Novell IPX RIP routers send out RIP and SAP
updates every 60 seconds, regardless of whether a network topology change
has occurred. These regular updates can consume a substantial amount of
bandwidth, especially on serial interfaces. You can take advantage of
EIGRP's fast convergence and bandwidth-saving partial updates to
redistribute IPX route and services information. EIGRP has several
capabilities that are designed to facilitate the building of robust Novell
IPX networks, as follows:
- EIGRP supports incremental RIP and SAP updates. EIGRP sends out RIP
and SAP updates only when changes occur, and only sends out the
changed information.
- Ethernet, Token Ring, or FDDI, use periodic SAP updates, by
default. You can reduce SAP update traffic by configuring EIGRP to
send incremental SAP updates.
- Point-to-point interfaces use incremental SAP updates by default,
as shown in the main figure.
- EIGRP IPX networks have a diameter of 224 hops, instead of IPX RIP's
15-hop diameter. This enables connectivity between more distant
devices and allows discovery products (such as management products) to
"see" devices that are further away.
- EIGRP for Novell IPX provides optimal path selection. Unlike Novell
IPX, which uses ticks and hop count to determine the best route, EIGRP
for IPX uses bandwidth and delay to determine the best route to a
destination.
In addition, redistribution of NetWare Link Services Protocol (NLSP) is
automatic starting with Cisco IOS Release 11.1. NLSP is Novell's link
state routing protocol for IPX-based networks. It is quite similar to OSPF.
EIGRP Support for AppleTalk
You can take advantage of EIGRP's advanced features to distribute route
information in AppleTalk networks. The use of event-driven updates saves
bandwidth on all links because it is more efficient than the periodic
announcements used by AppleTalk Routing Table Maintenance Protocol (RTMP).
EIGRP for AppleTalk routers uses a configurable combination metric to
determine the best route to a destination. AppleTalk's RTMP uses hop
count. EIGRP routes are automatically preferred to RTMP routes.
EIGRP for AppleTalk can only be run in a clientless environment because
AppleTalk clients expect RTMP information from a local source.