CS 341

Open Shortest Path First

(OSPF)

Open Shortest Path First

(OSPF) Basics

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is an open standards routing

protocol thats been implemented by a wide variety of network
vendors, including Cisco. If you have multiple routers and not
all of them are Cisco, the only options you have are basically
RIPv1, RIPv2, or OSPF. If its a large network, then, really,
your only options are OSPF.
It works by using the Dijkstra algorithm. First, a shortest path
tree is constructed, and then the routing table is populated with
the resulting best paths. OSPF converges quickly, although
perhaps not as quickly as EIGRP, and it supports multiple,
equal-cost routes to the same destination. But unlike EIGRP, it
only supports IP routing.

Open Shortest Path First

(OSPF) Basics

OSPF provides the following features:

Consists of areas and autonomous systems
Minimizes routing update traffic
Allows scalability
Supports VLSM/CIDR
Has unlimited hop count
Allows multi-vendor deployment (open standard)

Comparison between OSPF,

RIPv2 and RIPv1

Open Shortest Path First

(OSPF) Basics

OSPF is supposed to be designed in a hierarchical fashion,

which basically means that you can separate the larger
internetwork into smaller internetworks called areas. This
is the best design for OSPF.
The reasons for creating OSPF in a hierarchical design
include:
To decrease routing overhead
To speed up convergence
To confine network instability to single areas of the
network

Open Shortest Path First

(OSPF) Basics

This does not make configuring OSPF easier, but more elaborate
and difficult. Figure bellow shows a typical OSPF simple design.
Notice how each router connects to the backbone, called area 0, or
the backbone area. OSPF must have an area 0, and all routers
should connect to this area, but routers that
connect other areas to the backbone within an AS are called Area
Border Routers (ABRs). Still, at least one interface must be in
area 0.
OSPF runs inside an autonomous system, but can also connect
multiple autonomous systems together. The router that connects
these ASes together is called an Autonomous System Boundary
Router (ASBR).

Open Shortest Path First

(OSPF) Basics

OSPF Terminologies

Link A link is a network or router interface assigned to any

given network. When an interface is added to the OSPF process,
its considered by OSPF to be a link. This link, or interface, will
have state information associated with it (up or down) as well as
one or more IP addresses.
Router ID The Router ID (RID) is an IP address used to
identify the router. Cisco chooses the Router ID by using the
highest IP address of all configured loopback interfaces. If no
loopback interfaces are configured with addresses, OSPF will
choose the highest IP address of all active physical interfaces.
Neighbors; The Neighbors are two or more routers that have an
interface on a common network, such as two routers connected
on a point-to-point serial link.

OSPF Terminologies

Adjacency is a relationship between two OSPF routers that

permits the direct exchange of route updates. OSPF is really
selective about sharing routing information, unlike EIGRP,
which directly shares routes with all of its neighbors. Instead,
OSPF directly shares routes only with neighbors that have
also established adjacencies. And not all neighbors will
become Adjacent, this depends upon both the type of
network and the configuration of the routers.
Hello protocol provides dynamic neighbor discovery and
maintains neighbor relationships. Hello packets and Link
State Advertisements (LSAs) build and maintain the
topological database. Hello packets are addressed to
224.0.0.5.

OSPF Terminologies

Neighborship database is a list of all OSPF routers for

which Hello packets have been seen. A variety of details,
including the Router ID and state, are maintained on each
router in the neighborship database.
Topology database contains information from all of the
Link State Advertisement packets that have been received
for an area. The router uses the information from the
topology database as input into the Dijkstra algorithm that
computes the shortest path to every network.

OSPF Terminologies

Link State Advertisement (LSA) is an OSPF data packet

containing link-state and routing information thats shared
among OSPF routers. There are different types of LSA
packets, and Ill go into these shortly. An OSPF router will
exchange LSA packets only with routers to which it has
established adjacencies.
Designated router (DR) is elected whenever OSPF routers
are connected to the same multi-access network. Cisco likes
to call these broadcast networks, but really, they are
networks that have multiple recipients. Try not to confuse
multi-access with multipoint, which can be easy to do
sometimes

OSPF Terminologies

A DR is chosen (elected) to disseminate/receive routing

information to/from the remaining routers on the broadcast
network or link. This ensures that their topology tables are
synchronized. All routers on the shared network will
establish adjacencies with the DR and backup designated
router (BDR).
Backup designated router (BDR) is a hot standby for the
DR on multi-access links (remember that Cisco sometimes
likes to call these broadcast networks). The BDR
receives all routing updates from OSPF adjacent routers,
but doesnt flood LSA updates

OSPF Terminologies

OSPF areas is a grouping of contiguous networks and routers.

All routers in the same area share a common Area ID. Because
a router can be a member of more than one area at a time, the
Area ID is associated with specific interfaces on the router.
This would allow some interfaces to belong to area 1 while the
remaining interfaces can belong to area 0. All of the routers
within the same area have the same topology table. When
configuring OSPF, youve got to remember that there must be
an area 0, and that this is typically configured on the routers
that connect to the backbone of the network. Areas also play a
role in establishing a hierarchical network organization,
something that really enhances the scalability of OSPF

OSPF Terminologies

Broadcast (multi-access) networks such as Ethernet allow

multiple devices to connect to (or access) the same network, as
well as provide a broadcast ability in which a single packet is
delivered to all nodes on the network. In OSPF, a DR and a BDR
must be elected for each broadcast multi-access network.
Non-broadcast multi-access (NBMA) networks are types such
as Frame Relay, X.25, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM). These networks allow for multi-access, but have no
broadcast ability like Ethernet. So, NBMA networks require
special OSPF configuration to function properly and neighbor
relationships must be defined

SPF Tree Calculation

Within an area, each router calculates the best/shortest path to

every network in that same area. This calculation is based upon
the information collected in the topology database and an
algorithm called shortest path first (SPF). Picture each router in
an area constructing a tree. This is the shortest path tree used by
the router to insert routes into the routing table.
Note that this tree contains only networks that exist in the same
area as the router itself does. If a router has interfaces in multiple
areas, then separate trees will be constructed for each area. One
of the key criteria considered during the route selection process
of the SPF algorithm is the metric or cost of each potential path
to a network. But this SPF calculation doesnt apply to routes
from other areas.

OSPF uses a metric referred to as cost. A cost is associated

with every outgoing interface included in an SPF tree. The
cost of the entire path is the sum of costs of the outgoing
interfaces along the path. Because cost is an arbitrary value
as defined in RFC 2338, Cisco had to implement its own
method of calculating the cost for each OSPF-enabled
interface. Cisco uses a simple equation of 108/bandwidth.
The bandwidth is the configured bandwidth for the
interface. Using this rule, a 100Mbps Fast Ethernet
interface would have a default OSPF cost of 1 and a
10Mbps Ethernet interface would have a cost of 10

This value may be overridden by using the ip ospf cost

command. The cost is manipulated by changing the value
to a number within the range of 1 to 65,535. Because the
cost is assigned to each link, the value must be changed on
the same interface that you want to change the cost on.

Configuring OSPF

Configuring basic OSPF isnt as simple as RIP, IGRP, and

EIGRP, and it can get really complex once the many
options that are allowed within OSPF are factored in. But
this course, you should be interested in the basic single
area OSPF configuration. The following sections describe
how to configure single area OSPF. These two elements
are the basic elements of OSPF configuration:
Enabling OSPF
Configuring OSPF areas

Configuring OSPF

Enabling OSPF

The command you use to activate the OSPF routing

process is:

Lab_A(config)#router ospf ?
<1-65535>

A value in the range 165,535 identifies the OSPF Process

ID. Its a unique number on this router that groups a series
of OSPF configuration commands under a specific running
process. Different OSPF routers dont have to use the same
Process ID in order to communicate. Its purely a local
value that essentially has little meaning, but it cannot start
at 0, it has to start at a minimum of 1

Configuring OSPF

Configuring OSPF Areas

After identifying the OSPF process, you need to identify the
interfaces that you want to activate OSPF communications on,
as well as the area in which each resides. This will also
configure the networks youre going to advertise to others.
OSPF uses wildcards in the configuration; Heres an OSPF
basic configuration example;
Lab_A#config t
Lab_A(config)#router ospf 1
Lab_A(config-router)#network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 area ?
<0-4294967295> OSPF area ID as a decimal value
A.B.C.D OSPF area ID in IP address format
Lab_A(config-router)#network 10.0.0.0 0.255.255.255
area 0

The arguments of the network command are the network

number (10.0.0.0) and the wildcard mask (0.255.255.255).
The combination of these two numbers identifies the
interfaces that OSPF will operate on, and will also be
included in its OSPF LSA advertisements. OSPF will use
this command to find any interface on the router
configured in the 10.0.0.0 network, and it will place any
interface it finds into area 0. Notice that you can create
about 4.2 billion areas.

A quick review of wildcards: A 0 octet in the wildcard mask

indicates that the corresponding octet in the network must match
exactly. On the other hand, a 255 indicates that you dont care
what the corresponding octet is in the network number. A
network and wildcard mask combination of 1.1.1.1 0.0.0.0
would match 1.1.1.1 only, and nothing else. This is really useful
if you want to activate OSPF on a specific interface in a very
clear and simple way.
If you insist on matching a range of networks, the network and
wildcard mask combination of 1.1.0.0 0.0.255.255 would
match anything in the range 1.1.0.01.1.255.255

The final argument is the area number. It indicates the area

to which the interfaces identified in the network and
wildcard mask portion belong. Remember that OSPF
routers will only become neighbors if their interfaces share
a network thats configured to belong to the same area
number. The format of the area number is either a decimal
value from the range 14,294,967,295 or a value
represented in standard dotted-decimal notation. For
example, area 0.0.0.0 is a legitimate area, and is identical
to area 0.

Lets configure our internetwork with OSPF using just

area 0. Before we do that, weve got to remove IGRP,
because OSPF has an administrative distance of 110. while
IGRP is 100.
Theres a bunch of different ways to configure OSPF and,
as I said, the simplest and easiest is to use the wildcard
mask of 0.0.0.0. But I want to demonstrate that we can
configure each router differently with OSPF and still come
up with the exact same result. This is one reason
why OSPF is more fun than other routing protocols.

Lab_A
So heres the Lab_A routers configuration:
Lab_A#config t
Lab_A(config)#no router rip
Lab_A(config)#router ospf 132
Lab_A(config-router)#network 192.168.10.1 0.0.0.0 area 0
Lab_A(config-router)#network 192.168.20.1 0.0.0.0 area 0
Lab_A(config-router)#^Z
Lab_A#

Lab_B
The Lab_B router is directly connected to networks 20, 30,
and 40. Instead of typing in each
interface, I can use one network command and still make it work:
Lab_B#config t
Lab_B(config)#no router igrp 10
Lab_B(config)#no router rip

Lab_B(config)#router ospf 1
Lab_B(config-router)#network 192.168.0.0 0.0.255.255 area 0

Lab_C
Lets give the Lab_C router thats directly connected to
networks 40 and 50 some attention:
Lab_C#config t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Lab_C(config)#no router eigrp 10
Lab_C(config)#no router igrp 10
Lab_C(config)#no router rip
Lab_C(config)#router ospf 64999
Lab_C(config-router)#network 192.168.40.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
Lab_C(config-router)#network 192.168.50.0 0.0.0.255 area 0
Lab_C(config-router)#^Z

Verifying OSPF Configuration

Checking routing table of each router.

Lab_A#sh ip route
The Lab_A router shows the OSPF found routes for networks
30, 40, and 50, with the O representing OSPF internet routes.
Do the same for the rest of routers:
The show ip ospf Command
The show ip ospf command is used to display OSPF information
for one or all OSPF processes running on the router. Information
contained therein includes the Router ID, area information,
SPF statistics, and LSA timer information

The show ip ospf database Command

The information displayed by the show ip ospf database
command indicates the number of links and the
neighboring routers ID and is the topology database.
The show ip ospf interface Command
The show ip ospf interface command displays all interfacerelated OSPF information. Data is displayed about OSPF
information for all interfaces or for specified interfaces.
The information displayed by this command includes:

Interface IP address
Area assignment
Process ID
Router ID
Network type
Cost
Priority
DR/BDR election information (if applicable)
Hello and Dead timer intervals
Adjacent neighbor information

The show ip ospf neighbor Command

The show ip ospf neighbor command is super-useful because it
summarizes the pertinent OSPF information regarding neighbors
and the adjacency state. If a DR or BDR exists, that
information will also be displayed.
The show ip protocols Command
The show ip protocols command is also useful whether youre
running OSPF, EIGRP, IGRP, RIP, BGP, IS-IS, or any other
routing protocol that can be configured on your router. It provides
an excellent overview of the actual operation of all currently
running protocols.

Based upon this output, you can determine the OSPF

Process ID, OSPF Router ID, type of OSPF area, networks
and areas configured for OSPF, and OSPF Router IDs of
neighbors.

OSPF and Loopback Interfaces

Configuring loopback interfaces when using the OSPF routing

protocol is important. Loopback interfaces are logical
interfaces, which are virtual, software-only interfaces; they are
not real router interfaces. Using loopback interfaces with your
OSPF configuration ensures that an interface is always active
for OSPF processes.
The reason you want to configure a loopback interface on a
router is because if you dont, the highest IP address on a router
will become that routers RID. The RID is used to advertise the
routes as well as elect the DR and BDR.

Lets say that you are not using loopback interfaces and the
serial interface of your router is the RID of the router
because it has the highest IP address of active interfaces. If
this interface goes down, then a re-election must occur on
who is going to be the DR and BDR on the network.
Not necessarily a big deal, but what happens if this is a
flapping link (going up/down)? The routers will not
converge because the election is never completed. This is
obviously a problem with OSPF. Loopback interfaces
solve this problem because they never go down and the
RID of the router never changes

Configuring Loopback
Interfaces

Configuring loopback interfaces rocks mostly because its

the easiest part of OSPF configuration
Lab_A#config t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Lab_A(config)#int loopback 0
Lab_A(config-if)#ip address 172.16.10.1 255.255.255.255
Lab_A(config-if)#no shut
Lab_A(config-if)#^Z