RIP unicasting multicasting and broadcasting

Introduction

casting means “sending data to the destination” ” but some terms are used with casting such as unicast, broadcast, and multicast. So when we send the data to a single destination, then we call it unicasting. Similarly, when the sender sends the data to all of the network’s destinations, it is called broadcasting. At the same time, if the sender sends the data in the network to a specific group of people, then it is called multicasting. We will focus in this lab on RIP unicasting multicasting and broadcasting.

RIP Unicasting

Normally, RIP v2 sends updates to the multicast IP address 224.0.0.9, but if you want to convert its updates to unicasting, then you can convert it to unicast through the command. RIP unicasting will not send its updates to the multicast, but it will send it directly to the said neighbor.

RIP Multicasting

Multicasting is a feature in routing protocol, in which the same type of communicating devices meet with each other. RIP protocol also uses this feature and uses a multicast IP address 224.0.0.9. This multicast address communicates each RIP v2 speaking router.

RIP Broadcasting

By default, RIP v1 uses broadcast communication, but you can enable broadcasting on RIP v2 on the interface level. So it will send broadcast instead of multicast. however, RIP v1 doesn’t support multicasting.

Lab Topology for RIP unicasting multicasting and broadcasting

We will use four routers in our lab topology. We will configure this lab topology in GNS3 software.

• Configure all the IP addresses as shown in the diagram.
• Run the RIP v2 protocol on all the routers.
• We will enable unicasting between routers R1 and R2 through the neighbor command.
• Similarly configure broadcasting between R2 and R3.
• The interfaces of R3 and R4 will communicate through the use of Unicasting.
• R1 and R4 are sending updates to each other via the default multicasting address 224.0.0.0.

Check the routing table of R1, R2, R3, and R4.

Check the updates of routers through the debug command. First, check R1 and R2.

Similarly, check the updates on R3 and R4.

RIP v2 sends all the updates only to the multicast address 224.0.0.9. It didn’t use either broadcast or unicast. So, first of all, configure unicasting between R1 and R2. We will configure unicasting in router mode by using the neighbor command.

Now check the sending updates on R1 and R2 through the debug command.

One point must be noted some packets are sent from R1 to R2 via fastethernet 0/0. The R1 sends some packets directly to R2 (1.1.1.2), while some packets have been sent via the 224.0.0.9 IP address. To resolve this issue, we should enable a passive interface on both R1 and R2 fastethernet 0/0.

Now enable passive interfaces on both routers.

We have configured the passive-interface on R1 and R2, so again we are going to check the R1 and R2 updates whether it is sending unicasting or multicasting to each other.

Configure broadcasting between R2 and R3 on interface fastethernet 0/1 on both routers.

Now to verify its configuration, run the debug command on both the routers R2 and R3.

Configure Unicasting between R3 and R4 through the neighbor command.

As RIP v2 runs multicasting by default, so check its update between R1 and R4 through the debug command.