What is the role of the 'poison reverse' mechanism in RIP?

The 'poison reverse' mechanism in Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is specifically designed to prevent routing loops by facilitating the rapid advertisement of routes that have become unreachable. When a router detects that a route is no longer valid, it sends an update back to the router from which it learned that route, explicitly stating that the hop count is now 16, which RIP interprets as "infinity" or unreachable.

This method ensures that other routers are quickly informed about the route's status change, effectively preventing the distribution of stale routing information. By marking the route as unreachable with a hop count of 16 in the updates, the 'poison reverse' method helps maintain the integrity of the routing tables across the network and contributes to overall network stability by avoiding potential routing loops that could occur if outdated information were propagated.

The function of this mechanism is crucial because it helps ensure routers do not continue to use a route that is no longer valid, thereby promoting efficient routing and collaboration among routers within a RIP environment.