Routing loop prevention

RIP uses the following mechanisms to prevent routing loops:

• Counting to infinity—A destination with a metric value of 16 is considered unreachable. When a routing loop occurs, the metric value of a route will increment to 16 to avoid endless looping.

• Triggered updates—RIP immediately advertises triggered updates for topology changes to reduce the possibility of routing loops and to speed up convergence.

• Split horizon—Disables RIP from sending routing information on the interface from which the information was learned to prevent routing loops and save bandwidth.

• Poison reverse—Enables RIP to set the metric of routes received from a neighbor to 16 and sends these routes back to the neighbor so the neighbor can delete such information from its routing table to prevent routing loops.