6.1 EIGRP Concepts
6.1.3 EIGRP support for Novell IPX RIP and SAP
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.