Do routing protocols perform differently on different sized network topoligies?

PikeyMikey

Do OSPF and EIGRP perform differently on different sized network topologies? such as convergence and packet delay.

And does anyone have an information, published or academic that could support their answers?

thanks

WastedHat

According to the offical cert guide EIGRP converges a bit faster than OSPF but I don't have any expierence from a production network.

From the theory it makes sense. When OSPF converges it runs SFP on the Link State Database to calulate the best routes, how long it takes will depend on the size of the topology and how many OSPF areas you have. EIGRP can have 'feasible sucessor' routes ready to take over stright away, if there are no feasible sucessors it runs the DUAL algorithm to calculate the best route. I'm not sure how DUAL vs OSPF compares.

Delay is used in the EIGRP metric but I think it's value is more dependant on other factors like the type of link, load, QoS and less on the routing protocol.