EIGRP was Cisco proprietary. Is it an open standard protocol now?

[Pankaj Raj]

EIGRP was introduced as Cisco proprietary. Is it an open standard protocol now?

[Reza Sharifi]

No, it is not. No other vendor uses EIGRP but Cisco.

[Richard Burts · Accepted solution]

Reza

That used to be true but it has changed. Cisco has released an IETF draft which describes the protocol and how to use it. So it is now accessible to anyone. See this link for details

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-savage-eigrp-00

At Cisco Live in San Francisco I talked with Peter Paluch and he told me that he has a group of students who are working on writing code that will interoperate with EIGRP. So at this point EIGRP is, in fact, open.

HTH

Rick

[Reza Sharifi]

Rick,

Thanks for that info. I am not sure how far EIGRP is going to go when OSFP has been standard for a long time and is used by almost all the router/switch vendors. So, the question is, can EIGRP run on for example Juniper devices or can EIGRP be integrated into Junos?

Reza

[Richard Burts · Accepted solution]

Reza

Certainly OSPF is well established as a leading standards based Interior Routing Protocol. I am not sure that Cisco intends to necessarily surpass OSPF. And given the competitive environment I doubt that Juniper will invest any resources to develop an EIGRP capability in their software.

But I do believe that there are a couple of things about this that may be significant in what they represent. For one thing there are a lot of devices that get installed in our networks that want to run a routing protocol on the device. Up to this change the choices for routing protocol were pretty much OSPF or RIP. This change will allow some of those vendors to develop EIGRP support and they may have an easier time selling their product into networks that run EIGRP.

For another thing there are organizations that have policy that directs that they should use software that is standard based. I have had a couple of customers who were entirely Cisco shops but that used OSPF because of such policy. The submission of the IETF draft now means that these organizations may be able to use EIGRP.

HTH

Rick

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Disclaimer

The Author of this posting offers the information contained within this posting without consideration and with the reader's understanding that there's no implied or expressed suitability or fitness for any purpose. Information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as rendering professional advice of any kind. Usage of this posting's information is solely at reader's own risk.

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Posting

Rick's last point is correct.  I work in such an environment.  A standards based routing protocol is used so that, in theory, at any time we could use another vendor.  (NB: and this year, it came to pass, we're started to use another vendor.  Interestingly, one of the reasons for adoption of another vendor was Cisco, although they supported OSPF and EIGRP for v6 on the 3560/3750 series, didn't support IS-IS for v6.)

[Pankaj Raj]

Thanks Joseph for your inputs. It really helps..

Regards.......... PR

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Disclaimer

The Author of this posting offers the information contained within this posting without consideration and with the reader's understanding that there's no implied or expressed suitability or fitness for any purpose. Information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as rendering professional advice of any kind. Usage of this posting's information is solely at reader's own risk.

Liability Disclaimer

In no event shall Author be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of use, data or profit) arising out of the use or inability to use the posting's information even if Author has been advised of the possibility of such damage.

Posting

As Rick has noted, Cisco has released EIGRP as a standard.  However, when this was first announced, I discussed this with our on-site Cisco engineer and I recall him telling me not everything that EIGRP does was released publicly.  I.e. Cisco's EIGRP would still offer a little more than what another vendor could offer in their EIGRP version (I don't recall specifics).

[Richard Burts]

Joseph

Thank you for providing an example that demonstrates my point about some organizations requiring protocols that are not proprietary.

It is correct that Cisco did not release all of the features in EIGRP. The one specific example that is mentioned is support for EIGRP stub. I believe that their point is that if someone wants to implement a device that connects in the network and can interoperate with (and learn routes from) Cisco routers then they have released enough detail information to implement that. And that if someone wants to develop a competitive router that there is not enough detail information to do that.

HTH

Rick

[Pankaj Raj]

Hi Rick & Reza,

Thanks for your comments. My doubts are quite clear now. I had seen this update on below link (EIGRP FAQs)

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/ios-nx-os-software/enhanced-interior-gateway-routing-protocol-eigrp/qa_C67-726299.html

Can you plz help me by sharing, if you have any information about any reference documentation from Cisco like URL/RFC#.

Regards.......... PR

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Disclaimer

The Author of this posting offers the information contained within this posting without consideration and with the reader's understanding that there's no implied or expressed suitability or fitness for any purpose. Information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as rendering professional advice of any kind. Usage of this posting's information is solely at reader's own risk.

Liability Disclaimer

In no event shall Author be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of use, data or profit) arising out of the use or inability to use the posting's information even if Author has been advised of the possibility of such damage.

Posting

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-savage-eigrp-02

You might also find this blog entry interesting:

http://packetpushers.net/why-is-cisco-bothering-with-open-eigrp/