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Routing & Switching · Intermediate

EIGRP Composite Metric

EIGRP's metric calculated from bandwidth and delay by default, with optional load and reliability via K values.

Definition

With default K values (K1=1, K3=1, others 0) the classic metric is 256 x (10^7 / minimum bandwidth in kbps + cumulative delay in tens of microseconds). Minimum bandwidth along the path and cumulative delay are used. MTU is carried but not used in the calculation.

Example

A path with minimum bandwidth 1544 kbps and delay 40,000 microseconds has metric 256 x (6476 + 4000) = 2,681,856.

Exam tip

Change EIGRP paths by modifying delay, not bandwidth, to avoid affecting QoS and other protocols.

Related terms