EIGRP request packets

[ngotunhien]

Good day everyone,

Could I ask why does EIGRP request packets are transmitted unreliably?

Thanks,

Steven.

[Deepak Kumar]

Hi,

I know all the different EIGRP packets:

Hello
Update
Query
Reply
ACK (Acknowledgement).

There is no request packet. Can you explain bit more?

Regards,

Deepak Kumar 

[Peter Paluch · Accepted solution]

Hi Steven, hi Deepak,

The EIGRP Request packet type can still be seen mentioned in the debug eigrp packet output:

Router#debug eigrp packets ?
  <1-99>       Access list
  <1300-1999>  Access list (expanded range)
  SIAquery     EIGRP SIA-Query packets
  SIAreply     EIGRP SIA-Reply packets
  ack          EIGRP ack packets
  all          Display all EIGRP packets
  hello        EIGRP hello packets
  query        EIGRP query packets
  reply        EIGRP reply packets
  request      EIGRP request packets
  retry        EIGRP retransmissions
  stub         EIGRP stub packets
  terse        Display all EIGRP packets except Hellos
  update       EIGRP update packets
  <cr>

Original EIGRP's specification planned to use this packet type as a means to allow one neighbor to ask the other neighbor to send a particular set of routes back. Other routing protocols such as RIP also had a Request packet type with a similar purpose. This would also have allowed EIGRP to have a certain kind of route server functionality.

However, to my best knowledge, the Request packet type in EIGRP has never been really used, and you won't see it being transmitted between EIGRP routers.

Best regards,
Peter

[Deepak Kumar]

Hi,

Thanks for this helpful reply. I have never used this massage in troubleshooting session and study as well. 

Regards,

Deepak Kumar

[ngotunhien]

Thank you very much for your explanation. It helps me for good understanding now.

Best regards,

Steven.