Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)

C.M. Caringal, A.R. Ebreo, M.F.T. Marfa, D.J.S. Masangcay, A.J.H. Miranda

Students, Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering, Batangas State University

cherrielyn_caringal14@yahoo.com, ebreoangelika32@gmail.com, markmarfa90@gmail.com

djhay970@gmail.com, anne.jeline.miranda@gmail.com

April 6, 2019

Abstract

This paper defines the principles of Open Shortest Path First (OSPF). The OSPF is a link state protocol
that handles routing for IP traffic. Version 2 of OSPF, which is explained in RFC 2328, is an open standard, such
as RIP v1 and v2. This paper draws heavily on the concepts of OSPF. Besides the characteristics of OSPF,
information to undertake a basic routing configuration will be presented here.

I. Objectives significant advantages over RIP in that it offers

1. Describe the background and basic
features of OSPF
2. Identify and apply the basic OSPF
configuration commands
3. Describe, modify and calculate the
metric used by OSPF
4. Describe the Designated
Router/Backup Designated Router
(DR/BDR) election process in
multiaccess networks
5. Describe the uses of additional
configuration commands in OSPF
6. How do CISCO IOS routers achieve
convergence in an OSPF network?
7. How does OSPF use cost to determine
best path?
8. What are the similarities and
differences between OSPFv2 and
OSPFv3?
II. Introduction
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a link-state
routing protocol that was developed as a
replacement for the distance vector routing
protocol, RIP. RIP was an acceptable routing
protocol in the early days of networking and the
Internet. However, RIP’s reliance on hop count
as the only metric for determining best route
quickly became problematic. Using hop count
does not scale well in larger networks with
multiple paths of varying speeds. OSPF has
faster convergence and scales to much larger
network implementations.
III. Review of Related Literature
 Redundancy - is an important part of
hierarchical design for preventing
disruption of network services to users.
Redundant networks require adding
physical paths, but logical redundancy
must also be part of the design.
 Layer 2 Switching Loop - When
switches are interconnected
for redundancy
 Protocol – It categorized the nearest
open system interconnection (OSI
model layers). This protocol are
originally based on the internet
suite(TCP/IP) and other models.
 Broadcast Storms-When switches are
interconnected for redundancy as
shown above, a broadcast originating
from a device connected to any switch,
can cause the circulation of broadcasts
around the network and can saturate the
network consuming all available
bandwidth.
 Root bridge (switch) - is a special
bridge at the top of the Spanning Tree
(inverted tree)
 Spanning Tree Path Cost value - can be
defined as the accumulated port costs
 from a Switch (other than the Root
Bridge (Switch)) to reach the Root
Switch. When a switch receives
a Bridge Protocol Data Unit (BPDU) in
its port, it increments the path cost with
the cost of the incoming port.
 Root Port - is a single selected port on
a Switch, other than Root Switch, with
least Path Cost to reach the Root
Bridge.
 Designated Port - is the port that has the
lowest Spanning Tree Path Cost on a
particular Local Area Network (LAN)
segment.
IV. Discussion
4.1 OSPF
 Evolution of OSPF
 The initial development of OSPF began
in 1987 by the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF) OSPF Working
Group. At that time, the Internet was
largely an academic and research
networkfunded by the U.S.
government.
 In 1989, the specification for OSPFvl
was published in RFC 1131. Two
implementations were written.One
implementation was developed to run
on routers and the other to run on UNIX
workstations. The latter
implementation became a widespread
UNIX process known as GATED.
OSPFv1 was an experimental routing
protocol and was never deployed.
 In 1991, OSPFv2 was introduced in
RFC 1247 by John Moy. OSPFv2
offered significant technical
improvements over OSPFv1. It is
classless by design; therefore, it
supports VLSM and CIDR. At the
same time the OSPF was introduced,
ISO was working on a link-state
routing protocol of itsown,
Intermediate System-to-Intermediate
System (IS-IS). IETF chose OSPF as
its recommended Interior Gateway
Protocol (IGP).
 In 1998, the OSPFv2 specification was
updated in RFC 2328, which remains
the current RFC for OSPF.
 In 1999, OSPFv3 for IPv6 was
published in RFC 2740. OSPF for IPv6,
created by John Moy, Rob Coltun, and
Dennis Ferguson, is not only a new
protocol implementation for IPv6, but
also a major rewrite of the operation of
the protocol.
 In 2008, OSPFv3 was updated in RFC
5340 as OSPF for IPv6.
 Features of OSPF
■ Classless: It is classless by design; therefore,
it supports VLSM and CIDR.
■ Efficient: Routing changes trigger routing
updates (no periodic updates). It uses the SPF
algorithm to choose the best path.
■ Fast convergence: It quickly propagates
network changes.
■ Scalable: It works well in small and large
network sizes. Routers can be grouped into
areas to support a hierarchical system.
■ Secure: It supports Message Digest 5 (MD5)
authentication. When enabled, OSPF routers
accept only encrypted routing updates from
peers with the same preshared password.
Administrative distance (AD) is the
trustworthiness (or preference) of the route
source.
OSPF has a default administrative distance of
110. Because of this, OSPF is preferred over
ISIS
(AD 115) and RIP (AD 120).
 Components of OSPF
OSPF creates and maintains three databases:
 1. Adjacency Database- creates
neighbor table.
2. Link-State Database- creates
topology table
3. Forwarding Database-Creates the
routing table.
the enabled interfaces to determine if
neighbors are present on those links. If
the a neighbor is present, the OSPF-
enabled router attempts to establish a

neighbor adjacency with that neighbor.

4.2 Routing Protocol Messages
OSPF exchanges messages to convey routing
information using five types of packets. These 2. Exchange Link-State Advertisements
packets are: (Figure 8-3). After adjacencies are
established, routers then exchange
1. Hello Packet
link-state advertisements (LSA). LSAs
2. Database description packet
contain the state and cost of each
3. Link-state request packet
directly connected link. Routers flood
4. Link-state update packet
their LSAs to adjacent neighbors.
5. Link-state acknowledgement packet
Adjacent neighbors receiving the LSA
They will be further discuss later. immediately flood the LSA to other
directly connected neighbors, until all
4.3 Algorithm routers in the area have all LSAs.
The CPU processes the neighbor and topology
tables using Dijkstra’s SPF algorithm. The SPF
algorithm is based on the cumulative cost to
reach a destination. The SPF algorithm creates
an SPF tree by placing each router at the root of
the tree and calculating the shortest path to each
node. The SPF tree is then used to calculate the
best routes. OSPF places the best routes into the
forwarding database, which is used to make the
routing table.

 Link-State Operation
1. Establish Neighbor Adjacencies (see
Figure 8-2). OSPF-enabled routers
must recognize each other on the 3. Build the Topology Table (Figure 8-4).
network before they can share After LSAs are received, OSPF-
information. An OSPF enabled router enabled routers build the topology table
sends Hello packets out all OSPF-
 (LSDB) based on the received LSAs.
This database eventuallyholds all the
information about the topology of the network.
4. Execute the SPF Algorithm (Figure 8-
5). Routers then execute the SPF
algorithm. The gears in the figure are
used to indicate the execution of the
SPF algorithm. The SPF algorithm
creates the SPF tree.
From the SPF tree, the best paths are inserted
into the routing table. Routing decisions are
made based on the entries in the routing table.
4.4
Single-Area and Multiarea OSPF
An OSPF area is a group of routers that share
the same link-state information in their
LSDBs.
OSPF can be implemented in one of two ways:
1. Single-Area OSPF
2. Multi-Area OSPF
The hierarchical-topology possibilities of
multiarea OSPF have these advantages:
■ Smaller routing tables: Fewer routing table
entries because network addresses can be
summarized between areas. Route
summarization is not enabled by default.
■ Reduced link-state update overhead:
Minimizes processing and memory
requirements.
■ Reduced frequency of SPF calculations:
Localizes the impact of a topology change
within an area. For instance, it minimizes
routing update impact because LSA flooding
stops at the area boundary.
4.5 OSPF Messages

 Data Link Ethernet Frame Header:
Identifies the destination multicast
MAC addresses 01-00-5E-00-00-05 or
01-00-5E-00-00-06, as shown in
figure.
 IP Packet Header: Identifies the IPv4
protocol field 89, which indicates that
this is an OSPF packet. It also
identifies one of two OSPF multicast
addresses, 224.0. 0.5 or 224.0.0.6, as
shown in figure.
 OSPF Packet Header: Identifies the
OSPF packet type, the router ID and the
area ID, as shown in figure.
 OSPF Packet Type Specific Data:
Contains the OSPF packet type
information. The content differs
depending on the packet type. In this
case, it is an IPv4 Header, as shown in
figure.
Types of OSPF Packets
OSPF uses link-state packets (LSP) to establish
and maintain neighbor adjacencies
and exchange routing updates.
There are five different types of LSPs used by
OSPF. Each packet serves a specific
purpose in the OSPF routing process:
■ Type 1: Hello packet: Used to establish and
maintain adjacency with other OSPF
routers.
■ Type 2: Database Description (DBD) packet:
Contains an abbreviated list of the sending
router’s LSDB and is used by receiving routers
to check against the local LSDB. The
LSDB must be identical on all link-state routers
within an area to construct an accurate
SPF tree.
■ Type 3: Link-State Request (LSR) packet:
Receiving routers can then request more
information about any entry in the DBD by
sending an LSR.
■ Type 4: Link-State Update (LSU) packet:
Used to reply to LSRs and to announce new
information. LSUs contain seven different
types of LSAs.
■ Type 5: Link-State Acknowledgment
(LSAck) packet: When an LSU is received, the
router sends an LSAck to confirm receipt of the
LSU. The LSAck data field is empty.
4.6 OSPF Operational States
When an OSPF router is initially connected to
a network, it attempts to
■ Create adjacencies with neighbors.
■ Exchange routing information.
■ Calculate the best routes.
■ Reach convergence.
OSPF progresses through several states while
attempting to reach convergence:
■ Down state
■ Init state
■ Two-Way state
■ ExStart state
■ Exchange state
■ Loading state
■ Full state
When OSPF is enabled on an interface, the
router must determine if there is another OSPF
neighbor on the link. To accomplish this, the
router forwards a Hello packet that contains its
router ID out all OSPF-enabled interfaces. The
OSPF router ID is used by the OSPF process to
uniquely identify each router in the OSPF area.
A router ID is an IP address assigned to identify
a specific router among OSPF peers. When a
neighboring OSPF-enabled router receives a
Hello packet with a router ID that is not within
its neighbor list, the receiving router attempts to
establish an adjacency with the initiating router.
When OSPF is enabled, the enabled Gigabit
Ethernet 0/0 interface transitions from the
Down state to the Init state. R1 starts sending
Hello packets out all OSPF- enabled interfaces
to discover OSPF neighbors to develop
adjacencies with.
In Figure 8-18, R2 receives the Hello packet
from R1 and adds the R1 router ID to its
neighbor list.
R2 then sends a Hello packet to R1. The packet
contains the R2 Router ID and the R1 Router ID
in its list of neighbors on the same interface.
In Figure 8-19, R1 receives the Hello and adds
the R2 Router ID in its list of OSPF neighbors .
It also notices its own Router ID in the Hello
packet’s list of neighbors. When a router
receives a Hello packet with its Router ID
listed in the list of neighbors, the router
transitions from the Init state to the Two-Way
state.
The action performed in Two-Way state
depends on the type of interconnection
between the adjacent routers:
■ If the two adjacent neighbors are
interconnected over a point-to-point link, then
they immediately transition from the Two-
Way state to the database synchronization
phase.
■ If the routers are interconnected over a
common Ethernet network, then a designated
router DR and a BDR must be elected.
Because R1 and R2 are interconnected over an
Ethernet network, a DR and BDR election
takes place. As shown in Figure 8-20, R2
becomes the DR and R1 is the BDR. This
process occurs only on multiaccess networks
such as Ethernet LANs.
Hello packets are continually exchanged to
maintain router information.
Figure 8-20 Elect the DR and BDR
OSPF DR and BDR
Multiaccess networks can create two challenges
for OSPF regarding the flooding of LSAs:
■ Creation of multiple adjacencies: Ethernet
networks could potentially interconnect many
OSPF routers over a common link. Creating
adjacencies with every router is unnecessary
and undesirable. It would lead to an excessive
number of LSAs exchanged between routers on
the same network.
■ Extensive flooding of LSAs: Link-state
routers flood their LSAs any time OSPF is
initialized, or when there is a change in the
topology. This flooding can become excessive.
To understand the problem with multiple
adjacencies, you must study a formula:
For any number of routers (designated as n) on
a multiaccess network, there are n (n - 1)/ 2
adjacencies.
Figure 8-21 Creating Adjacencies with Every
Neighbor Without some type of mechanism to
reduce the number of adjacencies, collectively
these routers would form 10 adjacencies:
Figure 8-21 shows a simple topology of five
routers, all of which are attached to the
samemultiaccess Ethernet network.
After the Two-Way state, routers transition to
database synchronization states. Although the
Hello packet was used to establish neighbor
adjacencies, the other four types of OSPF
packets are used during the process of
exchanging and synchronizing LSDBs. In the
ExStart state, a master and slave relationship is
created between each router and its adjacentDR
and BDR. The router with the higher router ID
acts as the master for the Exchange state. In
Figure 8-22, R2 becomes the master.
Figure 8-22 Decide Which Router Sends the
First DBD
In the Exchange state, the master and slave
routers exchange one or more DBD packets. A
DBD packet includes information about the
LSA entry header that appears in the router’s
LSDB. The entries can be about a link or about
a network. Each LSA entry header includes
information about the link-state type, the
address of the advertising router, the link’s cost,
and the sequence number. The router uses the
sequence number to determine the newness of
the received link-state information.
In Figure 8-23, R2 sends a DBD packet to R1.
 4.6 Configuring Single-Area OSPFv2

Figure 8-23 Exchange DBD Packets

When R1 receives the DBD, it performs the
following actions:
1. It acknowledges the receipt of the DBD using
the LSAck packet.
2. R1 then sends DBD packets to R2.
3. R2 acknowledges R1.
R1 compares the information received with the
information it has in its own LSDB. If the DBD
packet has a more current link-state entry, the
router transitions to the Loading state.
For example, in Figure 8-24, R1 sends an LSR
regarding network 172.16.6.0 to R2. R2
responds with the complete information about
172.16.6.0 in an LSU packet. Again, when R1
receives an LSU, it sends an LSAck. R1 then
adds the new link-state entries into its LSDB.

Figure 8-24 Getting Additional Routing

Information