CREST Practitioner Security Analyst (CPSA) 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

In Distance Vector Routing, the distance component specifically represents the hop count to the destination. This method of routing focuses on the number of routers (or hops) that data must pass through to reach its final destination. Each router maintains a table with the distance to each destination, where "distance" is quantified as the count of hops required rather than the time it takes for the packets to travel or the amount of bandwidth available.

The use of hop count as a metric simplifies the routing decisions, making it easier for routers to identify the most efficient path for data as it moves through the network. Ultimately, this system relies on the exchange of information with neighboring routers, whereby each router updates its table based on the routes advertised by its neighbors, continually refining its knowledge of the network topology. This characteristic directly differentiates it from other routing metrics that may consider factors like latency, MTU, or bandwidth.