06/10/2023, 22:18 OSPF Interview Questions and Answers | Basic and Advanced Levels

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OSPF Interview Questions and Answers

by Mohammed, on Mar 24, 2018 1:10:23 PM

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Q1. What OSPF stands for? myTectra

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Ans: OSPF is a standardized Link-State routing protocol,
How candesigned to?scale efficiently to
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supportlarger networks.

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Q2. What is the algorithm used by OSPF? by AiSensy

Ans: OSPF uses SPF (Shortest Path First) algorithm for calculating the best path and preparing
OSPF database. 

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06/10/2023, 22:18 OSPF Interview Questions and Answers | Basic and Advanced Levels

Q3. What are the characteristics of OSPF ?

Ans:

 OSPF supports only IP routing.

 OSPF routes have an administrative distance i.e. 110.
 OSPF uses cost as its metric, which is computed based on the bandwidth of the link. OSPF has
no hop-count limit.

Q4. Briefly explain functioning and working of different OSPF ?

Ans: Following are working and functioning of OSPF

 OSPF employs a hierarchical network design using Areas.

 OSPF forms neighbor relationships with adjacent routers in the same Area.
 Instead of advertising the distance to connected networks, OSPF advertises the status of
directly connected links using Link-State Advertisements (LSAs).
 OSPF sends updates (LSAs) when there is a change to one of its links, and will only send the
change during the updation. LSAs are additionally refreshed every 30 minutes.
 OSPF uses the Dijkstra Shortest Path First algorithm to determine the shortest path.
 OSPF is a classless protocol, and thus supports VLSMs.

Q5. What is OSPF Router ID and how is it elected?

Ans: Router id is 32 bit number similar to IP address. It is elected as highest IP Address of
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Loopback interfaces or Highest IP of the active physicalonline
interfaces if loopback is not present. It
can also be set manually but it will take effect when OSPF process is reset completely or device is
reloaded. There should be only one router-id per device running ospf to avoid database issues.
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Q6. What are different neighbour states
Howin
canOSPF ? ?
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Ans: Neighbor adjacencies will progress through several states, including:

Q7. What is role of topology and routing table in OSPF ?

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Ans: by AiSensy

 Down
 Init
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06/10/2023, 22:18 OSPF Interview Questions and Answers | Basic and Advanced Levels

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The OSPF process builds and maintains three separate tables:

1. neighbor table – contains a list of all neighboring routers.

2. topology table – contains a list of all possible routes to all known networks within an area.
3. routing table – contains the best route for each known network.

Q8. What different activities neighbour router perform in OSPF?

Ans: A neighbor table includes the following information:

 The Router ID of each neighbouring router

 The current “state” of each neighbouring router
 The interface directly connected to each neighbour
 The IP address of the remote interface of each neighbour

Q9. Name few types of LSA ? myTectra

online

Ans:
myTectra
Hi,
 Router LSA How can I help you ?
 Network LSA
 Network Summary LSA
 ASBR Summary LSA
 External LSA Start chat
by AiSensy

Q10. What will happen if we make priority of a OSPF router as “zero”?

Ans: OSPF Router with Priority zero will not participate in DR/BDR election.
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Q11. What are the multicast IPs used by OSPF? What multicast IP does
DR/BDR router and non-DR use?
Ans: OSPF Routers use 224.0.0.5 multicast IP address. However, in DR/BDR it uses 224.0.0.5 and
224.0.0.6. DR/BDR will use 224.0.0.6 while replying to OSPF routers in Broadcast Multi access
network.

Q12. On which algorithms OSPF depends? What is the principle behind

it?
Ans: OSPF uses the Dijkstra Shortest Path First algorithm to determine the shortest path and
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Link-State Advertisements (LSAs). online

An example would be Frame Relay.

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Q13. Name tables which OSPF maintainHi,

?
How can I help you ?

Ans: The OSPF process builds and maintains three separate tables:

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by AiSensy
1. A neighbor table – contains a list of all neighboring routers.
2. A topology table – contains a list of all possible routes to all known networks within an area.
3. A routing table – contains the best route for each known network.


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Q14. What are the packet types does OSPF use? Explain Hello, Dead
Timers, LSA, LSU, LSR packets.

Ans: Hello is a handshake packet tells about the alive status of OSPF interface.
Dead is the time it will wait after which it will break the neighborship and inform routing table for
removing the route or connected route.

LSA- Link state advertisement. It contains the information of the network or update.
LSU – It contains multiple updates at one go.
LSR – It’s a request packet when router running OSPF needs better and updated information.

Q15. What will be Hello/Dead timers in network having link capacity of

>T1 and <=T1?
Ans: For link above T1 i.e. 1.544Mbps Hello = 10 seconds, Dead is 40 seconds
For link = or below Hello = 30 seconds, Dead = 120 Seconds.
Dead interval is exact four times than Hello and its value can’t be set manually.

Q16. Does DR/BDR election happen in OSPF Point to Point Network

Ans: No election happens in point to point network

Q17. What is “Process id”? Does it have local or global significance? Does
it need to be same on OSPF neighbor routers?

Ans: Process id is used similarly to Autonomous system but it has local significance only. It can be
different on neighbors running OSPF.
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Q18. Can area 1 and area 2 exchange or advertise networks if they are not
connected to area 0 (Backbone area)? What we need to do make it
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happen?
Hi,
Ans: Every area should be connected to area 0 else there won’t be exchange of inter area routes.
How can I help you ?

If it is not possible then use the concept of virtual link

Q19. What is the concept of Virtual-link in OSPF? Can virtual link be

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formed thru stub area?
by AiSensy
Ans: Per OSPF Rule, Inter area communication will happen when atleast one area should be area
0 or backbone area. If this is not possible, then we can use virtual-link to form a logical
association. Virtual link is not possible thru Stub area.


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Q20. What LSA is used for inter area communication? What LSA type is
used for inter protocol communication in OSPF?

Ans: Type 3 LSA Is used for inter area communication. For communication with other protocols or
external routes , type 4 and 5 will be used.

Q21. What is the DR/BDR in OSPF? How these are elected and in what
scenario?

Ans: DR/BDR election happens in Shared Multi access network to avoid full mesh scenario. In
shared environment, every OSPF router will try to form neighborship with other router, so
DR/BDR comes in to action and act as single point of contact. Neighborship will only form with
DR and Backup DR. DR router will be the highest priority router and BDR will be second highest
priority. If there is a tie, then Highest router-id will be used to make the decision. Router ID is
elected as the highest numerical Loopback IP or the highest Physical Active IP address or the
Interface IP which comes up first.

Q22. Explain LSA and its all Types such as LSA 1, 2, 3,4,5,7. When do we use
LSA type 6

Ans:

LSA Type 1 :- Every OSPF router within the area speaks this LSA.
LSA Type 2 :- This LSA will be used in Shared multi-access network in DR/BDR election.
LSA Type 3 :- This LSA helps in exchange of inter area summary
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ABR( Area Border Router) online

LSA Type 4 :- This LSA is meant for external communication i.e. with other protocols. This LSA
gets the information about position of ASBR. myTectra
LSA Type 5 :- This will be generated by ASBR and helpsHi, in exchange of external information of
routes. How can I help you ?

LSA Type 7:- It is used in special area i.e. NSSA Not So Stubby Area. It gets converted in to Type 5
by ABR.

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Q23. What are the different OSPF network types and give an example for
each ? by AiSensy

Ans: Different OSPF network types with their examples are given below:

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06/10/2023, 22:18 OSPF Interview Questions and Answers | Basic and Advanced Levels

 Broadcast Multi-Access – indicates a topology where broadcast occurs.

Examples include Ethernet, Token Ring, and ATM.
 Point-to-Point – indicates a topology where two routers are directly connected.
An example would be a point-to-point T1.
 Point-to-Multipoint – indicates a topology where one interface can connect to multiple
destinations. Each connection between a source and destination is treated as a point-to-point
link.
An example would be Point-to-Multipoint Frame Relay.
 Non-broadcast Multi-access Network (NBMA) – indicates a topology where one interface can
connect to multiple destinations; however, broadcasts cannot be sent across a NBMA network.

Q24. What is the concept of “Area” in OSPF? What is Backbone area, stub
area, Totally Stubby Area, Not So Stuby area (NSSA)?
Ans: OSPF is hierarchical in nature and therefor it uses areas to control and manage its LSA or
database traffic. The concept of area brings stability in the environment and suppresses the
unnecessary convergence updates within the area unless meant for other areas. Backbone area is
“area 0” – this backbone area is must be physically or logically connected to other areas to
communicate. No two areas can share information if one of the areas is not backbone area. Stub
area blocks the LSA 4 and 5 i.e. External information which is sent by ABR ( Area Border Router)- It
does so to reduce the external traffic. However, connectivity can happen using Default route
injection done by ABR as an alternate way. Any router wants to send packets external network
from stub area will have default route in its routing table.

Totally Stubby Area – It blocks external LSA and summary LSA i.e. LSA 3, 4 and 5. Default route
will be injected by ABR to routers of area. myTectra
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Not So Stubby area

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Q25. What problems can cause OSPF neighborship
How can I help you in
? “down” state?

Ans: Steps in forming neighborship in OSPF is almost similar to EIGRP’s. Two ospf devices should
be connected back to back with cables connected on correct interfaces. IP and mask should be
correct. Then run the ospf process if not run already and advertise the interface segments on both
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routers. Hello, Dead timers and MTU size should be same at both ends. There should not be any
by AiSensy
access-list or transparent firewall blocking the OSPF Packets or IP addresses. Neighborship should
establish now. Area number and authentication parameters must match. If issues are still there,
then check the router logs and try to analyze the problem.
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Topics: OSPF Interview Questions and Answers Information Technologies (IT)

Comments

Ali Malik 11/03/2019, 01:31:00

very informative..

 Reply to Ali Malik

Tauqeer Hassan 30/09/2020, 12:34:37

useful information well explained !

Thanks

 Reply to Tauqeer Hassan

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