CCNA 200-301 Volume I

Chapter 19
Understanding OSPF Concepts
Objectives
• Comparing Dynamic Routing Protocol Features

• OSPF Concepts and Operation

• OSPF Areas and LSAs

Comparing Dynamic Routing Protocol
Features

• Routing protocol: A set of messages, rules, and algorithms used by routers

for the overall purpose of learning routes. This process includes the
exchange and analysis of routing information. Each router chooses the best
route to each subnet (path selection) and finally places those best routes in
its IP routing table. Examples include RIP, EIGRP, OSPF, and BGP.

• Routed protocol and routable protocol: Both terms refer to a protocol that
defines a packet structure and logical addressing, allowing routers to
forward or route the packets. Routers forward packets defined by routed
and routable protocols. Examples include IP Version 4 (IPv4) and IP
Version 6 (IPv6).
 Routing Protocol Functions
1. Learn routing information about IP subnets from neighboring routers.

2. Advertise routing information about IP subnets to neighboring routers.

3. If more than one possible route exists to reach one subnet, pick the best
route based on a metric.

4. If the network topology changes—for example, a link fails—react by

advertising that some routes have failed and pick a new currently best
route. (This process is called convergence.)
Routing Protocol Functions
 Interior and Exterior Routing
Protocols
• There are two major categories of IP routing protocols:

▫ IGP: A routing protocol that was designed and intended for use inside a single autonomous
system (AS)

▫ EGP: A routing protocol that was designed and intended for use between different
autonomous systems

• An Autonomous System (AS) is a network under the administrative control

of a single organization.

• Some routing protocols work best inside a single AS by design, these are
called IGPs

• Other routing protocols work best between ASs by design, these are called
EGPs
Comparing Locations for Using IGPs
and EGPs
 IGP Routing Protocol Algorithms
• There are three main branches of routing protocol algorithms:

▫ Distance vector (sometimes called Bellman-Ford after its creators)

▫ Advanced distance vector (sometimes called “balanced hybrid”)

▫ Link-state

• Distance vector protocols were invented first (RIP and IGRP).

• Link state protocols (OSPF and IS-IS) and advanced distance vector
protocols (EIGRP) came later.
 IGP Routing Protocol Metrics
• Routing protocols choose the best route to reach a subnet by choosing the
route with the lowest metric.
 IGP Routing Protocol Algorithms

• This example shows why OSPF/EIGRP surpassed RIP; it shows Router B

with two possible routes to subnet 10.1.1.0:

▫ A shorter route over a very slow 64-Kbps link

▫ A longer route over two higher-speed (T1) links

• With EIGRP selecting the better choice even though it goes through
multiple routers.
 Other IGP Comparisons
Feature RIPv1 RIPv2 EIGRP OSPF IS-IS

Classless/sends mask in updates/supports No Yes Yes Yes Yes

VLSM

Algorithm (DV, advanced DV, Link State) DV DV adv. DV LS LS

Supports manual summarization No Yes Yes Yes Yes

Cisco-proprietary No No Yes No No

Routing updates are sent to a multicast IP No Yes Yes Yes --

address

Convergence Slow Slow Fast Fast Fast

 Administrative Distance
• When two different routing protocols learn routes to the same subnet, IOS cannot
compare the metrics.

• When IOS must choose between routes learned using different routing protocols it
uses a concept called administrative distance.

• Administrative distance is a number that denotes how believable an entire routing

protocol is, on a single router.
 Administrative Distance
Route Type Administrative Distance
Connected 0
Static 1
BGP (External routes) 20
EIGRP (Internal routes) 90
IGRP 100
OSPF 110
IS-IS 110
RIP 120
EIGRP (External routes) 170
BGP (Internal routes) 200
DHCP default route 254
Unusable 255
 OSPF Overview
• Link State protocols build IP routes with a couple of major steps:

▫ The routers learn a lot of information about the network (Routers, links, IP addresses, status
information, etc.)

▫ The routers then flood this information so that all routers know the same information.

▫ Each router can then calculate routes to all subnets from their own perspectives.
 Topology Information and LSAs

• OSPF organizes topology information using LSAs and the link-state

database (LSDB).

• Each LSA is a data structure with some specific information about the
network topology.

• The LSDB is a collection of all the LSAs known to a router.

 Topology Information and LSAs

• The flooding process has a way to prevent loops so that the LSAs do not get
flooded around in circles:

▫ Before sending an LSA to yet another neighbor, routers communicate which LSAs they already have.

▫ Only LSAs that are not known are flooded.

• Routers reflood LSA information based on the LSAs separate aging timer
(default 30 minutes).
 Applying Dijkstra Math to Find the
Best Routes
• To build routes, link state routes have to do some math based on the
topological information found in the LSDB.

• All link state protocols use a math algorithm called Dijkstra Shortest Path
First (SPF) to process the LSDB.

• The algorithm analyzes the LSDB and builds the routes that the local route
will add to the IP routing table.
 Becoming OSPF Neighbors
• OSPF neighbors are routers that both use OSPF and both sit on the same
data link.

• OSPF routers introduce themselves by sending Hello messages.

• Assuming the two neighbors have compatible OSPF parameters, the two
will form a neighbor relationship.

• The OSPF neighbor relationship lets OSPF know when a neighbor might
not be a good option for routing packets.

• The OSPF neighbor model allows new routers to be dynamically discovered.

 Meeting Neighbors and Learning
Their Router-ID
• When OSPF exchanges Hello messages they list each router’s router-id
(RID).

• This RID serves as each router’s unique name or identifier for OSPF.

• OSPF RIDs are 32-bit numbers.

• IOS chooses its OSPF RID based on an active interface IPv4 address.

• The OSPF RID can also be directly configured.

• As soon as a router has chosen its OSPF RIS and some interfaces come up,
the router is ready to meet its OSPF neighbors.
 Meeting Neighbors and Learning
Their Router-ID

• To discover other OSPF-speaking routers, a router sends multicast OSPF

Hello packets to each interface and hopes to receive OSPF hello packets
from other routers connected to those interfaces.
 Meeting Neighbors and Learning
Their Router-ID
• The Hello message follows the IP packet header, with IP protocol type 89.

• Hello packets are sent to multicast IP address 224.0.0.5, a multicast IP

address intended for all OSPF-speaking routers.

• OSPF routers listen for packets sent to IP multicast address 224.0.0.5, in

part hoping to receive Hello packets and learn about new neighbors.
 Early Neighbor States

• The 2-way state is a particularly important OSPF state, when in this state
the following statements are true:
▫ The router received a Hello from the neighbor, with that router’s own RID listed as being seen
by the neighbor.

▫ The router has checked all the parameters in the Hello received from the neighbor, with no
problems. The router is willing to become a neighbor.

▫ If both routers reach a 2-way state with each other, it means that both routers meet all OSPF
configuration requirements to become neighbors. Effectively, at that point, they are
neighbors, and ready to exchange their LSDB with each other.
Fully Exchanging LSAs with Neighbors
• After two routers decide to exchange databases, they do not simply send the
contents of their entire database:

▫ They tell each other a list of LSAs that are in their respective databases,

▫ Each router checks to see which LSAs it already has,

▫ Each router then requests only those LSAs that it does not know about yet,

• OSPF messages that actually send the LSAs between neighbors are called
Link-State Update (LSU) packets.

• Each LSU packet holds data structures called Link State Advertisements
(LSA).
 OSPF Database Exchange

• When finished, the routers reach a full state, meaning they have fully
exchanged the contents of their LSDBs
 Maintaining Neighbors and the LSDB
• Once two neighbors reach a full state, they have done all the initial work to
exchange OSPF information.

• Neighbors still have to do some small ongoing tasks to maintain their

neighbor relationship:

▫ Routers monitor each neighbor relationship using Hello messages and two related timers:
Hello Interval and Dead Interval.

▫ Routers send and expect to receive a Hello message from each neighbor based on the Hello
interval.

▫ If a neighbor is silent for the length of the Dead Interval, the router assumes the neighbor has
failed.

▫ Routers must also be able to react when the topology changes.

 OSPF Maintenance Task Summary

• Maintain neighbor state by sending Hello messages based on the Hello

Interval, and listening for Hellos before the Dead Interval expires.

• Flood any changed LSAs to each neighbor.

• Reflood unchanged LSAs as their lifetime expires (default 30 minutes).

 Designated Routers on Ethernet Links

• On Ethernet links, OSPF elects one of the routers on the same subnet to act
as the designated router (DR).

• The DR plays a key role in how the database exchange process works.
Designated Routers on Ethernet Links

• The database exchange process on an Ethernet link does not happen

between every pair of routers on the same VLAN/subnet.

• The database exchange happens between the DR and each of the other
routers.

• The backup designated router (BDR) watches the status of the DR and
takes over for the DR if it fails.

• The DR and BDR both do full database exchanges with all other routers on
the LAN, they both reach a full state with all neighbors.
Stable OSPF Neighbor States and
Their Meanings
 Calculating the Best Routes with SPF

• Once SPF has identified a route, OSPF calculates the metric for a route as
follows:
▫ The sum of the OSPF interface costs for all outgoing interfaces in the route.
 OSPF Area Design

• Larger OSPFv2 networks suffer when using a single area design:

▫ A larger topology database requires more memory on each router.

▫ Processing the larger topology database with the SPF algorithm requires processing power
that grows exponentially with the size of the topology database.

▫ A single interface status change, anywhere in the internetwork (up to down, or down to up),
forces every router to run SPF again!
 OSPF Area Design

• The solution is to take one large LSDB and break it into several smaller
LSDBs by using OSPF areas.

• With areas each link is placed into one area.

• SPF does its complicated match on the topology inside the areas and that
area’s topology alone.

• Generally, networks larger then a few dozen routers benefit from areas.
 OSPF Areas
• OSPF area design follows a couple of basic rules:

▫ Put all interfaces connected to the same subnet inside the same area.

▫ An area should be contiguous.

▫ Some routers may be internal to an area, with all interfaces assigned to that single area.

▫ Some routers may be Area Border Routers (ABR), because some interfaces connect to the
backbone area, and some connect to nonbackbone areas.

▫ All nonbackbone areas must connect to the backbone area (area 0) by having at least one ABR
connected to both the backbone area and the nonbackbone area.
OSPF Areas
 OSPF Design Terminology
Term Description

Area Border An OSPF router with interfaces connected to the backbone area
Router (ABR) and to at least one other area
Backbone A router connected to the backbone area (includes ABRs)
Router
Internal Router A router in one area (not the backbone area)

Area A set of routers and links that share the same detailed LSDB
information, but not with routers in other areas, for better
efficiency
Backbone Area A special OSPF area to which all other areas must connect—area
0
Intra-area route A route to a subnet inside the same area as the router

Inter-area route A route to a subnet in an area of which the router is not a part
 How Areas Reduce SPF Calculation
Time
• SPF spends most of the its processing time working through all the topology
details.

• Areas reduce this workload because the LSDB only lists those routers and links
inside that area.

• While the LSDB has less topology information, it still has to have information
about all subnets in all areas.

• OSPF uses very brief summary information about the subnets to other areas.

• These LSAs do not include topology information about the other areas.
How Areas Reduce SPF Calculation
Time
OSPF Area Design Advantages
• The smaller per-area LSDB requires less memory.

• Routers require fewer CPU cycles to process the smaller per-area LSDB
with the SPF algorithm, reducing CPU overhead and improving
convergence time.

• Changes in the network (for example, links failing and recovering) require
SPF calculations only on routers connected to the area where the link
changed state, reducing the number of routers that must rerun SPF.

• Less information must be advertised between areas, reducing the

bandwidth required to send LSAs.
Enterprise Network with Seven IPv4
Subnets
Type 1 LSAs, Assuming a Single-Area
Design
Type 1 and Type 2 LSAs in Area 0,
Assuming a Single-Area Design