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Glimpse of HSRP, VRRP and GLBP protocols with difference


Today I am going to talk about the protocol difference between HSRP, VRRP and GLBP. I am sure you guys know about these protocols and the purpose of these protocols. I am taking some glimpse of these protocols and compare with each other so that you guys came to know how they operate in the network.

I will start with the short description of these protocols and then we will go with the table where I will define the function and the behaviour of the protocols accordingly.

Let's start with the HSRP routing protocol, below is the description for HSRP routing protocol.

HSRP- Hot Standby Routing Protocol
HSRP: Cisco propriety Protocol, Multicast address: 224.0.0.2 on UDP port 1985. Whenever an ACL is applied to an HSRP interface, ensure that packets destined to 224.0.0.2 on UDP port 1985 are permitted. 

Now HSRP Version 2 is also in the picture where it uses multicast address 224.0.0.102 with the same features. HSRP address and the destination set to the  MAC address is 0000.0c07.ACxx. 

Let's talk about VRRP and GLBP in short, below is the description for VRRP and GLBP routing protocol. The major difference you will get there in the table defining below.

Fig 1.1- HSRP and VRRP Protocols
VRRP- Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol
VRRP: This protocol is IEEE standard, packets are sent via Multicast address 224.0.0.18 and IP protocol number 112. VRRP address and the destination set to the Ethernet multicast MAC address 01:00: 5E:00:00:12. For more information on VRRP

GLBP- Gateway Load balancing Protocol
GLBP: Cisco propriety Protocol, Multicast address: 224.0.0.102 on UDP port 3222. Some of the facts are 

Fig 1.2- GLBP Protocol

  • GLBP is a Cisco Propriety Protocol
  • GLBP is a load balancing protocol while HSRP and VRRP are not.
  • GLBP supports for IPv6 addressing Scheme as well.
  • Hello messages sent every 3 seconds to the multicast address 224.0.0.102
  • It uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port 3222 (source and destination).
  • Similar to HSRP and VRRP, GLBP default priority is 100.
Above is the basics on HSRP, VRRP and GLBP. Now we will see the difference in the table shown below for your reference. 

Fig-1.3- HSRP vs VRRP Vs GLBP