routing protocol provides a mechanism for routers to share routing informations. such as RIP,IGRP,EIGRP,OSPF

An algorithm that is used by a router to communicate with other routers and determine the best path to forward a packet. Also see IGP, EGP, BGP, OSPF, RIP.

Protocol that allows routers to share their routing tables.

Protocol that accomplishes routing through the implementation of a specific routing algorithm. Examples of routing protocols include IGRP, OSPF, and RIP.

A general term indicating a protocol run between routers and/or route servers in order to exchange information used to allow computation of routes. The result of the routing computation will be one or more forwarding descriptions.

Protocol used by routers to report their status to other routers in the network and to keep their internal tables up to date.

Used by routers to create & maintain routing tables, which provide information on the current state of a network and determine the best path to route packets.  Example routing protocols include RIP and EIGRP.  A routing protocol is associated to a network protocol (IP, IPX, etc).  In general, there are two types of routing protocols; Distance-Vector and Link State.  Routing protocols use "metric" data to determine the best path to a specified network.  Example metrics are hop count, cost, bandwidth, delay, and MTU (Max Transfer Unit).

A protocol that enables routers to communicate with each other. Routing protocols include RIP, IGP, OSPF, EGP, and BGP.