Difference Between OSPF and BGP

The major difference between OSPF

and BGP is that the OSPF is an intradomain routing protocol while BGP is the
interdomain routing protocol. The OSPF protocol uses link state routing. On
the other hand, BGP protocol uses path vector routing.

The routing operations performed inside an autonomous system is known

as intradomain routing or interior gateway routing and when the routing is
performed between two autonomous systems, it is referred to as interdomain
routing or exterior gateway routing. An autonomous system is a
combination of networks and router which is controlled by single
administration.

Content: OSPF Vs BGP

1.
1. Comparison Chart
2. Definition
3. Key Differences
4. Conclusion
Comparison Chart

BASIS FOR
OSPF BGP
COMPARISON

Stands for Open Shortest Border Gateway

Path First Protocol

Gateway OSPF is an internal BGP is an

Protocol gateway protocol external gateway

protocol

Implementation Easy to implement Complex to

implement

Convergence Fast Slow

Design Hierarchical Meshed

network possible

Need of device Memory and CPU Scaling is better

resources Intensive in BGP although

it relies on the

size of the

routing table.

Size of the Used on primarily Mostly used on

networks smaller scale large scale

network which networks such as

 BASIS FOR
OSPF BGP
COMPARISON

could be the internet.

administered

centrally.

Function Fastest route is Best path is

preferred over determined for

shortest. the datagram.

Algorithm Used Dijkstra algorithm Best path

algorithm

Protocol IP TCP

Works on Protocol number Port number 179

89

Type Link State Path Vector

Definition of OSPF

The Open Shortest Path First is an interior gateway protocol. The Interior

Gateway Protocol (IGP) working group formed to design an IGP based on
Shortest Path First (SPF) algorithm to use it in the Internet Protocol networks.
It uses link state routing. The OSPF was created because of the limitations of
the RIP; RIP protocol had limited capability of serving large heterogeneous
internetworks. OSPF is a link state routing which can operate within a
hierarchy. The top level and largest entity in the hierarchy is the autonomous
system. OSPF call to the routers within the hierarchical area for sending the
link state advertisements.

OSPF allows various authentication schemes and every exchange within the
routers need to be authenticated. The purpose of authentication is to permit
the only authorized routers to advertise the routing information. The separate
routes are calculated to a single destination based on HOP count and high
throughput for each type of service. When a number of equal-cost routes exist
to the destination, it performs load balancing where the traffic is distributed
equally.

In OSPF the set of networks are grouped in a self-contained Area. An area

hides its topology from the remaining autonomous system and from other
areas also. This information hiding reduces the routing traffic. To distinguish
the acquired information within the network (internal sources) from the
information obtained from an outside router (external sources), the distinct
message formats are used in OSPF.

The Area partitioning builds two distinct kinds of routing according to the
source and the destination location in the network, and whether they present
in the same area or different area. When the source and destination present in
the same area it is known as intra-area routing and if the source and
destination present in the different area it is referred to as inter-area routing.

Definition of BGP

The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is an external gateway protocol

devised to exchange routing information for the Internet. By using an arbitrary
topology, the BGP could connect any internetwork of autonomous systems. It
just necessarily requires having at least one router at each autonomous
system with the capability of running the BGP which must connect to at least
one other autonomous system’s BGP router.

A BGP can manage a set of AS’s connected in any configuration such as full
mesh, partial mesh, and also it can handle the changes that occur in the
topology over time. The BGP system basically exchanges the network
reachability information with other BGP systems and create graph of
autonomous systems with the received reachability information at the BGP
routers. The path vector routing mechanism is employed in the BGP systems
because the distance vector routing and link state routing become intractable
when the domain of the operation becomes large.

In path vector routing the router has the list of networks which can be reached
with the path to reach each of them. It conserves network bandwidth and
supports CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing). The BGP protocol does not
have any information about what is happening inside an autonomous system
and that a necessary prerequisite for an autonomous system. It has its own
internal topology and chooses the routing protocols to determine the routes.

It is named as Border Gateway Protocol because in this a BGP router must

communicate with a peer in another autonomous system usually which reside
near the edge (border) of the autonomous system. This communication
occurs when a pair of autonomous systems accepts to exchange the routing
information and which involves the routers to become the BGP peers.

Key Differences Between OSPF and BGP

1. The OSPF stands for Open Shortest Path First whereas BGP
expands to Border Gateway Protocol.
2. OSPF is an Interior gateway routing protocol in which the routing
operation is performed inside an autonomous system. On the other
hand, the BGP is an Exterior gateway routing protocol which enables
the routing operations to be performed between the two autonomous
systems.
3. OSPF is simple to employ while BGP is complex to implement.
4. The time elapsed by a router takes to share and update the latest
routing information is known as convergence. So, OSPF can achieve
convergence by consuming less time. In contrast, the BGP has a
slow convergence rate as compare to OSPF.
5. The OSPF follows a hierarchical structure whereas BGP usually
adopts mesh structure.
6. OSPF requires intensive use of memory and CPU resources. As
against, in BGP the need of device resources relies on the size of the
routing table.
7. BGP is more flexible and scalable than OSPF and used on a larger
network, unlike OSPF.
 8. The primary objective of the OSPF is to determine the best route, i.e.,
fastest. Conversely BGP emphasizes on determining the best path.
9. OSPF uses link state routing while BGP uses path vector routing.
Conclusion

The OSPF is an Interior gateway routing protocol while BGP is an exterior

gateway routing protocol. The OSPF is based on the link state routing where
each router sends the state of the neighbour router to every router present in
the area. On the other hand, BGP is based on path vector routing where a
router has a list of networks that can be reached with the path to reach each
of them