Early Internet Routing (Distance-Vector / RIP-style) – Interactive Demo

Early Internet Routing Demo · Distance-Vector (RIP-style)

Click a node to take it up/down. Click a link to break/restore. Every second, each up node pings its neighbors and broadcasts its table.

Tick: 0

State: —

node up node down link up link down

Routing table · —

Shortest paths (distance in hops, with chosen next hop)

Destination	Hops	Next Hop

Notes

This simulation uses a simple distance-vector algorithm: on each tick nodes (1) ping their neighbors, (2) send their current routing table, and (3) update by relaxing paths received from neighbors (new = neighbor.dist + 1). Tables are rebuilt from scratch each tick based on currently reachable neighbors, so broken links and down nodes age out naturally.

Networking

How does a message get from one computer to another?

Early Internet Routing Demo · Distance-Vector (RIP-style)