OSPF

 OSPF stands for Open Shortest Path First

 It is an open standard LSRP
OSPF Neighbors
 A neighbor in OSPF is a Router that
shares the same network link or the same
network segment
OSPF Hello Protocol
 A router running OSPF discovers its
neighbors by sending and receiving a
simple protocol called the hello protocol
 A router configured for OSPF sends out a
small hello packet periodically (10 seconds
is the default on broadcast multi-access
media)
OSPF Hello Protocol
 It has a source address of the router and a
multicast destination address set to
AllSPFRouters (224.0.0.5)
 All routers running OSPF (or the SPF
algorithm) listen to the protocol and send
their own hello packets periodically
OSPF Topologies
 OSPF identifies five distinct network types
or topologies
 Broadcast Multi-access
 Point-to-Point
 Point-to-Multipoint
 NBMA
Broadcast Multi-access
 This is any LAN network
such as Ethernet, Token
Ring, or FDDI
 In this environment,
OSPF sends out
multicast traffic
 A designated router and
backup designated
router will be elected
Point-to-Point
 This technology is used where
there is only one other router
directly connected to the
transmitting or receiving router
 A typical example of this is a
serial line
 OSPF has no need of a
designated or backup
designated router in this
scenario.
 OSPF messaging sent using
the multicast address for
AllSPFRouters, 224.0.0.5
Point-to-Multipoint
 This is a single interface that
connects to multiple
destinations
 The underlying network
treats the network as a series
of point-to-point circuits
 OSPF traffic is sent as
multicast.
 There is no DR or BDR
election
NBMA
 This physically resembles a
point-to-point line, but in
fact, many destinations are
possible
 WAN clouds, including X.25
and Frame Relay, are
examples of this technology
 NBMA uses a fully meshed
or partially meshed network
NBMA
 OSPF sees it as a
broadcast network, and
it will be represented
by one IP subnet
 This technology
requires manual
configuration of the
neighbors and the DR
and BDR selection
The Hello Packet
 Although the routers running OSPF transmit a
small packet called the hello packet to
establish neighbor relations, it serves other
functions
Adjacent OSPF Neighbors
 After neighbors have been established by means of the
Hello protocol, they exchange routing information
 When their topology databases are the same or
synchronized, the neighbors are fully adjacent
 The Hello protocol continues to transmit by default
every 10 seconds on broadcast multi-access media
and by default every 30 seconds on point-to-point links
 The transmitting router and its networks reside in the
topology database for as long as the other routers
receive the Hello protocol
The Designated
 The designated Router
router is a router on broadcast multi-
access media that is responsible for maintaining the
topology table for the segment
 If routers are connected to a broadcast segment, one
router (DR) on the segment is assigned the duty of
maintaining adjacencies with all the routers on the
segment
 It is elected by the use of the Hello protocol
 The election is determined by either the highest IP
address or this command (if it is defined):
ip ospf priority number
 All other routers need only peer with the designated
router, which informs them of any changes on the
segment.
Backup
Designated Router
 Redundancy has been built into the network
with the backup designated router (BDR)
 All routers actually have an adjacency not only
with the designated router, but also with the
backup designated router, which in turn has an
adjacency with the designated router
 If the designated router fails, the backup
designated router immediately becomes the
new designated router
DR / BDR Election
 The network administrator can manually elect the
designated and backup designated routers, or they can
be dynamically selected using the Hello protocol
 After the designated and backup designated routers
have been elected, all routers on the broadcast
medium will communicate directly with the designated
routers
 They will use the multicast address to all designated
routers
 The backup router will listen but will not respond
Manual Election
 To manually determine which router will be the
designated router, it is necessary to set the priority of
the router
 A router interface can have a priority of 0 to 255
 The value of 0 means that the router cannot be a
designated router or backup designated router
 the higher the priority, the more favorable the chances
are of winning the election
 If there is more than one router on the segment with
the same priority level, the election process picks the
router with the highest router ID
Dynamic Election
 The selection is made on the basis of the
highest router ID or IP address present on the
network segment
Dynamic Election
The following is the process used to elect the
designated and backup designated routers:
• All the neighbors who have a priority greater than 0
are listed.
• The neighbor with the highest priority is elected as
the BDR.
• If there is no DR, the BDR is promoted as DR.
• From the remaining routers, the router with the
highest priority is elected as the BDR.
• If there is a tie, the highest router IDs are used.
Building the RT
 After a neighbor is discovered in OSPF, an
adjacency is formed
 Routing tables are built in two different ways.
 When a router joins the Network
 When a change in the Network takes place
When a Router
joins
 When the
a newNetwork
Router is added to a Network, it
builds it routing table by listening to the existing
Routers with complete routing tables
 Every router within an area will have the same
database and will know of every network within
the area
 The routing table built from this database is
unique to the router because the decisions
depend on the individual router’s position
within the area, relative to the remote
destination network
Building RT on
a
 new OSPF
Five packet Router
types are used to build the RT for the first
time:
1. Hello Protocol
Used to find neighbors and to determine DR/BDR
2. Database Descriptor
Used to send summary info to neighbors for topological
database synchronization
3. Link-state Request
Request for a more detailed info, sent when router receives
database descriptor with new information
4. Link-state Update
Works as LSA (Link state Advertisement) packet issued in
response to the above made request
5. Link-state Acknowledgment
Acknowledges the LSA
Building RT on
a new OSPF Router
OSPF STATES
 The different stages or states that the router
goes through with OSPF are:
1. The DOWN state
2. The INIT state
3. The TWO-WAY state
4. The EXSTART state
5. The EXCHANGE state
6. The LOADING state
7. The FULL state
1. DOWN state
 The new router is in a
down state
 The 2500 router
transmits its own hello
packets to introduce itself
to the segment and to
find any other OSPF-
configured routers
 This is sent out as a hello
to the multicast address
224.0.0.5
2. INIT state

 The new router waits for a reply. Typically this is four

times the length of the hello timer. The router is in the
init state
 Within the wait time, the new router hears a hello from
another router and learns the DR and the BDR, if
there is no DR or BDR stated in the incoming hello,
an election takes place
2. INIT state

 Upon hearing the Hello protocol from the 2500,

a router on the segment adds the router ID of
the 2500 and replies as a multicast (224.0.0.5)
with its own ID and a list of any other
neighbors
3. TWO-WAY state

 The new router sees its own router ID in the

list of neighbors, and a neighbor relationship is
established
 The new router changes its status to the two-
way state
4. EXSTART state

 One of the routers will take seniority, becoming the

master router. This is the exstart state
 The two neighbors determine a master/slave
relationship based on highest IP interface address
 This designation is not significant; it just determines who
starts the communication
5. EXCHANGE state

 Both routers will send out database description packets,

changing the state to the exchange state
 The 7200 sends out a series of database description packets
containing the networks held in the topology database
 These networks are referred to as links
6. LOADING state

 If the receiving router, the 2500, requires more information, it will

request that particular link in more detail using the link-state
request packet (LSR)
 The LSR will prompt the master router to send the link-state update
packet (LSU)
 This is the same as a link-state advertisement (LSA) used to flood
the network with routing information
 While the 2500 is awaiting the LSUs from its neighbor, it is in the
loading state
7. FULL state

 When these LSRs are received and the

databases are updated and synchronized, the
neighbors are fully adjacent
The Topology Database
 The topology database is the router’s view of the
network within the area
 It includes every OSPF router within the area and all
the connected networks
 The topology database is updated by the LSAs
 Each router within the area has exactly the same
topology database
 All routers must have the same vision of the network;
otherwise, confusion, routing loops, and loss of
connectivity will result
 The synchronization of the topology maps is ensured
by the intricate use of sequence numbers in the LSA
headers
TT  RT
 From the topology map, a routing database is
constructed
 This database will be unique to each router,
which creates a routing database by running
the shortest path first (SPF) algorithm called
the Dijkstra algorithm
 Each router uses this algorithm to determine
the best path to each network
 If there are equal metrics for a remote network,
OSPF includes all the paths and load balances
the route data traffic among them.
TT  RT
 Occasionally a link may flap or go up and
down. This is more usual on a serial line
 If this happens, it could cause many LSAs to
be generated in updating the network
 To prevent this from happening, OSPF
introduced timers
 These timers forced OSPF to wait before
recalculating SPF
 These timers are configurable
Choosing best paths
 As with any routing protocol, OSPF examines
all the available paths to every network that it
knows about
 It selects the shortest, most direct path to that
destination
The METRIC
 As with all routing protocols, this decision will be based
on the metric used by the routing protocol
 RIP uses hop count, which shows how many routers
must be passed through to get to the destination
 OSPF chooses the metric of cost
 Cisco’s implementation of a dynamic and default cost
uses a predefined value based on the bandwidth of the
router interface
 The cost is applied to the outgoing interface
 The routing process will select the lowest accumulated
cost of the interfaces to the remote network
OSPF Configuration
in a Single Area
router ospf process-number
network network-number wildcard-mask area area-number
 The network command in OSPF plays a similar role to
that of the network command in RIP or IGRP. The
difference is the level of granularity afforded to the
administrator. In RIP and IGRP, the network command
is defined at the class level. In OSPF, it is possible to
identify the specific address of an interface.
 After the network command has been entered, OSPF
identifies which interfaces are participating in OSPF by
comparing the interface IP address with the address
given in the network command, filtered through the
wildcard mask
 The wildcard mask states how much of the address to
pay attention to
The COST Command
 This command manually overrides the default cost that
the router assigns to the interface
 The default cost is calculated based on the bandwidth
parameter assigned to the outgoing interface
 The cost command syntax is as follows:
ip ospf cost cost
 The range of values configurable for the cost of a link is
1 to 65535
 In general, the path cost in Cisco routers is calculated
using the formula 108 / Bandwidth
The COST Command
Show commands for OSPF
show ip ospf— Shows the OSPF process and its details—for example,
how many times the router has recalculated its routing
table.
show ip ospf database— Shows the contents of the topological database.
show ip ospf interface— Gives information on how OSPF has been configured
on each interface
show ip ospf neighbor— Displays all the information about the relationship that
the router has with its neighbors—for example, the
status of communication and whether it is initializing or
transferring DDP packets.
show ip protocols— Enables you to view the IP configuration on the router.
show ip route— Shows detailed information on the networks that the
router is aware of and the preferred paths to those
networks. Also gives the next logical hop as the next
step in the path
OSPF Router Types
 The following list identifies the different OSPF
routers:
 Internal
Router
 Backbone Router
 Area Border Router (ABR)
 Autonomous System Boundary Router (ASBR)
OSPF Router Types