Alternate simplistic approach to solve count-to-infinity problem by introducing a new flag in the routing table

Abstract

In distance vector routing, each router maintains a vector (table) of least cost route to all other routers. This vector distance algorithm was the original ARPANET routing algorithm and also used in internet with the name routing information protocol (RIP). A distance-vector routing protocol requires that a router inform its neighbours of topology changes periodically. One problem with the distance vector routing protocol is that it can lead the network to instability in case of network or node failures. These problems i) Two loop node instability and ii) Three loop node instability are widely known and also known as count-to-infinity problem collectively. A solution to this problem in RIP is to limit the number of nodes in a network to 15. The proposed mechanism in this paper helps overcome this problem without limiting the number of nodes and does not change the existing RIP format of exchange messages between nodes and thus can easily be introduced in already existent vast networks.