What does RIP stand for in networking contexts?

RIP stands for Routing Information Protocol in networking contexts. It is a distance-vector routing protocol used to help routers share information about network reachability. As routers exchange information about the paths they know, they can determine the best routes to forward packets to their destinations. RIP uses hop count as a routing metric, where each hop between routers counts as one toward the destination, with a maximum limit of 15 hops, beyond which the destination is considered unreachable. This simplicity makes RIP easy to configure and implement in smaller networks, although it is less efficient for larger, more complex networks compared to other protocols like OSPF or EIGRP, which use more advanced metrics for routing decisions.