Distance-vector Routing Protocol

Distance vector routing is one of the two primary routing protocols used for communications in packet-switched networks; the other being link-state protocol. It requires a router to inform it’s neighboring components of changes that occur in the topology of a network. Link-state protocol a requires a router to inform all points in network of any topology changes. Since distance vector routing does have these requirements, it consists of less complexity and message over head. Distance vector routing protocol is essentially based on calculating the specific direction and distance to any point on a network. Updates are frequently performed in distance vector protocol. This occurs where all or portions of a routers routing to table is transmitted to all of it’s neighbors configured to use the same protocol. Once a router has these details, it can amend a routing table of it’s own to reflect changes and inform all neighbors of the occurrence, a process often referred to as “routing by rumor”.