1What is an OSPF neighbor?

2What is an OSPF adjacency?

3What are the five OSPF packet types? What is the purpose of each type?

4What is an LSA? How does an LSA differ from an OSPF Update packet?

5What are LSA types 1 to 5 and LSA type 7? What is the purpose of each type? 6What is
a link-state database? What is link-state database synchronization?

7What is the default HelloInterval?

8What is the default RouterDeadInterval?

9What is a Router ID? How is a Router ID determined?

10What is an area?

11What is the significance of area 0?

12What is MaxAge?

13What are the four OSPF router types?

14What are the four OSPF path types?

15What are the five OSPF network types?

16What is a Designated Router?

17How does a Cisco router calculate the outgoing cost of an interface?

18What is a partitioned area?

19What is a virtual link?

20What is the difference between a stub area, a totally stubby area, and a not-so-stubby
area?

21What is the difference between OSPF network entries and OSPF router entries?

22Why is type 2 authentication preferable over type 1 authentication?

23Which three fields in the LSA header distinguish different LSAs? Which three fields in
the LSA header distinguish different instances of the same LSA?
1 From the perspective of an OSPF router, a neighbor is another OSPF router that is
attached to one of the first router's directly connected links.

2An OSPF adjacency is a conceptual link to a neighbor over which LSAs can be sent.

3The five OSPF packet types, and their purposes, are

•Hellos, which are used to discover neighbors, and to establish and maintain adjacencies

•Updates, which are used to send LSAs between neighbors •Database Description
packets, which a router uses to describe its link

state database to a neighbor during database synchronization •Link State Requests,

which a router uses to request one or more LSAs

from a neighbor's link-state database •Link State Acknowledgments, used to ensure

reliable delivery of LSAs

4A router originates a link-state advertisement to describe one or more destinations. An

OSPF Update packet transports LSAs from one neighbor to another. Although LSAs are
flooded throughout an area or OSPF domain, Update packets never leave a data link.

5The most common LSA types and their purposes are

•Type 1 (Router LSAs) are originated by every router and describe the originating router,
the router's directly connected links and their states, and the router's neighbors.

•Type 2 (Network LSAs) are originated by Designated Routers on multiaccess links and
describe the link and all attached neighbors.

•Type 3 (Network Summary LSAs) are originated by Area Border Routers and describe
inter-area destinations.
•Type 4 LSAs (ASBR Summary LSAs) are originated by Area Border Routers to describe
Autonomous System Boundary Routers outside the area.

•Type 5 (AS External LSAs) are originated by Autonomous System Boundary Routers to
describe destinations external to the OSPF domain.

•Type 7 (NSSA External LSAs) are originated by Autonomous System Boundary Routers
within not-so-stubby areas.

6The link state database is where a router stores all the OSPF LSAs it knows of,
including its own. Database synchronization is the process of ensuring that all routers
within an area have identical link-state databases.

7The default OSPF HelloInterval is 10 seconds.

8The default RouterDeadInterval is four times the HelloInterval.

9A Router ID is an address by which an OSPF router identifies itself. It is either the

numerically highest IP address of all the router's loopback interfaces, or if no loopback
interfaces are configured, it is the numerically highest IP address of all the router's LAN
interfaces. It can also be manually configured.

10An area is an OSPF sub-domain, within which all routers have an identical link-state
database.

11Area 0 is the backbone area. All other areas must send their inter-area traffic through
the backbone.

12MaxAge, one hour, is the age at which an LSA is considered to be obsolete. 13The four
OSPF router types are

• Internal Routers, whose OSPF interfaces all belong to the same area

• Backbone Routers, which are Internal Routers in Area 0 • Area Border Routers, which
have OSPF interfaces in more than one area • Autonomous System Boundary Routers,
which advertise external routes

into the OSPF domain 14 The four OSPF path types are

•Intra-area paths

•Inter-area paths •Type 1 external paths •Type 2 external paths

15 What are the five OSPF network types?

The five OSPF network types are

•Point-to-point networks •Broadcast networks •Non-broadcast multiaccess (NBMA)
networks •Point-to-multipoint networks

•Virtual links

16A Designated Router is a router that represents a multiaccess network, and the
routers connected to the network, to the rest of the OSPF domain.

17Cisco IOS calculates the outgoing cost of an interface as 108/BW, where BW is the
configured bandwidth of the interface. 108 can be changed with the OSPF command
auto-cost reference-bandwidth.

18An area is partitioned if one or more of its routers cannot send a packet to the area's
other routers without sending the packet out of the area.

19A virtual link is a tunnel that extends an OSPF backbone connection through a non-
backbone area.

20A stub area is an area into which no type 5 LSAs are flooded. A totally stubby area is
an area into which no type 3, 4, or 5 LSAs are flooded, with the exception of type 3 LSAs
to advertise a default route. Not-so-stubby areas are areas through which external
destinations are advertised into the OSPF domain, but into which no type 5 LSAs are
sent by the ABR.

21OSPF network entries are entries in the route table, describing IP destinations. OSPF
router entries are entries in a separate route table that record only routes to ABRs and
ASBRs.

22Type 2 authentication uses MD5 encryption, whereas type 1 authentication uses clear-
text passwords.

23The three fields in the LSA header that distinguish different LSAs are the Type,
Advertising Router, and the Link State ID fields. The three fields in the LSA header that
distinguish different instances of the same LSA are the Sequence Number, Age, and
Checksum fields.