CREST Practitioner Security Analyst (CPSA) Practice

Which protocol is characterized by a greater complexity in its routing decisions?

1. Link State Routing

2. Distance Vector Routing

3. Hybrid Routing

4. IGP

The correct answer is: Link State Routing

Link State Routing is characterized by a greater complexity in its routing decisions due to the way it operates. In this protocol, each router maintains a complete view of the network topology by exchanging information with all other routers in the network. This is accomplished through link state advertisements (LSAs), which contain information about a router's links and the state of those links. As a result, each router independently calculates the shortest path to every other router using algorithms like Dijkstra's algorithm. The complexity arises from the necessity of maintaining and processing all this routing information, which requires more computational resources and memory compared to simpler protocols. Unlike Distance Vector Routing, where routers only need to know the distance to their neighbors and not the entire network, Link State Routing requires knowledge of the complete network topology to make informed routing decisions. This complexity supports improved scalability and faster convergence times but demands more complexity in routing algorithms and resource utilization. In contrast, Distance Vector Routing relies on simpler decision-making processes based primarily on the distances to neighbor routers, making it less complex. Hybrid Routing combines aspects of both approaches but doesn't inherently introduce the same level of complexity as Link State. IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol) is a broader category that includes multiple routing protocols, and its complexity can vary depending on the