Performance Analysis of RIP, OSPF, IGRP and EIGRP Routing Protocols in a Network

In a network topology for forwarding packets various routing protocols are being used. Routers maintain a routing table for successful delivery of the packets from the source node to the correct destined node. The extent of information stored by a router about the network depends on the algorithm it follows. Most of the popular routing algorithms used are RIP, OSPF, IGRP and EIGRP. Here in this paper we are analyzing the performance of these very algorithms on the basis of the cost of delivery, amount of overhead on each router, number of updates needed, failure recovery, delay encountered and resultant throughput of the system. We are trying to find out which protocol suits the best for the network and through a thorough analysis we have tried to find the pros and cons of each protocol.