3.3. Timers

This section describes all events that are triggered by timers.

Every 30 seconds, the output process is instructed to generate a complete response to every neighboring gateway. When there are many gateways on a single network, there is a tendency for them to synchronize with each other such that they all issue updates at the same time. This can happen whenever the 30 second timer is affected by the processing load on the system. It is undesirable for the update messages to become synchronized, since it can lead to unnecessary collisions on broadcast networks. Thus, implementations are required to take one of two precautions.

• The 30-second updates are triggered by a clock whose rate is not affected by system load or the time required to service the previous update timer.
• The 30-second timer is offset by addition of a small random time each time it is set.

There are two timers associated with each route, a "timeout" and a "garbage-collection time". Upon expiration of the timeout, the route is no longer valid. However, it is retained in the table for a short time, so that neighbors can be notified that the route has been dropped. Upon expiration of the garbage-collection timer, the route is finally removed from the tables.

The timeout is initialized when a route is established, and any time an update message is received for the route. If 180 seconds elapse from the last time the timeout was initialized, the route is considered to have expired, and the deletion process which we are about to describe is started for it.

Deletions can occur for one of two reasons: (1) the timeout expires, or (2) the metric is set to 16 because of an update received from the current gateway. (See section 3.4.2 for a discussion processing updates from other gateways.) In either case, the following events happen:

• The garbage-collection timer is set for 120 seconds.
• The metric for the route is set to 16 (infinity). This causes the route to be removed from service.
• A flag is set noting that this entry has been changed, and the output process is signalled to trigger a response.

Until the garbage-collection timer expires, the route is included in all updates sent by this host, with a metric of 16 (infinity). When the garbage-collection timer expires, the route is deleted from the tables.

Should a new route to this network be established while the garbage- collection timer is running, the new route will replace the one that is about to be deleted. In this case the garbage-collection timer must be cleared.

See section 3.5 for a discussion of a delay that is required in carrying out triggered updates. Although implementation of that delay will require a timer, it is more natural to discuss it in section 3.5 than here.