Routing Metrics: Understanding Distance, Bandwidth, Speed, and Hop Count

A router is set up to utilize RIPv2 to route traffic throughout the network.

Which of the following routing metrics is used to determine the path?

A.

Distance

B.

Bandwidth

C.

Speed

D.

Hop count.

D.

RIPv2 is a distance-vector routing protocol used in IP networks. Distance-vector protocols are based on the distance or metric of a route, which is typically measured in terms of hop count, i.e., the number of routers that a packet must traverse to reach its destination. The hop count is the number of routers that a packet must traverse to reach its destination.

In RIPv2, each router advertises its routing table to its neighboring routers periodically or when there is a change in the network topology. The routers exchange information about their connected networks and the hop count to reach them. Based on this information, each router builds its routing table and calculates the best path to reach a given destination.

The metric used by RIPv2 is the hop count, which represents the number of routers that a packet must traverse to reach its destination. RIPv2 uses the shortest path first (SPF) algorithm to determine the best path to a destination based on the hop count. The SPF algorithm computes the shortest path tree (SPT) for each router in the network, which represents the best path to each destination based on the hop count.

Bandwidth and speed are not routing metrics, but they are characteristics of network links that can affect routing decisions. For example, a router may prefer a path with a higher bandwidth or speed because it can handle more traffic. However, RIPv2 does not consider these factors when calculating the best path.

In conclusion, the routing metric used by RIPv2 to determine the path is the hop count.