Determining the route metric

Determining the route metric 
9.1.6 Routing protocols use metrics to determine the best route to a destination. The metric is a value that measures the desirability of a route. Some routing protocols use only one factor to calculate a metric. For example, RIP v1 uses hop count as the only factor to determine the metric of a route. Other protocols base their metric on hop count, bandwidth, delay, load, reliability, and cost. 
Each routing algorithm interprets what is best in its own way. The algorithm generates a number, called the metric value, for each path through the network. A lower metric number generally indicates a better path.
Factors such as bandwidth and delay are static because they remain the same for each interface until the router is reconfigured or the network is redesigned. Factors such as load and reliability are dynamic because they are calculated for each interface in real-time by the router.  
The more factors that make up a metric, the greater the flexibility to tailor network operations to meet specific needs. By default, IGRP uses the static factors bandwidth and delay to calculate a metric value. These two factors can be configured manually to control which routes a router chooses. IGRP may also be configured to include the dynamic factors of load and reliability in the metric calculation. By using dynamic factors, IGRP routers can make decisions based on current conditions. If a link becomes heavily loaded or unreliable, IGRP will increase the metric of routes using that link. An alternate route with a lower metric would be used instead.
IGRP calculates the metric by adding the weighted values of different characteristics of the link to the network in question. Here is the formula for calculating the composite metric for IGRP:
Metric = [K1 * Bandwidth + (K2 * Bandwidth)/(256-load) + K3*Delay] * [K5/(reliability + K4)]
The default constant values are K1 = K3 = 1 and K2 = K4 = K5 = 0.
If K5 = 0, the [K5/(reliability + K4)] term is not used. Given the default values for K1 through K5, the composite metric calculation used by IGRP reduces to Metric = Bandwidth + Delay.
The Interactive Media Activity will help students understand route metrics.
The next page explains how a next hop is chosen.