ENHANCED ROUTE VALIDATION MECHANISM TO MITIGATE THREE-NODE INSTABILITY IN ROUTING INFORMATION PROTOCOL

Abstract

The three-node instability problem of the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is examined in this study as one of the manifestations of the count-to-infinity problem in distance vector routing protocol, which is crucial in this context. Although the split-horizon as well as the poison reverse are effective in the case of two node instability causes by the loops, they do not stop routing loops in case of three nodes and thus delay convergence and deteriorate the performance of the network. In order to counter this shortcoming, the solution of verification is suggested, according to which routers verify alternative routes with the original source before accepting them. This helps to avoid the spread of the outdated or misleading updates and provides stable routing decisions. The method proposed is demonstrated with the help of a detailed example based on Forouzan Data Communications and Networking with the flowcharts, pseudo-code, and graphical simulation. After comparative analysis, it can be seen that, verification-based method has a higher convergence rate, ensures that loops are avoided, and is more stable than simple distance vector routing and split horizon with poison reverse. The results identify the efficiency and feasibility of the presented solution, and further effort recommends the expansion of the mechanism to bigger topologies, incorporation of the newest protocols and the use of intelligent algorithms to enable proactive loop recognition.