Which type of routing protocol transmits the entire routing table to neighboring routers?

The type of routing protocol that transmits the entire routing table to neighboring routers is the distance vector protocol. In distance vector protocols, routers share their entire routing table with direct neighbors at regular intervals or upon significant changes in the network. This means each router tells its neighbors not only the best path to a destination but also the entire list of reachable networks and the cost values associated with each one.

This operation is inherent to how distance vector protocols function, as they operate based on the concept of sharing the "distance" to various destinations and the "vector" of the paths taken to reach those destinations. Because routers send their entire routing table, they can establish coherent views of the network topology among neighbors, which allows each router to compute the best paths based on this information.

In contrast, link-state protocols operate differently by sending only updates about changes in the state of links, rather than the complete routing table, promoting a more efficient updates process. Path vector protocols are designed for scenarios where routing decisions depend on the complete path rather than just the distance, typically used in inter-domain routing. Hybrid protocols, as the name implies, utilize features of both distance vector and link-state protocols but do not transmit the entire routing table in the same manner as distance vector protocols do