A distance-vector routing (DVR) protocol requires that a router inform its neighbors

of topology changes periodically. Historically known as the old ARPANET routing

algorithm (or known as Bellman-Ford algorithm).
Bellman Ford Basics – Each router maintains a Distance Vector table containing
the distance between itself and ALL possible destination nodes. Distances,based on
a chosen metric, are computed using information from the neighbors’ distance
vectors.

Distance Vector Routing is a dynamic routing algorithm.

It works in the following steps-

Step-01:

Each router prepares its routing table. By their local knowledge. each router knows
about-
• All the routers present in the network
• Distance to its neighbouring routers

Step-02:

• Each router exchanges its distance vector with its neighboring routers.
• Each router prepares a new routing table using the distance vectors it has
obtained from its neighbors.
• This step is repeated for (n-2) times if there are n routers in the network.
• After this, routing tables converge / become stable.

Distance Vector Routing Example-

Consider-
• There is a network consisting of 4 routers.
• The weights are mentioned on the edges.
• Weights could be distances or costs or delays.
Step-01:

Each router prepares its routing table using its local knowledge.
Routing table prepared by each router is shown below-

At Router A-

Destination Distance Next Hop

A 0 A

B 2 B

C ∞ –

D 1 D

At Router B-

Destination Distance Next Hop

A 2 A
 B 0 B

C 3 C

D 7 D

At Router C-

Destination Distance Next Hop

A ∞ –

B 3 B

C 0 C

D 11 D

At Router D-

Destination Distance Next Hop

A 1 A

B 7 B

C 11 C

D 0 D
Step-02:

• Each router exchanges its distance vector obtained in Step-01 with its neighbors.
• After exchanging the distance vectors, each router prepares a new routing table.

This is shown below-

At Router A-

• Router A receives distance vectors from its neighbors B and D.

• Router A prepares a new routing table as-

• Cost of reaching destination B from router A = min { 2+0 , 1+7 } = 2 via B.

• Cost of reaching destination C from router A = min { 2+3 , 1+11 } = 5 via B.
• Cost of reaching destination D from router A = min { 2+7 , 1+0 } = 1 via D.

Explanation For Destination B

• Router A can reach the destination router B via its neighbor B or neighbor D.
• It chooses the path which gives the minimum cost.
• Cost of reaching router B from router A via neighbor B = Cost (A→B) + Cost (B→B)= 2 +
0=2
• Cost of reaching router B from router A via neighbor D = Cost (A→D) + Cost (D→B) = 1
+7=8
• Since the cost is minimum via neighbor B, so router A chooses the path via B.
• It creates an entry (2, B) for destination B in its new routing table.
 • Similarly, we calculate the shortest path distance to each destination router at every
router.

Thus, the new routing table at router A is-

Destination Distance Next Hop

A 0 A

B 2 B

C 5 B

D 1 D

At Router B-

• Router B receives distance vectors from its neighbors A, C and D.

• Router B prepares a new routing table as-

• Cost of reaching destination A from router B = min { 2+0 , 3+∞ , 7+1 } = 2 via A.
• Cost of reaching destination C from router B = min { 2+∞ , 3+0 , 7+11 } = 3 via C.
• Cost of reaching destination D from router B = min { 2+1 , 3+11 , 7+0 } = 3 via A.

Thus, the new routing table at router B is-

 Destination Distance Next Hop

A 2 A

B 0 B

C 3 C

D 3 A

At Router C-

• Router C receives distance vectors from its neighbors B and D.

• Router C prepares a new routing table as-

• Cost of reaching destination A from router C = min { 3+2 , 11+1 } = 5 via B.

• Cost of reaching destination B from router C = min { 3+0 , 11+7 } = 3 via B.
• Cost of reaching destination D from router C = min { 3+7 , 11+0 } = 10 via B.

Thus, the new routing table at router C is-

 Destination Distance Next Hop

A 5 B

B 3 B

C 0 C

D 10 B

At Router D-

• Router D receives distance vectors from its neighbors A, B and C.

• Router D prepares a new routing table as-

• Cost of reaching destination A from router D = min { 1+0 , 7+2 , 11+∞ } = 1 via A.
• Cost of reaching destination B from router D = min { 1+2 , 7+0 , 11+3 } = 3 via A.
• Cost of reaching destination C from router D = min { 1+∞ , 7+3 , 11+0 } = 10 via
B.

Thus, the new routing table at router D is-

Destination Distance Next Hop

 A 1 A

B 3 A

C 10 B

D 0 D

Step-03:

• Each router exchanges its distance vector obtained in Step-02 with its
neighboring routers.
• After exchanging the distance vectors, each router prepares a new routing table.

This is shown below-

At Router A-

• Router A receives distance vectors from its neighbors B and D.

• Router A prepares a new routing table as-

• Cost of reaching destination B from router A = min { 2+0 , 1+3 } = 2 via B.

• Cost of reaching destination C from router A = min { 2+3 , 1+10 } = 5 via B.
• Cost of reaching destination D from router A = min { 2+3 , 1+0 } = 1 via D.
Thus, the new routing table at router A is-

Destination Distance Next Hop

A 0 A

B 2 B

C 5 B

D 1 D

At Router B-

• Router B receives distance vectors from its neighbors A, C and D.

• Router B prepares a new routing table as-

• Cost of reaching destination A from router B = min { 2+0 , 3+5 , 3+1 } = 2 via A.
• Cost of reaching destination C from router B = min { 2+5 , 3+0 , 3+10 } = 3 via C.
• Cost of reaching destination D from router B = min { 2+1 , 3+10 , 3+0 } = 3 via A.

Thus, the new routing table at router B is-

 Destination Distance Next Hop

A 2 A

B 0 B

C 3 C

D 3 A

At Router C-

• Router C receives distance vectors from its neighbors B and D.

• Router C prepares a new routing table as-

• Cost of reaching destination A from router C = min { 3+2 , 10+1 } = 5 via B.

• Cost of reaching destination B from router C = min { 3+0 , 10+3 } = 3 via B.
• Cost of reaching destination D from router C = min { 3+3 , 10+0 } = 6 via B.

Thus, the new routing table at router C is-

Destination Distance Next Hop

 A 5 B

B 3 B

C 0 C

D 6 B

At Router D-

• Router D receives distance vectors from its neighbors A, B and C.

• Router D prepares a new routing table as-

• Cost of reaching destination A from router D = min { 1+0 , 3+2 , 10+5 } = 1 via A.
• Cost of reaching destination B from router D = min { 1+2 , 3+0 , 10+3 } = 3 via A.
• Cost of reaching destination C from router D = min { 1+5 , 3+3 , 10+0 } = 6 via A.

Thus, the new routing table at router D is-

Destination Distance Next Hop

A 1 A

B 3 A
 C 6 A

D 0 D

These will be the final routing tables at each router.

Advantages of Distance Vector routing –

• It is simpler to configure and maintain than link state routing.

Disadvantages of Distance Vector routing –

• It is slower to converge than link state.
• It is at risk from the count-to-infinity problem.
• It creates more traffic than link state since a hop count change must
be propagated to all routers and processed on each router. Hop
count updates take place on a periodic basis, even if there are no
changes in the network topology, so bandwidth-wasting broadcasts
still occur.
• For larger networks, distance vector routing results in larger routing
tables than link state since each router must know about all other
routers. This can also lead to congestion on WAN links.
Note – Distance Vector routing uses UDP(User datagram protocol) for
transportation.