Distance Vector is term used to describe routing protocols which are used by routers to forward packets between networks. The purpose of any routing protocol is to dynamically communicate information about all network paths used to reach a destination and to select the from those paths, the best path to reach a destination network. The terms distance vector is used to group routing protocols into two broad categories based on whether the routing protocol selects the best routing path based on a distance metric (the distance), finding the path that has the lowest total metric to reach the destination.