Network, Networking Technology, Data Communication Terms, Glossary and Dictionary

Hop Count

In networking, the hop count represents the total number of devices a given piece of data (packet) passes through. Generally speaking, the more hops data must traverse to reach their destination, the greater the transmission delay incurred. Hop count is one of routing metric used to measure the distance between a source and a destination. Some routing protocols such as Routing Information Protocol (RIP) use hop count as its sole metric.

Related Terms:

Hop Count