Bay Technical Associates RM356 - Manual (Page 24)

Reference Guide for the Model RM356 Modem Router
1-6 Introduction
Using RIP, routers update one another periodically and check to see if there are any changes to be
added to the routing table. An important consideration is the convergence time, or how long it
takes for a change to the routing topology (such as a new node or a node failure) to be propagated
throughout the entire RIP environment. To prevent this convergence process from being
excessively long, RIP is limited to 15 hops maximum.
The Model RM356 Modem Router supports both the older RIP-1 and the newer RIP-2 protocols.
Among other improvements, RIP-2 supports subnetting and multicasting.
IP Addresses and the Internet
Because TCP/IP networks are interconnected widely across the world, every machine on the
Internet must have a unique address to make sure that transmitted data reaches the correct
destination. Blocks of addresses are assigned to organizations by the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority (IANA). Individual users and small organizations may obtain their addresses either from
the IANA or from an Internet service provider (ISP).
The Internet Protocol (IP) uses a 32-bit address structure. The address is usually written in dot
notation (also called dotted-decimal notation), in which each group of eight bits is written in
decimal form, separated by decimal points. For example, the binary address:
11000011 00100010 00001100 00000111
is normally written as:
195.34.12.7
which is easier to remember and easier to enter into your computer.
In addition, the 32 bits of the address are subdivided into two parts. The first part of the address
identifies the network, and the second part identifies the host node or station on the network. The
dividing point may vary depending on the address range and the application.