between Distance Vector & Link State Routing by (Techdifferences,
n.d)
Although there are several and different routing classes and protocols, each has been

developed and designed accordingly to different network standards but each individual’s

picks the one that best suits their needs. However, for the scope of this assignment, the two

primary reasons why the distance vector routing was replaced with the link state routing are:

1. Routing loops or count to infinity or slow-convergence, and

2. Poor scaling which requires higher bandwidth and CPU utilization.

The first problem as elaborated by (Sharan, 2017), that since Bellman-Ford Algorithm cannot

prevent loops, when this routing loop in DVR network occurs, it causes the count to infinity

problem. Hence, this routing loops usually occur when any interface goes down and can also

occur when two-routers send updates to each other at the same time. (para. 1). Furthermore,

(Sharan, 2017), illustrated this example in figure 3 and 4. So, if Bellman-Ford algorithm will

converge for each router, then they will have entries for each other. Therefore, B will know

that it can get to C at a cost of 1, while A, will know that it can also get to C through or via B

at a cost of 2.

Figure 3:- Distance-Vector Slow-Convergence Problem with all links (A, B & C) having cost 1 as

shared by (Sharan, 2017).

However, if the link between B and C gets disconnected, as in (fig 4), below, then B will

know that it can no longer get to C via that link and will remove it from its table. Before it

can send any updates it’s possible that it will receive an update from A which will be
advertising that it can get to C at a cost of 2. B can get to A at a cost of 1, so it will update a

route to C via A at a cost of 3. A will then receive updates from B later and update its cost to

4. This will continue going on and on feeding each other bad information toward infinity.

This continuous loop is what is referred to as count to infinity problem. (para. 1-3).

Figure 4:- Distance-Vector Slow-Convergence Problem with links (B & C) disconnected as shared

by (Sharan, 2017)

Lastly, the second problem which is the poor scaling problem. According to (Heaton, 2000),

distance vector routing protocols use a hop count to determine the best path through an

internetwork. Mostly, the hop count is simply a measure of the number of routers a packet

must cross to get from host A to host B. For example, if host A is attempting to telnet to host

B, and the packet must cross three routers to get to host B, then the hop count is three.

However, if the distance vector protocols always senses and chooses the route with the least

number of hops as the best route. Then this can be a problem when the best route to a

destination is not the route with the least number of hops. For example, suppose host A is

trying to connect to host B and there are two paths available: let’s say Router A is using a T-3

connection and Router B is using a dial-up 28.8 Kbps connection. If Router B is one hop

away, but Router A is two hops away, Router B will be chosen as the best route, even though

it’s not the fastest alternative, because it is the closest and least number of hops. (para. 6).

Such process often requires using higher bandwidth and CPU utilization. This makes it slow
to adapt to a change in the network. In conclusion, although there are ways of resolving these

problems, but for the scope of this assignment, I will not be talking about them.
References

Akash Sharan, (2017, August 12). Route Poisoning and Count to infinity problem in Routing

- GeeksforGeeks.

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/route-poisoning-and-count-to-infinity-problem-in-

routing/

Dordal, P. (2019). An introduction to computer networks.

https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1185120/mod_book/chapter/274608/Compute

rNetworksText.pdf

Heaton, W. (2000, March 16). Should you use distance vector or link state routing

protocols? TechRepublic.

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/should-you-use-distance-vector-or-link-state-

routing-protocols/

Techdifferences, (n.d). Difference between distance vector routing and link state routing.

https://techdifferences.com/difference-between-distance-vector-routing-and-link-

state-routing.html