OSPF

OSPF (Open Shortest Path First)

OSPF Open Shortest Path First is a link-state routing protocol that was developed in 1991. In 1998, The current version of OSPF for IPv4 is OSPFv2 introduced in RFC 1247 and updated in RFC 2328 by John Moy. In 1999, OSPFv3 for IPv6 was published in RFC 2740.

OSPF was developed as a replacement for the distance vector routing protocol RIP. It operates as a classless routing protocol that uses the concept of areas for network scalability. RFC 2328 defines the OSPF metric as an arbitrary value called cost. The Cisco IOS uses bandwidth as the OSPF cost metric.

OSPF's major advantages over RIP are its fast convergence and its scalability to much larger network implementations.

OSPF has a default administrative distance of 110. As a classless routing protocol, it does not use a Transport layer protocol, as OSPF packets are sent directly over IP.

OSPF Hello Packets

The OSPF Hello packet is used to establish neighbour adjacencies. By default, OSPF Hello packets are sent :

i. Every 10 seconds on multiaccess and point-to-point segments

ii. Every 30 seconds on non-broadcast multiaccess (NBMA) segments (Frame Relay, X.25, ATM).

OSPF Dead Intervals

OSPF dead interval is measured as the period of time an OSPF router will wait before terminating adjacency with a neighbor. The Dead interval is four times the Hello interval, by default.

i. For multiaccess and point-to-point segments, this period is 40 seconds.

ii. For NBMA networks, the Dead interval is 120 seconds.

For routers to become adjacent, their Hello interval, Dead interval, Network types and subnet masks must match.

OSPF Router IDs

The OSPF router ID is used to exclusively identify each router in the OSPF routing domain. Cisco routers derive the router ID based on three criteria and with the following preference:

1. the Use of the IP address configured with the OSPF router ID command.

2. If the router ID is not configured, the router chooses highest IP address of any of its loopback interfaces.

3. If no loopback interfaces are configured, the router chooses highest active IP address of any of its physical interfaces.

OSPF Area IDs

The area ID refers to the OSPF network domain area. An OSPF area is a group of routers that share link-state information. All OSPF routers in the same domain area must have the same link-state information - received from neighbours - in their link-state databases