What is an administrative distance?
Administrative distance is part of a specific routing methodology for routers created by Cisco Company, a leader in network electronics. The administrative distance has nothing to do with real human administration or remote work. It is part of a special metric to provide the best routing paths for information.
The basic idea of routing consists of two parts. Routers and other equipment will find the best ways for directing information. Then they use these paths to transport "packets" of information.
routing metrics include protocols and algorithms to find the best routing paths. This is where the administrative distance comes. The administrative distance is just one of the few factors used in the Metrice of Cisco routing.
There are different types of routing strategies represented by different protocols within the general routing method. Some of them are "static" or set before transmission. Others who have a larger flexIbility, are known as "dynamic" there are also protocols of host intelligent routing, where routers are only passive sender, and router-intelligent protocols, where routers themselves determine the ways for the flow of information.
When the routers use administrative distance, this measure of relevance and capacity of a particular path creates something that network engineers call "credibility". The believer path is more reliable and is likely to be selected. It will have a low administrative distance value. The router will often be ignored by administrative distances higher than a certain threshold.
In addition to reliability, the router and other administrative units look at the bandwidth, delay and other factors to find the best routes for information. The routing algorithm or protocol is a complex metric that provides a certain kind of "artificial intelligence" that helps engineers human networkcan increase production in a network or system. Therefore, beginning network experts spend a lot of time by knowing these routing protocols up to par.
It is important to understand that administrative distance and other similar aspects of routing are part of the proprietary routing technology of Cisco. Because Cisco is such a strong presence in the world, network engineers will often study the company metrics as part of the General Education Program. Cisco provides much more information about their proprietary technologies on the company's website.