RIP and OSPF, which layer?

i was having a debate with someone about rip and ospf and what layer of the OSI they live in. My argument was that they are likely to be layer 3 network protocols because of the fact they enable routing using logical addresses. My friend says they are application protocols because the user interacts with them. I can kinda see his point. We tried looking at various sources for help to settle this but it seems very unclear.

Can anyone help please?

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Comments

MattMcNabb

networker050184 wrote: »

No, you are understanding correctly, but just because a router uses it instead of a person does it mean its not an application? The purpose of RIP or BGP is to transfer routing information between routers. Same as transferring a file. Seems like an application to me.

Just about all protocols in all layers can be configured in some way - that does not make them layer 7 protocols. Remember that applications do not work in the OSI model at all, application layer protocols do. Your web browser is an application, but http is the application layer protocol that interfaces with it.

And regarding RIP, most material states it live in layer 3 but I see it as a layer 2 protocol. It simply transfers routing table info between direct connections (hops) one by one until the routing tables match. Is there really any knowledge of IP addresses here?

Gngogh

I dont know how RIP or OSPF works in detail... I did learn recently that OSPF does not use any TCP or UDP protocols. it works at the ip level using protocol 89.

theodoxa

Personally, I would consider them Layer 7. Though, if Cisco says Layer 3, that is what I would use on the test. Routing Protocols do not route anything. They simply do the legwork to make sure all the routers know how to route any given packet, much like how DNS does not get you to a web page, it only tells you what IP Address to use to get to the web server that hosts that web page.

greenerek

hehehe, good discussion, I think layer3

Ammar Ameer

Hi guys , See in cisco packet tracer simulation mode that RIP data is an application layer protocol data .But that does some configuration on layer 3 .If you dont have RIP you have to configure OSI layer 3 manually .That way "an application from OSI layer 7 does the job for the user , this case the engineer" .So the output of the RIP is layer 3 .If you think that way RIP belongs to layer 3 .But the actual functionality of RIP is in layer 7 .Believing the layer where the protocol function is ,the layer it belongs to .That way RIP is layer 7 stuff .
Hope your rply