RIP Metric
Calculate the RIP hop-count metric for a route and check it against the maximum hop limit.
About RIP Metric
RIP (Routing Information Protocol) is a distance-vector protocol that uses a simple hop count as its only metric — every router along a path adds 1 to the metric regardless of the link's actual bandwidth or delay, so a path through three routers has a metric of 3. RIP defines 15 hops as the maximum usable distance and reserves the value 16 to mean 'infinity,' i.e. unreachable; this deliberately small diameter limits RIP to small networks, since any destination more than 15 routers away cannot be represented.
Formula
RIP metric
metric = hop_count (0-15 reachable, 16 = unreachable)
- h
- Number of router hops along the path
Worked example
With the default values below, RIP Metric returns RIP Metric (Hop Count) of 4. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Number of Hopsaccepts 0–16
- 4
Results
- RIP Metric (Hop Count)
- 4
- Status
- Reachable
- Hops Remaining Before Unreachable
- 11
- Reachable via RIP?
- Yes
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2RIP metric
- 3RIP Metric (Hop Count)= 4
- 4Status= Reachable
- 5Hops Remaining Before Unreachable= 11
- 6Reachable via RIP?= Yes
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the single input listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to whole numbers, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does RIP cap out at 15 hops?
RIP's metric field was designed to be small and simple, using a value of 16 to represent infinity/unreachable in a distance-vector protocol that needed a finite way to signal a destination is unreachable. This design choice deliberately limits RIP's usable network diameter to 15 hops, making it suitable only for small networks — larger networks need OSPF, EIGRP, or BGP.
Does RIP consider link speed or delay when computing its metric?
No — RIP (versions 1 and 2) only counts hops, treating a slow 10 Mbps link and a fast 100 Gbps link identically as long as both add 1 to the path metric. This is a key limitation compared to link-state protocols like OSPF, which factor in bandwidth via interface cost.
What happens when a route's hop count reaches 16?
A metric of 16 signals the destination is unreachable via that path (RIP's version of 'infinity'), which routers use to detect and remove failed or looped routes — RIP relies on this along with techniques like split horizon and route poisoning to converge after a topology change, though convergence is notably slower than link-state protocols.