This metric is configured by a network administrator to reflect more- or less-preferred routes. Cost may
be defined by any policy or link characteristic or may reflect the arbitrary judgment of the network
administrator.
The term cost is often used as a generic term when speaking of route choices. For example, "RIP chooses
the lowest-cost path based on hop count." Another generic term is shortest, as in "RIP chooses the
shortest path based on hop count." When used in this context, either low est-cost (or highest-cost) and
shortest (or longest) merely refer to a routing protocol's view of paths based on its specific metrics.