Administrative Distance and Metric

Administrative Distance is known as the Believability of the Routing Protocol.Administrative distance will select the best path when there is multiple path to the same destination from the different protocols. The lowest administrative distance route will placed in to the routing table .


Metric is a Calculation done by the Routing protocol to determine the best path through a network. Metrics are only helpful INSIDE a routing protocol's database (called a RIB - Routing Information Base). Each routing protocol has its own election process to figure out the best unique path. Metrics may be all or part of that decision process (depends on the protocol ). The winners get handed to the routing table.

An administrator can change the values ie, AD and MATRIC but it’s not recommended