Interior Gateway Protocol

What Does Interior Gateway Protocol Mean?

Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) is a dynamic class routing protocol used by autonomous system routers running on TCP/IP hosts.

Techopedia Explains Interior Gateway Protocol

Routers use IGP when exchanging Internet Protocol data. A single adjustable formula combines for route comparison and creates IGP metrics.

The two IGP types are:

Distance-Vector Routing Protocol (DVRP): Uses the Bellman-Ford algorithm. Three core examples are RIP, Interior Gateway Routing Protocol and Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol.
Link State Routing Protocol (LSRP): Each router has access to all network topology data via the routing table. LSRP node transfers are used to construct connectivity maps. Examples include Open Shortest Path First and Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System protocols.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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