EIGRP Metric

MetricEIGRP={[K1B+K2B256−L+K3D)∗K5R+K4]∗256K5!=0[K1B+K2B256−L+K3D)]∗256K5=0Metric_{EIGRP} =\begin{cases}[\frac{K_1B+K_2B}{256-L}+K3D)*{\frac{K_5}{R+K_4}}]*256 & K_5!=0\\ [\frac{K_1B+K_2B}{256-L}+K3D)]*256 & K_5=0\end{cases} 
MetricEIGRP​={[256−LK1​B+K2​B​+K3D)∗R+K4​K5​​]∗256[256−LK1​B+K2​B​+K3D)]∗256​K5​!=0K5​=0​

you will have to round down to the nearest integer
default K values: (K1,K2,K3,K4,K5) = (1,0,1,0,0)
default EIGRP metric: B+D
remember it as BuiLDeR 20
The EIGRP metric is 256 times larger than IGRP metric.
Metric Components
Bandwidth – B
inverse lowest bandwidth along the path in kbps, scaled by 10^7
Interfaces with bandwidth higher than 10Gbps (10^7 kbps) are considered similar from EIGRP’s metric standpoint (B=1).
B=107min⁡path(Bandwidth[kbps])B = \frac{10^7}{\min_{path}(Bandwidth[kbps])}B=minpath​(Bandwidth[kbps])107​
Load – L
Highest load along the path
Dynamically determined by the router. It has values starting from 1 (no usage) to 255(fully utilized)
L=max⁡path(Load)L = \max_{path}(Load)L=pathmax​(Load)
Delay – D
cumulative delay along the path in 10s of microseconds
EIGRP uses Delay to signal an unreachable route, by using the Delay value of 0xFFFFFF
D=∑path(Delay[10μs]D = \sum_{path}(Delay[10 \mu s]D=path∑​(Delay[10μs]
Reliability – R
Lowest reliability along the path
Dynamically determined by the router as the percentage of successfully received packets on the interface scaled by 255. The maximum value of 255 means 100% reliability.
R=min⁡path(Reliability)R=\min_{path} (Reliability)R=pathmin​(Reliability)
MTU
MTU is used as a tiebreaker if the metric is the same for more paths
Largest MTU wins the tiebreak
MTU=min⁡path(MTUinterface)MTU = \min_{path}(MTU_{interface})MTU=pathmin​(MTUinterface​)
Hop Count
Not used in the actual metric, but the value is passed from router to router
There is a default limit of 100 to the number of hops to a destination, but this can be changed up to 255.
Hopcount=∑path(Hops)Hop_{count}=\sum_{path}(Hops)Hopcount​=path∑​(Hops)
When route information for a destination is received, it also contains the metric parameters used by the advertising router: Bandwidth, Delay, Load, Reliability, MTU. The receiving router compares the received information with the data it has for the incoming interface so it can find the lowest Bandwidth along the path, the highest Load along the path, the sum of Delays along the path, the lowest Reliability along the path and the lowest MTU along the path. Then, it can apply the formula to find the metric value for each path. The router that advertised the best path is considered the Successor, and the metric for that path is known as „Feasible Distance” (FD)
For each destination, the router also applies the formula on the parameters it received from the advertising router to calculate the metric from that router towards the destination. This is known as the Advertised Distance (AD) or Reported Distance (RD).
Using the DUAL algortithm, EIGRP will consider all paths that have a RD<FD as loop free backup paths and will call the routers advertising them Feasable Successors(FS) for the route. The FS will be kept in the topology table and when the route through the successor fails, the router will imediately use the best FS. For all other routes, DUAL will not consider them as backup paths, because they can be part of a routing loop (even if they aren’t actually). The idea is that if RD>FD, then that router is closer to the destination then us and it should route through us. If we use it as our next hop then it could send it back to us resulting in a routing loop.
How to modify metric
Changing metric components
Bandwidth
1
R(config-if)# bandwidth BANDWIDTH
2
! in kbps
Copied!
Delay
1
R(config-if)# delay DELAY
2
! in 10s of usec
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Load and Reliability cannot be changed manually. They are caculated by the router based on a 5 minute average. The values can be seen using:
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R# show interface INTERFACE
2
R3#sh int fa0/0 | i MTU|load
3
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 10000 Kbit, DLY 1000 usec,
4
     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
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Changing K values
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R(config-router)# metric weights TOS K1 K2 K3 K4 K5
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Default values for (K1,K2,K3,K4,K5) is (1,0,1,0,0) and only 0 is supported for TOS. K values must match between neighbors.
Using offset lists
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R(config-router)# offset-list ACL {in|out} OFFSET
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Adds the OFFSET to the metric. It can be used to create multiple equal cost links.
Maximum Hops
Even though EIGRP doesn’t use hop count in it’s metric calculation, it still counts how many hops away is the router that first advertised this network. You can see the hop count value using:
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R1#show ip eigrp topology 4.4.4.0/24
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IP-EIGRP (AS 10): Topology entry for 4.4.4.0/24
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State is Passive, Query origin flag is 1, 1 Successor(s), FD is 2323456
4
Routing Descriptor Blocks:
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24.0.0.2 (Serial1/0), from 24.0.0.2, Send flag is 0x0
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Composite metric is (2323456/409600), Route is Internal
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Vector metric:
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Minimum bandwidth is 1544 Kbit
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Total delay is 26000 microseconds
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Reliability is 255/255
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Load is 1/255
12
Minimum MTU is 1500
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Hop count is 2
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You can invalidate routes that are more than a number of hops away by running:
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R(config-router)# metric maximum-hops HOPS
2
!Default: 100
Copied!
All routes that have a hop-count greater than the maximum-hops, will not be added to the routing table.
Wide metric
Newer IOS implementations support wide metrics, which can differentiate between interfaces higher than 10Gbps. Wide metric uses the following formula:
[pmath size=12]K5!WideMetric_EIGRP = [(K1B+K2B/{256-L}+K3D+K6E)*{K5/{R+K4}}]*65535[/pmath]
MetricEIGRP={[K1T+K2T256−L+K3D+K6E)∗K5R+K4]∗256K5!=0[K1T+K2T256−L+K3D+K6E)]∗256K5=0Metric_{EIGRP} =\begin{cases}[\frac{K_1T+K_2T}{256-L}+K3D+K_6E)*{\frac{K_5}{R+K_4}}]*256 & K_5!=0\\ [\frac{K_1T+K_2T}{256-L}+K3D+K_6E)]*256 & K_5=0\end{cases} MetricEIGRP​={[256−LK1​T+K2​T​+K3D+K6​E)∗R+K4​K5​​]∗256[256−LK1​T+K2​T​+K3D+K6​E)]∗256​K5​!=0K5​=0​
where T = Throughput and E = Extended Attributes. See here for details.
Supporting Wide metric, requires changes in the EIGRP packets to add the additional information. For this reason, a router will send packets for both standard metric and wide metric, so additional bandwidth will be used. If it detects that all neighbors on an interface support wide metrics, then it will only send this version.

EIGRP 101

More EIGRP Features

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Contents

Metric Components

How to modify metric

Changing metric components