IP Routing Protocols

INTRODUCTION

The chapter explains the operations of the widely used link state metric protocol, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF). We start with a look at the major attributes of OSPF, and follow with a discussion of the goals of the OSPF designers. The major OSPF operations are then analyzed, with examples of OSPF's advertisements, hellos, and packet containment procedures. OSPF LSA packets are examined, and we see how OSPF uses spanning tree operations to create a loop-free routing domain. The chapter concludes with a description of the tasks used by the network manager to configure OSPF operations within an autonomous system.