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Administrative Distance (AD) represents the reliability of a routing protocol in networking. It is a value assigned to different routing protocols that indicates how trustworthy or preferable they are when multiple routes to a destination exist. Essentially, AD helps routers decide which routing protocol to trust more when determining the best path for forwarding packets.

Each routing protocol is given a specific AD value, where a lower value signifies a higher trust level. For example, directly connected networks have an AD of 0, while static routes typically have an AD of 1. Well-known routing protocols such as OSPF and EIGRP are assigned specific ADs (typically 110 and 20, respectively). When a router receives routes from multiple protocols, it chooses the route with the lowest AD, reflecting the protocol's perceived reliability and accuracy.

The other options do not pertain to the concept of Administrative Distance. Speed of packet delivery relates to latency and bandwidth, not reliability. The amount of data processed and packet size limitations concern data throughput and network capacity, which are separate from the determination of route preference based on reliability.