Comparative study of EIGRP and OSPF protocols based on network convergence

Abstract

Dynamic routing protocols are one of the fastest growing routing protocols in networking technologies because of their characteristics such as high throughput, flexibility, low overhead, scalability, easy configuration, bandwidth, and CPU utilization. Albeit convergence time is a critical problem in any of these routing protocols. Convergence time describes summary of the updated, complete, and accurate information of the network. Several studies have investigated EIGRP and OSPF on the internet; however, only a few of these studies have considered link failure and addition of new links using different network scenarios. This research contributes to this area. This comparative study uses a network simulator GNS3 to simulate different network topologies. The results are validated using Cisco hardware equipment in the laboratory. The network topology implemented in this research are star and mesh topology. The results are validated using Cisco hardware equipment in the laboratory. Wireshark is effectively used in capturing and analyzing the packets in the networks. This helps in monitoring accurate time response for the various packets. The results obtained from Wireshark suggest the EIGRP has a higher performance in terms of convergence duration with a link failure or new link added to the network than the OSPF routing protocol. Following this study EIGRP is recommended for most heterogeneous network implementations over OSPF routing protocol.