What is IGRP
by Yogi P - November 26, 2023
What is IGRP and what is IGRP Full Form?
IGRP stands for Interior Gateway Routing Protocol. It is a distance-vector routing protocol that was widely used in the late 1990s. It was created by Cisco and was used as a means for communicating routing information between routers in a local area network (LAN).
What is the Purpose of IGRP?
The purpose of IGRP is to advertise and propagate the network’s routing table within the interior of a local network. This can be accomplished via a variety of methods, such as a hub-and-spoke system, ring topology, or full mesh networks.
IGRP works by exchanging messages between devices on the network in order to build a routing table. The routing table contains information about the network topology, including paths, delays, and costs.
This information allows a router to determine the best path for network traffic to take between two devices.
How Does IGRP Work?
IGRP works by exchanging routing update messages between routers. These messages contain information about the state of the network, such as the cost to reach a certain destination, the number of hops between two points, and other information.
When new information is received, the router updates its routing table and propagates the new information to its neighboring routers by sending an update message.
The routers then use this information to update their routing tables. This process of exchanging and updating messages in order to build and maintain an accurate routing table is known as convergence.
Advantages of IGRP
IGRP has several advantages. It is a simple protocol and does not require complicated setup and configuration.
IGRP is also less CPU intensive than other routing protocols, so it does not require costly hardware.
Additionally, IGRP is able to automatically detect and correct misconfigurations in the network, which helps reduce the time spent on troubleshooting.
Finally, IGRP is a reliable protocol and can easily scale to larger networks, making it ideal for enterprise networks.
Disadvantages of IGRP
The main disadvantage of IGRP is that it is only able to support a limited number of destinations. It is also limited in the amount of information it can exchange between devices, so it is best suited for small networks.
In addition, IGRP works best in stable network conditions and is not suitable for large or rapidly changing networks.
Conclusion
IGRP is a distance-vector routing protocol used to exchange routing information in a local area network. It is a simple protocol that does not require complicated setup or hardware, and can automatically detect and correct misconfigurations.
However, IGRP is limited in the number of destinations it can support, and is not well-suited for large or rapidly changing networks.
