Hello,
with a distance vector problem like RIP an effect could occur called counting to infinity (explained in http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1058.txt)
To overcome this effect an upper metric limit has to be defined.
The higher this limit is the longer a potential routing loop would last. On the other hand one has to allow for a metric which will enable IP routing in a "normal" network.
With RIP the upper limit was set to 15 hops, as explained in RFC 1038:
"The protocol is limited to networks whose longest path involves 15 hops. The designers believe that the basic protocol design is inappropriate for larger networks. Note that this statement of the limit assumes that a cost of 1 is used for each network. This is the way RIP is normally configured. If the system administrator chooses to use larger costs, the upper bound of 15 can easily become a problem."
Hope this helps! Please rate all posts
Martin
