OSPF: Open Shortest Path First Protocol (OSPFv2)

OSPF is an interior gateway protocol used for routing between routers belonging to a single
Autonomous System. OSPF uses link-state technology in which routers send each other
information about the direct connections and links which they have to other routers. Each OSPF
router maintains an identical database describing the Autonomous System's topology. From this
database, a routing table is calculated by constructing a shortest- path tree. OSPF recalculates
routes quickly in the face of topological changes, utilizing a minimum of routing protocol traffic.
OSPF provides support for equal-cost multi-path. An area routing capability is provided,
enabling an additional level of routing protection and a reduction in routing protocol traffic. In
addition, all OSPF routing protocol exchanges are authenticated.

OSPF has been designed expressly for the TCP/IP internet environment, including explicit
support for CIDR and the tagging of externally-derived routing information. OSPF also provides
for the authentication of routing updates, and utilizes IP multicast when sending/receiving the
updates.

OSPF routes IP packets based solely on the destination IP address found in the IP packet header.
IP packets are routed "as is" - they are not encapsulated in any further protocol headers as they
transit the Autonomous System.

OSPF allows sets of networks to be grouped together. Such a grouping is called an area. The
topology of an area is hidden from the rest of the Autonomous System. This information hiding
enables a significant reduction in routing traffic. Also, routing within the area is determined only
by the area's own topology, lending the area protection from bad routing data.

OSPF enables the flexible configuration of IP subnets. Each route distributed by OSPF has a
destination and mask. Two different subnets of the same IP network number may have different
sizes (i.e., different masks). This is commonly referred to as variable length subnetting. A packet
is routed to the best (i.e., longest or most specific) match.

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Protocol Structure - OSPF (Open Shortest Path First version 2)

8 16 32 bit
Version No. Packet Type Packet length
Router ID
Area ID
 Checksum AuType

Authentication (64 bits)

 Version number - Protocol version number (currently 2).

 Packet type - Valid types are as follows:
o 1 : Hello
o 2 : Database Description
o 3 : Link State Request
o 4 : Link State Update
o 5 : Link State Acknowledgment.
 Packet length - The length of the protocol packet in bytes. This length includes the
standard OSPF header.
 Router ID - The router ID of the packet's source. In OSPF, the source and destination of a
routing protocol packet are the two ends of an (potential) adjacency.
 Area ID - identifying the area that this packet belongs to. All OSPF packets are
associated with a single area. Most travel a single hop only.
 Checksum - The standard IP checksum of the entire contents of the packet, starting with
the OSPF packet header but excluding the 64-bit authentication field.
 AuType - Identifies the authentication scheme to be used for the packet.
 Authentication - A 64-bit field for use by the authentication scheme.

RIP and RIP2: Routing Information Protocol

RIP (Routing Information Protocol) is a standard for exchange of routing information among
gateways and hosts. RIP is most useful as an "interior gateway protocol". In a nationwide
network such as the current Internet, there are many routing protocols be used for the whole
network. Rather, the network will be organized as a collection of "autonomous systems". Each
autonomous system will have its own routing technology, which may well be different for
different autonomous systems. The routing protocol used within an autonomous system is
referred to as an interior gateway protocol, or "IGP". A separate protocol is used to interface
among the autonomous systems. The earliest such protocol, still used in the Internet, is "EGP"
(exterior gateway protocol). Such protocols are now usually referred to as inter-AS routing
protocols. Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is designed to work with moderate-size networks
using reasonably homogeneous technology. Thus it is suitable as an Interior Gateway Protocol
(IGP) for many campuses and for regional networks using serial lines whose speeds do not vary
widely. It is not intended for use in more complex environments.

RIP2 derives from RIP, which is an extension of the Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
intended to expand the amount of useful information carried in the RIP messages and to add a
measure of security. RIP2 is an UDP -based protocol.

RIP and RIP2 are for the IPv4 network while the RIPng is designed for the IPv6 network. In the
document, only the details of RIP and RIP2 will be described.
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Protocol Structure - RIP & and RIP2: Routing Information Protocol

8 16 32 bit
Command Version Unused
Address family identifier Route tag (only for RIP2; 0 for RIP)
IP address
Subnet mask (only for RIP2; 0 for RIP)
Next hop (only for RIP2; 0 for RIP)
Metric

 Command -- The command field is used to specify the purpose of the datagram. There
are five commands: Request, Response, Traceon (obsolete), Traceoff (Obsolete) and
Reserved.
 Version -- The RIP version number. The current version is 2.
 Address family identifier -- Indicates what type of address is specified in this particular
entry. This is used because RIP2 may carry routing information for several different
protocols. The address family identifier for IP is 2.
 Route tag -- Attribute assigned to a route which must be preserved and readvertised with
a route. The route tag provides a method of separating internal RIP routes (routes for
networks within the RIP routing domain) from external RIP routes, which may have been
imported from an EGP or another IGP.
 IP address -- The destination IP address.
 Subnet mask -- Value applied to the IP address to yield the non-host portion of the
address. If zero, then no subnet mask has been included for this entry.
 Next hop -- Immediate next hop IP address to which packets to the destination specified
by this route entry should be forwarded.
 Metric -- Represents the total cost of getting a datagram from the host to that destination.
This metric is the sum of the costs associated with the networks that would be traversed
in getting to the destination.