OSPF Design Guide

7/4/2017 OSPFDesignGuideCisco
OSPF Design Guide
Updated: August 10, 2005 Document ID: 7039
Contents
Introduction
Background Information
OSPF versus RIP
What Do We Mean by Link-States?
Shortest Path First Algorithm
OSPF Cost
Shortest Path Tree
Areas and Border Routers
Link-State Packets
Enabling OSPF on the Router
OSPF Authentication
Simple Password Authentication
Message Digest Authentication
The Backbone and Area 0
Virtual Links
Areas Not Physically Connected to Area 0
Partitioning the Backbone
Neighbors
Adjacencies
DR Election
Building the Adjacency
Adjacencies on Point-to-Point Interfaces
Adjacencies on Non-Broadcast Multi-Access (NBMA) Networks
Avoiding DRs and neighbor Command on NBMA
Point-to-Point Subinterfaces
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Selecting Interface Network Types
OSPF and Route Summarization
Inter-Area Route Summarization
External Route Summarization
Stub Areas
Redistributing Routes into OSPF
E1 vs. E2 External Routes
Redistributing OSPF into Other Protocols
Use of a Valid Metric
VLSM
Mutual Redistribution
Injecting Defaults into OSPF
OSPF Design Tips
Number of Routers per Area
Number of Neighbors
Number of Areas per ABR
Full Mesh vs. Partial Mesh
Memory Issues
Summary
Appendix A: Link-State Database Synchronization
Link-State Advertisements
OSPF Database Example
Appendix B: OSPF and IP Multicast Addressing
Appendix C: Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM)
Related Information
Introduction
The Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol, de ned in RFC 2328 , is an Interior Gateway Protocol
used to distribute routing information within a single Autonomous System. This paper examines how OSPF
works and how it can be used to design and build large and complicated networks.
Background Information
OSPF protocol was developed due to a need in the internet community to introduce a high functionality
non-proprietary Internal Gateway Protocol (IGP) for the TCP/IP protocol family. The discussion of the
creation of a common interoperable IGP for the Internet started in 1988 and did not get formalized until
1991. At that time the OSPF Working Group requested that OSPF be considered for advancement to Draft
Internet Standard.
The OSPF protocol is based on link-state technology, which is a departure from the Bellman-Ford vector
based algorithms used in traditional Internet routing protocols such as RIP. OSPF has introduced new
concepts such as authentication of routing updates, Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM), route
summarization, and so forth.
These chapters discuss the OSPF terminology, algorithm and the pros and cons of the protocol in
designing the large and complicated networks of today.
OSPF versus RIP

The rapid growth and expansion of today's networks has pushed RIP to its limits. RIP has certain
limitations that can cause problems in large networks:
RIP has a limit of 15 hops. A RIP network that spans more than 15 hops (15 routers) is considered
unreachable.
RIP cannot handle Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM). Given the shortage of IP addresses and the
exibility VLSM gives in the e cient assignment of IP addresses, this is considered a major aw.
Periodic broadcasts of the full routing table consume a large amount of bandwidth. This is a major
problem with large networks especially on slow links and WAN clouds.
RIP converges slower than OSPF. In large networks convergence gets to be in the order of minutes. RIP
routers go through a period of a hold-down and garbage collection and slowly time-out information that
has not been received recently. This is inappropriate in large environments and could cause routing
inconsistencies.
RIP has no concept of network delays and link costs. Routing decisions are based on hop counts. The
path with the lowest hop count to the destination is always preferred even if the longer path has a better
aggregate link bandwidth and less delays.
RIP networks are at networks. There is no concept of areas or boundaries. With the introduction of
classless routing and the intelligent use of aggregation and summarization, RIP networks seem to have
fallen behind.
Some enhancements were introduced in a new version of RIP called RIP2. RIP2 addresses the issues of
VLSM, authentication, and multicast routing updates. RIP2 is not a big improvement over RIP (now called
RIP 1) because it still has the limitations of hop counts and slow convergence which are essential in todays
large networks.
OSPF, on the other hand, addresses most of the issues previously presented:
With OSPF, there is no limitation on the hop count.
The intelligent use of VLSM is very useful in IP address allocation.
OSPF uses IP multicast to send link-state updates. This ensures less processing on routers that are not
listening to OSPF packets. Also, updates are only sent in case routing changes occur instead of
periodically. This ensures a better use of bandwidth.
OSPF has better convergence than RIP. This is because routing changes are propagated instantaneously
and not periodically.
OSPF allows for better load balancing.
OSPF allows for a logical de nition of networks where routers can be divided into areas. This limits the
explosion of link state updates over the whole network. This also provides a mechanism for aggregating
routes and cutting down on the unnecessary propagation of subnet information.
OSPF allows for routing authentication by using di erent methods of password authentication.
OSPF allows for the transfer and tagging of external routes injected into an Autonomous System. This
keeps track of external routes injected by exterior protocols such as BGP.
This of course leads to more complexity in the con guration and troubleshooting of OSPF networks.
Administrators that are used to the simplicity of RIP are challenged with the amount of new information
they have to learn in order to keep up with OSPF networks. Also, this introduces more overhead in memory
allocation and CPU utilization. Some of the routers running RIP might have to be upgraded in order to
handle the overhead caused by OSPF.
What Do We Mean by Link-States?

OSPF is a link-state protocol. We could think of a link as being an interface on the router. The state of the
link is a description of that interface and of its relationship to its neighboring routers. A description of the
interface would include, for example, the IP address of the interface, the mask, the type of network it is
connected to, the routers connected to that network and so on. The collection of all these link-states
would form a link-state database.
Shortest Path First Algorithm

OSPF uses a shorted path rst algorithm in order to build and calculate the shortest path to all known
destinations.The shortest path is calculated with the use of the Dijkstra algorithm. The algorithm by itself is
quite complicated. This is a very high level, simpli ed way of looking at the various steps of the algorithm:
1. Upon initialization or due to any change in routing information, a router generates a link-state
advertisement. This advertisement represents the collection of all link-states on that router.
2. All routers exchange link-states by means of ooding. Each router that receives a link-state update
should store a copy in its link-state database and then propagate the update to other routers.
3. After the database of each router is completed, the router calculates a Shortest Path Tree to all
destinations. The router uses the Dijkstra algorithm in order to calculate the shortest path tree. The
destinations, the associated cost and the next hop to reach those destinations form the IP routing table.
4. In case no changes in the OSPF network occur, such as cost of a link or a network being added or
deleted, OSPF should be very quiet. Any changes that occur are communicated through link-state
packets, and the Dijkstra algorithm is recalculated in order to nd the shortest path.
The algorithm places each router at the root of a tree and calculates the shortest path to each destination
based on the cumulative cost required to reach that destination. Each router will have its own view of the
topology even though all the routers will build a shortest path tree using the same link-state database. The
following sections indicate what is involved in building a shortest path tree.
OSPF Cost
The cost (also called metric) of an interface in OSPF is an indication of the overhead required to send
packets across a certain interface. The cost of an interface is inversely proportional to the bandwidth of
that interface. A higher bandwidth indicates a lower cost. There is more overhead (higher cost) and time
delays involved in crossing a 56k serial line than crossing a 10M ethernet line. The formula used to
calculate the cost is:
cost= 10000 0000/bandwith in bps
For example, it will cost 10 EXP8/10 EXP7 = 10 to cross a 10M Ethernet line and will cost 10
EXP8/1544000 = 64 to cross a T1 line.
By default, the cost of an interface is calculated based on the bandwidth; you can force the cost of an
interface with the ip ospf cost <value> interface subcon guration mode command.
Shortest Path Tree

Assume we have the following network diagram with the indicated interface costs. In order to build the
shortest path tree for RTA, we would have to make RTA the root of the tree and calculate the smallest cost
for each destination.
The above is the view of the network as seen from RTA. Note the direction of the arrows in calculating the
cost. For example, the cost of RTB's interface to network 128.213.0.0 is not relevant when calculating the
cost to 192.213.11.0. RTA can reach 192.213.11.0 via RTB with a cost of 15 (10+5). RTA can also reach
222.211.10.0 via RTC with a cost of 20 (10+10) or via RTB with a cost of 20 (10+5+5). In case equal cost
paths exist to the same destination, Cisco's implementation of OSPF will keep track of up to six next hops
to the same destination.
After the router builds the shortest path tree, it will start building the routing table accordingly. Directly
connected networks will be reached via a metric (cost) of 0 and other networks will be reached according
to the cost calculated in the tree.
Areas and Border Routers

As previously mentioned, OSPF uses ooding to exchange link-state updates between routers. Any
change in routing information is ooded to all routers in the network. Areas are introduced to put a
boundary on the explosion of link-state updates. Flooding and calculation of the Dijkstra algorithm on a
router is limited to changes within an area. All routers within an area have the exact link-state database.
Routers that belong to multiple areas, and connect these areas to the backbone area are called area
border routers (ABR). ABRs must therefore maintain information describing the backbone areas and other
attached areas.
An area is interface speci c. A router that has all of its interfaces within the same area is called an internal
router (IR). A router that has interfaces in multiple areas is called an area border router (ABR). Routers that
act as gateways (redistribution)between OSPF and other routing protocols (IGRP, EIGRP, IS-IS, RIP, BGP,
Static) or other instances of the OSPF routing process are called autonomous system boundary router
(ASBR). Any router can be an ABR or an ASBR.
Link-State Packets
There are di erent types of Link State Packets, those are what you normally see in an OSPF database
(Appendix A). The di erent types are illustrated in the following diagram:
As indicated above, the router links are an indication of the state of the interfaces on a router belonging to
a certain area. Each router will generate a router link for all of its interfaces. Summary links are generated
by ABRs; this is how network reachability information is disseminated between areas. Normally, all
information is injected into the backbone (area 0) and in turn the backbone will pass it on to other areas.
ABRs also have the task of propagating the reachability of the ASBR. This is how routers know how to get
to external routes in other ASs.
Network Links are generated by a Designated Router (DR) on a segment (DRs will be discussed later). This
information is an indication of all routers connected to a particular multi-access segment such as Ethernet,
Token Ring and FDDI (NBMA also).
External Links are an indication of networks outside of the AS. These networks are injected into OSPF via
redistribution. The ASBR has the task of injecting these routes into an autonomous system.
Enabling OSPF on the Router

Enabling OSPF on the router involves the following two steps in con g mode:
1. Enabling an OSPF process using the router ospf <process-id> command.
2. Assigning areas to the interfaces using the network <network or IP address> <mask> <area-id>
command.
The OSPF process-id is a numeric value local to the router. It does not have to match process-ids on other
routers. It is possible to run multiple OSPF processes on the same router, but is not recommended as it
creates multiple database instances that add extra overhead to the router.
The network command is a way of assigning an interface to a certain area. The mask is used as a shortcut
and it helps putting a list of interfaces in the same area with one line con guration line. The mask contains
wild card bits where 0 is a match and 1 is a "do not care" bit, e.g. 0.0.255.255 indicates a match in the
rst two bytes of the network number.
The area-id is the area number we want the interface to be in. The area-id can be an integer between 0
and 4294967295 or can take a form similar to an IP address A.B.C.D.
Here's an example:
RTA#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress192.213.11.1255.255.255.0
interfaceEthernet1
ipaddress192.213.12.2255.255.255.0
interfaceEthernet2
ipaddress128.213.1.1255.255.255.0
routerospf100
network192.213.0.00.0.255.255area0.0.0.0
network128.213.1.10.0.0.0area23
The rst network statement puts both E0 and E1 in the same area 0.0.0.0, and the second network
statement puts E2 in area 23. Note the mask of 0.0.0.0, which indicates a full match on the IP address.
This is an easy way to put an interface in a certain area if you are having problems guring out a mask.
OSPF Authentication
It is possible to authenticate the OSPF packets such that routers can participate in routing domains based
on prede ned passwords. By default, a router uses a Null authentication which means that routing
exchanges over a network are not authenticated. Two other authentication methods exist: Simple
password authentication and Message Digest authentication (MD-5).
Simple Password Authentication

Simple password authentication allows a password (key) to be con gured per area. Routers in the same
area that want to participate in the routing domain will have to be con gured with the same key. The
drawback of this method is that it is vulnerable to passive attacks. Anybody with a link analyzer could
easily get the password o the wire. To enable password authentication use the following commands:
ip ospf authentication-key key (this goes under the speci c interface)
area area-id authentication (this goes under "router ospf <process-id>")
Here's an example:
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress10.10.10.10255.255.255.0
ipospfauthenticationkeymypassword
routerospf10
network10.10.0.00.0.255.255area0
area0authentication
Message Digest Authentication

Message Digest authentication is a cryptographic authentication. A key (password) and key-id are
con gured on each router. The router uses an algorithm based on the OSPF packet, the key, and the key-
id to generate a "message digest" that gets appended to the packet. Unlike the simple authentication, the
key is not exchanged over the wire. A non-decreasing sequence number is also included in each OSPF
packet to protect against replay attacks.
This method also allows for uninterrupted transitions between keys. This is helpful for administrators who
wish to change the OSPF password without disrupting communication. If an interface is con gured with a
new key, the router will send multiple copies of the same packet, each authenticated by di erent keys. The
router will stop sending duplicate packets once it detects that all of its neighbors have adopted the new
key. Following are the commands used for message digest authentication:
ip ospf message-digest-key keyid md5 key (used under the interface)
area area-id authentication message-digest (used under "router ospf <process-id>")
Here's an example:
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress10.10.10.10255.255.255.0
ipospfmessagedigestkey10md5mypassword
routerospf10
network10.10.0.00.0.255.255area0
area0authenticationmessagedigest
The Backbone and Area 0

OSPF has special restrictions when multiple areas are involved. If more than one area is con gured, one of
these areas has be to be area 0. This is called the backbone. When designing networks it is good practice
to start with area 0 and then expand into other areas later on.
The backbone has to be at the center of all other areas, i.e. all areas have to be physically connected to
the backbone. The reasoning behind this is that OSPF expects all areas to inject routing information into
the backbone and in turn the backbone will disseminate that information into other areas. The following
diagram will illustrate the ow of information in an OSPF network:
In the above diagram, all areas are directly connected to the backbone. In the rare situations where a new
area is introduced that cannot have a direct physical access to the backbone, a virtual link will have to be
con gured. Virtual links will be discussed in the next section. Note the di erent types of routing
information. Routes that are generated from within an area (the destination belongs to the area) are called
intra-area routes. These routes are normally represented by the letter O in the IP routing table. Routes
that originate from other areas are called inter-area or Summary routes. The notation for these routes is
O IA in the IP routing table. Routes that originate from other routing protocols (or di erent OSPF
processes) and that are injected into OSPF via redistribution are called external routes. These routes are
represented by O E2 or O E1 in the IP routing table. Multiple routes to the same destination are preferred
in the following order: intra-area, inter-area, external E1, external E2. External types E1 and E2 will be
explained later.
Virtual Links
Virtual links are used for two purposes:
Linking an area that does not have a physical connection to the backbone.
Patching the backbone in case discontinuity of area 0 occurs.
Areas Not Physically Connected to Area 0

As mentioned earlier, area 0 has to be at the center of all other areas. In some rare case where it is
impossible to have an area physically connected to the backbone, a virtual link is used. The virtual link will
provide the disconnected area a logical path to the backbone. The virtual link has to be established
between two ABRs that have a common area, with one ABR connected to the backbone. This is illustrated
in the following example:
In this example, area 1 does not have a direct physical connection into area 0. A virtual link has to be
con gured between RTA and RTB. Area 2 is to be used as a transit area and RTB is the entry point into
area 0. This way RTA and area 1 will have a logical connection to the backbone. In order to con gure a
virtual link, use the area <area-id> virtual-link <RID> router OSPF sub-command on both RTA and RTB,
where area-id is the transit area. In the above diagram, this is area 2. The RID is the router-id. The OSPF
router-id is usually the highest IP address on the box, or the highest loopback address if one exists. The
router-id is only calculated at boot time or anytime the OSPF process is restarted. To nd the router-id,
use the show ip ospf interface command. Assuming that 1.1.1.1 and 2.2.2.2 are the respective RIDs of
RTA and RTB, the OSPF con guration for both routers would be:
RTA#
routerospf10
area2virtuallink2.2.2.2
RTB#
routerospf10
area2virtuallink1.1.1.1
Partitioning the Backbone

OSPF allows for linking discontinuous parts of the backbone using a virtual link. In some cases, di erent
area 0s need to be linked together. This can occur if, for example, a company is trying to merge two
separate OSPF networks into one network with a common area 0. In other instances, virtual-links are
added for redundancy in case some router failure causes the backbone to be split into two. Whatever the
reason may be, a virtual link can be con gured between separate ABRs that touch area 0 from each side
and having a common area. This is illustrated in the following example:
In the above diagram two area 0s are linked together via a virtual link. In case a common area does not
exist, an additional area, such as area 3, could be created to become the transit area.
In case any area which is di erent than the backbone becomes partitioned, the backbone will take care of
the partitioning without using any virtual links. One part of the partioned area will be known to the other
part via inter-area routes rather than intra-area routes.
Neighbors
Routers that share a common segment become neighbors on that segment. Neighbors are elected via the
Hello protocol. Hello packets are sent periodically out of each interface using IP multicast (Appendix B).
Routers become neighbors as soon as they see themselves listed in the neighbor's Hello packet. This way,
a two way communication is guaranteed. Neighbor negotiation applies to the primary address only.
Secondary addresses can be con gured on an interface with a restriction that they have to belong to the
same area as the primary address.
Two routers will not become neighbors unless they agree on the following:
Area-id: Two routers having a common segment; their interfaces have to belong to the same area on
that segment. Of course, the interfaces should belong to the same subnet and have a similar mask.
Authentication: OSPF allows for the con guration of a password for a speci c area. Routers that want
to become neighbors have to exchange the same password on a particular segment.
Hello and Dead Intervals: OSPF exchanges Hello packets on each segment. This is a form of keepalive
used by routers in order to acknowledge their existence on a segment and in order to elect a
designated router (DR) on multiaccess segments.The Hello interval speci es the length of time, in
seconds, between the hello packets that a router sends on an OSPF interface. The dead interval is the
number of seconds that a router's Hello packets have not been seen before its neighbors declare the
OSPF router down.
OSPF requires these intervals to be exactly the same between two neighbors. If any of these intervals
are di erent, these routers will not become neighbors on a particular segment. The router interface
commands used to set these timers are: ip ospf hello-interval seconds and ip ospf dead-interval
seconds .
Stub area ag: Two routers have to also agree on the stub area ag in the Hello packets in order to
become neighbors. Stub areas will be discussed in a later section. Keep in mind for now that de ning
stub areas will a ect the neighbor election process.
Adjacencies
Adjacency is the next step after the neighboring process. Adjacent routers are routers that go beyond the
simple Hello exchange and proceed into the database exchange process. In order to minimize the amount
of information exchange on a particular segment, OSPF elects one router to be a designated router (DR),
and one router to be a backup designated router (BDR), on each multi-access segment. The BDR is
elected as a backup mechanism in case the DR goes down. The idea behind this is that routers have a
central point of contact for information exchange. Instead of each router exchanging updates with every
other router on the segment, every router exchanges information with the DR and BDR. The DR and BDR
relay the information to everybody else. In mathematical terms, this cuts the information exchange from
O(n*n) to O(n) where n is the number of routers on a multi-access segment. The following router model
illustrates the DR and BDR:
In the above diagram, all routers share a common multi-access segment. Due to the exchange of Hello
packets, one router is elected DR and another is elected BDR. Each router on the segment (which already
became a neighbor) will try to establish an adjacency with the DR and BDR.
DR Election
DR and BDR election is done via the Hello protocol. Hello packets are exchanged via IP multicast packets
(Appendix B) on each segment. The router with the highest OSPF priority on a segment will become the
DR for that segment. The same process is repeated for the BDR. In case of a tie, the router with the
highest RID will win. The default for the interface OSPF priority is one. Remember that the DR and BDR
concepts are per multiaccess segment. Setting the ospf priority on an interface is done using the ip ospf
priority <value> interface command.
A priority value of zero indicates an interface which is not to be elected as DR or BDR. The state of the
interface with priority zero will be DROTHER. The following diagram illustrates the DR election:
In the above diagram, RTA and RTB have the same interface priority but RTB has a higher RID. RTB would
be DR on that segment. RTC has a higher priority than RTB. RTC is DR on that segment.
Building the Adjacency

The adjacency building process takes e ect after multiple stages have been ful lled. Routers that become
adjacent will have the exact link-state database. The following is a brief summary of the states an interface
passes through before becoming adjacent to another router:
Down: No information has been received from anybody on the segment.
Attempt: On non-broadcast multi-access clouds such as Frame Relay and X.25, this state indicates that
no recent information has been received from the neighbor. An e ort should be made to contact the
neighbor by sending Hello packets at the reduced rate PollInterval.
Init: The interface has detected a Hello packet coming from a neighbor but bi-directional
communication has not yet been established.
Two-way: There is bi-directional communication with a neighbor. The router has seen itself in the Hello
packets coming from a neighbor. At the end of this stage the DR and BDR election would have been
done. At the end of the 2way stage, routers will decide whether to proceed in building an adjacency or
not. The decision is based on whether one of the routers is a DR or BDR or the link is a point-to-point or
a virtual link.
Exstart: Routers are trying to establish the initial sequence number that is going to be used in the
information exchange packets. The sequence number insures that routers always get the most recent
information. One router will become the primary and the other will become secondary. The primary
router will poll the secondary for information.
Exchange: Routers will describe their entire link-state database by sending database description
packets. At this state, packets could be ooded to other interfaces on the router.
Loading: At this state, routers are nalizing the information exchange. Routers have built a link-state
request list and a link-state retransmission list. Any information that looks incomplete or outdated will be
put on the request list. Any update that is sent will be put on the retransmission list until it gets
acknowledged.
Full: At this state, the adjacency is complete. The neighboring routers are fully adjacent. Adjacent
routers will have a similar link-state database.
Let's look at an example:
RTA, RTB, RTD, and RTF share a common segment (E0) in area 0.0.0.0. The following are the con gs of
RTA and RTF. RTB and RTD should have a similar con guration to RTF and will not be included.
RTA#
hostnameRTA
interfaceLoopback0
ipaddress203.250.13.41255.255.255.0
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.14.1255.255.255.0
routerospf10
network203.250.13.410.0.0.0area1
network203.250.0.00.0.255.255area0.0.0.0
RTF#
hostnameRTF
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.14.2255.255.255.0
routerospf10
network203.250.0.00.0.255.255area0.0.0.0
The above is a simple example that demonstrates a couple of commands that are very useful in debugging
OSPF networks.
show ip ospf interface <interface>
This command is a quick check to see if all of the interfaces belong to the areas they are supposed to be
in. The sequence in which the OSPF network commands are listed is very important. In RTA's
con guration, if the "network 203.250.0.0 0.0.255.255 area 0.0.0.0" statement was put before the
"network 203.250.13.41 0.0.0.0 area 1" statement, all of the interfaces would be in area 0, which is
incorrect because the loopback is in area 1. Let us look at the command's output on RTA, RTF, RTB, and
RTD:
RTA#showipospfinterfacee0
Ethernet0isup,lineprotocolisup
InternetAddress203.250.14.1255.255.255.0,Area0.0.0.0
ProcessID10,RouterID203.250.13.41,NetworkTypeBROADCAST,Cost:
10
TransmitDelayis1sec,StateBDR,Priority1
DesignatedRouter(ID)203.250.15.1,Interfaceaddress203.250.14.2
BackupDesignatedrouter(ID)203.250.13.41,Interfaceaddress
203.250.14.1
Timerintervalsconfigured,Hello10,Dead40,Wait40,Retransmit5
Helloduein0:00:02
NeighborCountis3,Adjacentneighborcountis3
Adjacentwithneighbor203.250.15.1(DesignatedRouter)
Loopback0isup,lineprotocolisup
InternetAddress203.250.13.41255.255.255.255,Area1
ProcessID10,RouterID203.250.13.41,NetworkTypeLOOPBACK,Cost:1
LoopbackinterfaceistreatedasastubHost
RTF#showipospfinterfacee0
ProcessID10,RouterID203.250.15.1,NetworkTypeBROADCAST,Cost:10
TransmitDelayis1sec,StateDR,Priority1
203.250.14.1
Helloduein0:00:08
Adjacentwithneighbor203.250.13.41(BackupDesignatedRouter)
RTD#showipospfinterfacee0
ProcessID10,RouterID192.208.10.174,NetworkTypeBROADCAST,Cost:
10
TransmitDelayis1sec,StateDROTHER,Priority1
203.250.14.1
Helloduein0:00:03
RTB#showipospfinterfacee0
ProcessID10,RouterID203.250.12.1,NetworkTypeBROADCAST,Cost:10
TransmitDelayis1sec,StateDROTHER,Priority1
203.250.14.1
Helloduein0:00:03
The above output shows very important information. Let us look at RTA's output. Ethernet0 is in area
0.0.0.0. The process ID is 10 (router ospf 10) and the router ID is 203.250.13.41. Remember that the RID
is the highest IP address on the box or the loopback interface, calculated at boot time or whenever the
OSPF process is restarted. The state of the interface is BDR. Since all routers have the same OSPF priority
on Ethernet 0 (default is 1), RTF's interface was elected as DR because of the higher RID. In the same way,
RTA was elected as BDR. RTD and RTB are neither a DR or BDR and their state is DROTHER.
Also note the neighbor count and the adjacent count. RTD has three neighbors and is adjacent to two of
them, the DR and the BDR. RTF has three neighbors and is adjacent to all of them because it is the DR.
The information about the network type is important and will determine the state of the interface. On
broadcast networks such as Ethernet, the election of the DR and BDR should be irrelevant to the end user.
It should not matter who the DR or BDR are. In other cases, such as NBMA media such as Frame Relay
and X.25, this becomes very important for OSPF to function correctly. Fortunately, with the introduction of
point-to-point and point-to-multipoint subinterfaces, DR election is no longer an issue. OSPF over NBMA
will be discussed in the next section.
Another command we need to look at is:
show ip ospf neighbor
Let us look at RTD's output:
RTD#showipospfneighbor

NeighborIDPriStateDeadTimeAddressInterface

203.250.12.112WAY/DROTHER0:00:37203.250.14.3Ethernet0
203.250.15.11FULL/DR0:00:36203.250.14.2Ethernet0
203.250.13.411FULL/BDR0:00:34203.250.14.1Ethernet0
The show ip ospf neighbor command shows the state of all the neighbors on a particular segment. Do
not be alarmed if the "Neighbor ID" does not belong to the segment you are looking at. In our case
203.250.12.1 and 203.250.15.1 are not on Ethernet0. This is "OK" because the "Neighbor ID" is actually
the RID which could be any IP address on the box. RTD and RTB are just neighbors, that is why the state is
2WAY/DROTHER. RTD is adjacent to RTA and RTF and the state is FULL/DR and FULL/BDR.
Adjacencies on Point-to-Point Interfaces

OSPF will always form an adjacency with the neighbor on the other side of a point-to-point interface such
as point-to-point serial lines. There is no concept of DR or BDR. The state of the serial interfaces is point
to point.
Adjacencies on Non-Broadcast Multi-Access (NBMA) Networks

Special care should be taken when con guring OSPF over multi-access non-broadcast medias such as
Frame Relay, X.25, ATM. The protocol considers these media like any other broadcast media such as
Ethernet. NBMA clouds are usually built in a hub and spoke topology. PVCs or SVCs are laid out in a partial
mesh and the physical topology does not provide the multi access that OSPF believes is out there. The
selection of the DR becomes an issue because the DR and BDR need to have full physical connectivity
with all routers that exist on the cloud. Also, because of the lack of broadcast capabilities, the DR and BDR
need to have a static list of all other routers attached to the cloud. This is achieved using the neighbor ip-
address [priority number] [poll-interval seconds] command, where the "ip-address" and "priority" are
the IP address and the OSPF priority given to the neighbor. A neighbor with priority 0 is considered
ineligible for DR election. The "poll-interval" is the amount of time an NBMA interface waits before polling
(sending a Hello) to a presumably dead neighbor. The neighbor command applies to routers with a
potential of being DRs or BDRs (interface priority not equal to 0). The following diagram shows a network
diagram where DR selection is very important:
In the above diagram, it is essential for RTA's interface to the cloud to be elected DR. This is because RTA
is the only router that has full connectivity to other routers. The election of the DR could be in uenced by
setting the ospf priority on the interfaces. Routers that do not need to become DRs or BDRs will have a
priority of 0 other routers could have a lower priority.
The use of the neighbor command is not covered in depth in this document as this is becoming obsolete
with the introduction of new means of setting the interface Network Type to whatever you want
irrespective of what the underlying physical media is. This is explained in the next section.
Avoiding DRs and neighbor Command on NBMA

Di erent methods can be used to avoid the complications of con guring static neighbors and having
speci c routers becoming DRs or BDRs on the non-broadcast cloud. Specifying which method to use is
in uenced by whether we are starting the network from scratch or rectifying an already existing design.
Point-to-Point Subinterfaces
A subinterface is a logical way of de ning an interface. The same physical interface can be split into
multiple logical interfaces, with each subinterface being de ned as point-to-point. This was originally
created in order to better handle issues caused by split horizon over NBMA and vector based routing
protocols.
A point-to-point subinterface has the properties of any physical point-to-point interface. As far as OSPF is
concerned, an adjacency is always formed over a point-to-point subinterface with no DR or BDR election.
The following is an illustration of point-to-point subinterfaces:
In the above diagram, on RTA, we can split Serial 0 into two point-to-point subinterfaces, S0.1 and S0.2.
This way, OSPF will consider the cloud as a set of point-to-point links rather than one multi-access
network. The only drawback for the point-to-point is that each segment will belong to a di erent subnet.
This might not be acceptable since some administrators have already assigned one IP subnet for the
whole cloud.
Another workaround is to use IP unnumbered interfaces on the cloud. This also might be a problem for
some administrators who manage the WAN based on IP addresses of the serial lines. The following is a
typical con guration for RTA and RTB:
RTA#
interfaceSerial0
noipaddress
encapsulationframerelay
interfaceSerial0.1pointtopoint
ipaddress128.213.63.6255.255.252.0
framerelayinterfacedlci20
ipaddress128.213.64.6255.255.252.0
routerospf10
network128.213.0.00.0.255.255area1
RTB#
interfaceSerial0
noipaddress
ipaddress128.213.63.5255.255.252.0
interfaceSerial1
ipaddress123.212.1.1255.255.255.0
routerospf10
network128.213.0.00.0.255.255area1
network123.212.0.00.0.255.255area0
Selecting Interface Network Types

The command used to set the network type of an OSPF interface is:
ipospfnetwork{broadcast|nonbroadcast|pointtomultipoint}
Point-to-Multipoint Interfaces
An OSPF point-to-multipoint interface is de ned as a numbered point-to-point interface having one or
more neighbors. This concept takes the previously discussed point-to-point concept one step further.
Administrators do not have to worry about having multiple subnets for each point-to-point link. The cloud
is con gured as one subnet. This should work well for people who are migrating into the point-to-point
concept with no change in IP addressing on the cloud. Also, they would not have to worry about DRs and
neighbor statements. OSPF point-to-multipoint works by exchanging additional link-state updates that
contain a number of information elements that describe connectivity to the neighboring routers.
RTA#
interfaceLoopback0
ipaddress200.200.10.1255.255.255.0
interfaceSerial0
ipaddress128.213.10.1255.255.255.0
ipospfnetworkpointtomultipoint
routerospf10
network128.213.0.00.0.255.255area1
RTB#
interfaceSerial0
ipaddress128.213.10.2255.255.255.0
ipospfnetworkpointtomultipoint
interfaceSerial1
ipaddress123.212.1.1255.255.255.0
routerospf10
network128.213.0.00.0.255.255area1
network123.212.0.00.0.255.255area0
Note that no static frame relay map statements were con gured; this is because Inverse ARP takes care of
the DLCI to IP address mapping. Let us look at some of show ip ospf interface and show ip ospf route
outputs:
RTA#showipospfinterfaces0
Serial0isup,lineprotocolisup
ProcessID10,RouterID200.200.10.1,NetworkType
POINT_TO_MULTIPOINT,Cost:64
TransmitDelayis1sec,StatePOINT_TO_MULTIPOINT,
Helloduein0:00:04
Adjacentwithneighbor195.211.10.174
RTA#showipospfneighbor
128.213.10.31FULL/0:01:35128.213.10.3Serial0
128.213.10.21FULL/0:01:44128.213.10.2Serial0
RTB#showipospfinterfaces0
Serial0isup,lineprotocolisup
ProcessID10,RouterID128.213.10.2,NetworkType
POINT_TO_MULTIPOINT,Cost:64
TransmitDelayis1sec,StatePOINT_TO_MULTIPOINT,
Helloduein0:00:14
RTB#showipospfneighbor
200.200.10.11FULL/0:01:52128.213.10.1Serial0
The only drawback for point-to-multipoint is that it generates multiple Hosts routes (routes with mask
255.255.255.255) for all the neighbors. Note the Host routes in the following IP routing table for RTB:
RTB#showiproute
Codes:Cconnected,Sstatic,IIGRP,RRIP,Mmobile,BBGP
DEIGRP,EXEIGRPexternal,OOSPF,IAOSPFinterarea
E1OSPFexternaltype1,E2OSPFexternaltype2,EEGP
iISIS,L1ISISlevel1,L2ISISlevel2,*candidatedefault
Gatewayoflastresortisnotset
200.200.10.0255.255.255.255issubnetted,1subnets
O200.200.10.1[110/65]via128.213.10.1,Serial0
128.213.0.0isvariablysubnetted,3subnets,2masks
O128.213.10.3255.255.255.255
[110/128]via128.213.10.1,00:00:00,Serial0
O128.213.10.1255.255.255.255
[110/64]via128.213.10.1,00:00:00,Serial0
C128.213.10.0255.255.255.0isdirectlyconnected,Serial0
C123.212.1.0isdirectlyconnected,Serial1
RTC#showiproute
O200.200.10.1[110/65]via128.213.10.1,Serial1
O128.213.10.2255.255.255.255[110/128]via128.213.10.1,Serial1
O128.213.10.1255.255.255.255[110/64]via128.213.10.1,Serial1
O123.212.1.0[110/192]via128.213.10.1,00:14:29,Serial1
Note that in RTC's IP routing table, network 123.212.1.0 is reachable via next hop 128.213.10.1 and not
via 128.213.10.2 as you normally see over Frame Relay clouds sharing the same subnet. This is one
advantage of the point-to-multipoint con guration because you do not need to resort to static mapping on
RTC to be able to reach next hop 128.213.10.2.
Broadcast Interfaces
This approach is a workaround for using the "neighbor" command which statically lists all existing
neighbors. The interface will be logically set to broadcast and will behave as if the router were connected
to a LAN. DR and BDR election will still be performed so special care should be taken to assure either a full
mesh topology or a static selection of the DR based on the interface priority. The command that sets the
interface to broadcast is:
ipospfnetworkbroadcast
OSPF and Route Summarization

Summarizing is the consolidation of multiple routes into one single advertisement. This is normally done at
the boundaries of Area Border Routers (ABRs). Although summarization could be con gured between any
two areas, it is better to summarize in the direction of the backbone. This way the backbone receives all
the aggregate addresses and in turn will injects them, already summarized, into other areas. There are two
types of summarization:
Inter-area route summarization
External route summarization
Inter-Area Route Summarization

Inter-area route summarization is done on ABRs and it applies to routes from within the AS. It does not
apply to external routes injected into OSPF via redistribution. In order to take advantage of summarization,
network numbers in areas should be assigned in a contiguous way to be able to lump these addresses into
one range. To specify an address range, perform the following task in router con guration mode:
areaareaidrangeaddressmask
Where the "area-id" is the area containing networks to be summarized. The "address" and "mask" will
specify the range of addresses to be summarized in one range. The following is an example of
summarization:
In the above diagram, RTB is summarizing the range of subnets from 128.213.64.0 to 128.213.95.0 into
one range: 128.213.64.0 255.255.224.0. This is achieved by masking the rst three left most bits of 64
using a mask of 255.255.224.0. In the same way, RTC is generating the summary address 128.213.96.0
255.255.224.0 into the backbone. Note that this summarization was successful because we have two
distinct ranges of subnets, 64-95 and 96-127.
It would be hard to summarize if the subnets between area 1 and area 2 were overlapping. The backbone
area would receive summary ranges that overlap and routers in the middle would not know where to send
the tra c based on the summary address.
The following is the relative con guration of RTB:
RTB#
routerospf100
area1range128.213.64.0255.255.224.0
Prior to Cisco IOS Software Release 12.1(6), it was recommended to manually con gure, on the ABR, a
discard static route for the summary address in order to prevent possible routing loops. For the summary
route shown above, you can use this command:
iproute128.213.64.0255.255.224.0null0
In IOS 12.1(6) and higher, the discard route is automatically generated by default. If for any reason you
don't want to use this discard route, you can con gure the following commands under router ospf:
[no]discardrouteinternal
or
[no]discardrouteexternal
Note about summary address metric calculation: RFC 1583 called for calculating the metric for
summary routes based on the minimum metric of the component paths available.
RFC 2178 (now obsoleted by RFC 2328 ) changed the speci ed method for calculating metrics for
summary routes so the component of the summary with the maximum (or largest) cost would determine
the cost of the summary.
Prior to IOS 12.0, Cisco was compliant with the then-current RFC 1583 . As of IOS 12.0, Cisco
changed the behavior of OSPF to be compliant with the new standard, RFC 2328 . This situation
created the possibility of sub-optimal routing if all of the ABRs in an area were not upgraded to the new
code at the same time. In order to address this potential problem, a command has been added to the
OSPF con guration of Cisco IOS that allows you to selectively disable compatibility with RFC 2328 .
The new con guration command is under router ospf, and has the following syntax:
[no]compatiblerfc1583
The default setting is compatible with RFC 1583 . This command is available in the following versions of
IOS:
12.1(03)DC
12.1(03)DB
12.001(001.003) - 12.1 Mainline
12.1(01.03)T - 12.1 T-Train
12.000(010.004) - 12.0 Mainline
12.1(01.03)E - 12.1 E-Train
12.1(01.03)EC
12.0(10.05)W05(18.00.10)
12.0(10.05)SC
External Route Summarization

External route summarization is speci c to external routes that are injected into OSPF via redistribution.
Also, make sure that external ranges that are being summarized are contiguous. Summarization
overlapping ranges from two di erent routers could cause packets to be sent to the wrong destination.
Summarization is done via the following router ospf subcommand:
summaryaddressipaddressmask
This command is e ective only on ASBRs doing redistribution into OSPF.
In the above diagram, RTA and RTD are injecting external routes into OSPF by redistribution. RTA is
injecting subnets in the range 128.213.64-95 and RTD is injecting subnets in the range 128.213.96-127.
In order to summarize the subnets into one range on each router we can do the following:
RTA#
routerospf100
summaryaddress128.213.64.0255.255.224.0
redistributebgp50metric1000subnets
RTD#
routerospf100
summaryaddress128.213.96.0255.255.224.0
redistributebgp20metric1000subnets
This will cause RTA to generate one external route 128.213.64.0 255.255.224.0 and will cause RTD to
generate 128.213.96.0 255.255.224.0.
Note that the summary-address command has no e ect if used on RTB because RTB is not doing the
redistribution into OSPF.
Stub Areas
OSPF allows certain areas to be con gured as stub areas. External networks, such as those redistributed
from other protocols into OSPF, are not allowed to be ooded into a stub area. Routing from these areas to
the outside world is based on a default route. Con guring a stub area reduces the topological database
size inside an area and reduces the memory requirements of routers inside that area.
An area could be quali ed a stub when there is a single exit point from that area or if routing to outside of
the area does not have to take an optimal path. The latter description is just an indication that a stub area
that has multiple exit points, will have one or more area border routers injecting a default into that area.
Routing to the outside world could take a sub-optimal path in reaching the destination by going out of the
area via an exit point which is farther to the destination than other exit points.
Other stub area restrictions are that a stub area cannot be used as a transit area for virtual links. Also, an
ASBR cannot be internal to a stub area. These restrictions are made because a stub area is mainly
con gured not to carry external routes and any of the above situations cause external links to be injected
in that area. The backbone, of course, cannot be con gured as stub.
All OSPF routers inside a stub area have to be con gured as stub routers. This is because whenever an
area is con gured as stub, all interfaces that belong to that area will start exchanging Hello packets with a
ag that indicates that the interface is stub. Actually this is just a bit in the Hello packet (E bit) that gets set
to 0. All routers that have a common segment have to agree on that ag. If they don't, then they will not
become neighbors and routing will not take e ect.
An extension to stub areas is what is called "totally stubby areas". Cisco indicates this by adding a "no-
summary" keyword to the stub area con guration. A totally stubby area is one that blocks external routes
and summary routes (inter-area routes) from going into the area. This way, intra-area routes and the
default of 0.0.0.0 are the only routes injected into that area.
The command that con gures an area as stub is:
area<areaid>stub[nosummary]
and the command that con gures a default-cost into an area is:
areaareaiddefaultcostcost
If the cost is not set using the above command, a cost of 1 will be advertised by the ABR.
Assume that area 2 is to be con gured as a stub area. The following example will show the routing table
of RTE before and after con guring area 2 as stub.
RTC#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.14.1255.255.255.0
interfaceSerial1
ipaddress203.250.15.1255.255.255.252
routerospf10
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area2
network203.250.14.00.0.0.255area0
RTE#showiproute
OIA203.250.14.0[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:06:31,Serial0
OE2128.213.64.0255.255.192.0
[110/10]via203.250.15.1,00:00:29,Serial0
OIA128.213.63.0255.255.255.252
[110/84]via203.250.15.1,00:03:57,Serial0
O131.108.79.208[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:00:10,Serial0
RTE has learned the inter-area routes (O IA) 203.250.14.0 and 128.213.63.0 and it has learned the intra-
area route (O) 131.108.79.208 and the external route (O E2) 128.213.64.0.
If we con gure area 2 as stub, we need to do the following:
RTC#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.14.1255.255.255.0
interfaceSerial1
ipaddress203.250.15.1255.255.255.252
routerospf10
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area2
network203.250.14.00.0.0.255area0
area2stub
RTE#
interfaceSerial1
ipaddress203.250.15.2255.255.255.252
routerospf10
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area2
area2stub
Note that the stub command is con gured on RTE also, otherwise RTE will never become a neighbor to
RTC. The default cost was not set, so RTC will advertise 0.0.0.0 to RTE with a metric of 1.
RTE#showiproute
Gatewayoflastresortis203.250.15.1tonetwork0.0.0.0
OIA203.250.14.0[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:26:58,Serial0
OIA128.213.63.0[110/84]via203.250.15.1,00:26:59,Serial0
O131.108.79.208[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:26:59,Serial0
O*IA0.0.0.00.0.0.0[110/65]via203.250.15.1,00:26:59,Serial0
Note that all the routes show up except the external routes which were replaced by a default route of
0.0.0.0. The cost of the route happened to be 65 (64 for a T1 line + 1 advertised by RTC).
We will now con gure area 2 to be totally stubby, and change the default cost of 0.0.0.0 to 10.
RTC#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.14.1255.255.255.0
interfaceSerial1
ipaddress203.250.15.1255.255.255.252
routerospf10
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area2
network203.250.14.00.0.0.255area0
area2stubnosummary
area2defaultcost10
RTE#showiproute
O131.108.79.208[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:31:27,Serial0
O*IA0.0.0.00.0.0.0[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:00:00,Serial0
Note that the only routes that show up are the intra-area routes (O) and the default-route 0.0.0.0. The
external and inter-area routes have been blocked. The cost of the default route is now 74 (64 for a T1 line
+ 10 advertised by RTC). No con guration is needed on RTE in this case. The area is already stub, and the
no-summary command does not a ect the Hello packet at all as the stub command does.
Redistributing Routes into OSPF

Redistributing routes into OSPF from other routing protocols or from static will cause these routes to
become OSPF external routes. To redistribute routes into OSPF, use the following command in router
con guration mode:
redistributeprotocol[processid][metricvalue]
[metrictypevalue][routemapmaptag][subnets]
Note:The above command should be on one line.

The protocol and process-id are the protocol that we are injecting into OSPF and its process-id if it exits.
The metric is the cost we are assigning to the external route. If no metric is speci ed, OSPF puts a default
value of 20 when redistributing routes from all protocols except BGP routes, which get a metric of 1. The
metric-type is discussed in the next paragraph.
The route-map is a method used to control the redistribution of routes between routing domains. The
format of a route map is:
routemapmaptag[[permit|deny]|[sequencenumber]]
When redistributing routes into OSPF, only routes that are not subnetted are redistributed if the subnets
keyword is not speci ed.
E1 vs. E2 External Routes

External routes fall under two categories, external type 1 and external type 2. The di erence between the
two is in the way the cost (metric) of the route is being calculated. The cost of a type 2 route is always the
external cost, irrespective of the interior cost to reach that route. A type 1 cost is the addition of the
external cost and the internal cost used to reach that route. A type 1 route is always preferred over a type
2 route for the same destination. This is illustrated in the following diagram:
As the above diagram shows, RTA is redistributing two external routes into OSPF. N1 and N2 both have an
external cost of x. The only di erence is that N1 is redistributed into OSPF with a metric-type 1 and N2 is
redistributed with a metric-type 2. If we follow the routes as they ow from Area 1 to Area 0, the cost to
reach N2 as seen from RTB or RTC will always be x. The internal cost along the way is not considered. On
the other hand, the cost to reach N1 is incremented by the internal cost. The cost is x+y as seen from RTB
and x+y+z as seen from RTC.
If the external routes are both type 2 routes and the external costs to the destination network are equal,
then the path with the lowest cost to the ASBR is selected as the best path.
Unless otherwise speci ed, the default external type given to external routes is type 2.
Suppose we added two static routes pointing to E0 on RTC: 16.16.16.0 255.255.255.0 (the /24 notation
indicates a 24 bit mask starting from the far left) and 128.213.0.0 255.255.0.0. The following shows the
di erent behaviors when di erent parameters are used in the redistribute command on RTC:
RTC#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.14.2255.255.255.0
interfaceSerial1
ipaddress203.250.15.1255.255.255.252
routerospf10
redistributestatic
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area2
network203.250.14.00.0.0.255area0
iproute16.16.16.0255.255.255.0Ethernet0
RTE#
interfaceSerial0
ipaddress203.250.15.2255.255.255.252
routerospf10
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area2
The following is the output of show ip route on RTE:
RTE#showiproute
OIA203.250.14.0[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:02:31,Serial0
OE2128.213.0.0[110/20]via203.250.15.1,00:02:32,Serial0
Note that the only external route that has appeared is 128.213.0.0, because we did not use the subnet
keyword. Remember that if the subnet keyword is not used, only routes that are not subnetted will be
redistributed. In our case 16.16.16.0 is a class A route that is subnetted and it did not get redistributed.
Since the metric keyword was not used (or a default-metric statement under router OSPF), the cost
allocated to the external route is 20 (the default is 1 for BGP). If we use the following:
redistributestaticmetric50subnets
RTE#showiproute
Codes:Cconnected,Sstatic,IIGRP,RRIP,M
mobile,BBGP
OE216.16.16.0[110/50]via203.250.15.1,00:00:02,Serial0
OIA203.250.14.0[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:00:02,Serial0
OE2128.213.0.0[110/50]via203.250.15.1,00:00:02,Serial0
Note that 16.16.16.0 has shown up now and the cost to external routes is 50. Since the external routes
are of type 2 (E2), the internal cost has not been added. Suppose now, we change the type to E1:
redistributestaticmetric50metrictype1subnets
RTE#showiproute
OE116.16.16.0[110/114]via203.250.15.1,00:04:20,Serial0
OIA203.250.14.0[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:09:41,Serial0
OE1128.213.0.0[110/114]via203.250.15.1,00:04:21,Serial0
Note that the type has changed to E1 and the cost has been incremented by the internal cost of S0 which
is 64, the total cost is 64+50=114.
Assume that we add a route map to RTC's con guration, we will get the following:
RTC#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.14.2255.255.255.0
interfaceSerial1
ipaddress203.250.15.1255.255.255.252
routerospf10
redistributestaticmetric50metrictype1subnetsroutemapSTOPUPDATE
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area2
network203.250.14.00.0.0.255area0
accesslist1permit128.213.0.00.0.255.255
routemapSTOPUPDATEpermit10
matchipaddress1
The route map above will only permit 128.213.0.0 to be redistributed into OSPF and will deny the rest.
This is why 16.16.16.0 does not show up in RTE's routing table anymore.
RTE#showiproute
OIA203.250.14.0[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:00:04,Serial0
OE1128.213.0.0[110/114]via203.250.15.1,00:00:05,Serial0
Redistributing OSPF into Other Protocols
Use of a Valid Metric

Whenever you redistribute OSPF into other protocols, you have to respect the rules of those protocols. In
particular, the metric applied should match the metric used by that protocol. For example, the RIP metric is
a hop count ranging between 1 and 16, where 1 indicates that a network is one hop away and 16
indicates that the network is unreachable. On the other hand IGRP and EIGRP require a metric of the form:
defaultmetric
bandwidthdelayreliabilityloadingmtu
VLSM
Another issue to consider is VLSM (Variable Length Subnet Guide)(Appendix C). OSPF can carry multiple
subnet information for the same major net, but other protocols such as RIP and IGRP (EIGRP is OK with
VLSM) cannot. If the same major net crosses the boundaries of an OSPF and RIP domain, VLSM
information redistributed into RIP or IGRP will be lost and static routes will have to be con gured in the RIP
or IGRP domains. The following example illustrates this problem:
In the above diagram, RTE is running OSPF and RTA is running RIP. RTC is doing the redistribution between
the two protocols. The problem is that the class C network 203.250.15.0 is variably subnetted, it has two
di erent masks 255.255.255.252 and 255.255.255.192. Let us look at the con guration and the routing
tables of RTE and RTA:
RTA#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.15.68255.255.255.192
routerrip
network203.250.15.0
RTC#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.15.67255.255.255.192
interfaceSerial1
ipaddress203.250.15.1255.255.255.252
routerospf10
redistributeripmetric10subnets
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area0
routerrip
redistributeospf10metric2
network203.250.15.0
RTE#showiproute
O203.250.15.64255.255.255.192
[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:15:55,Serial0
RTA#showiproute
C203.250.15.64isdirectlyconnected,Ethernet0
Note that RTE has recognized that 203.250.15.0 has two subnets while RTA thinks that it has only one
subnet (the one con gured on the interface). Information about subnet 203.250.15.0 255.255.255.252 is
lost in the RIP domain. In order to reach that subnet, a static route needs to be con gured on RTA:
RTA#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.15.68255.255.255.192
routerrip
network203.250.15.0
iproute203.250.15.0255.255.255.0203.250.15.67
This way RTA will be able to reach the other subnets.
Mutual Redistribution
Mutual redistribution between protocols should be done very carefully and in a controlled manner.
Incorrect con guration could lead to potential looping of routing information. A rule of thumb for mutual
redistribution is not to allow information learned from a protocol to be injected back into the same
protocol. Passive interfaces and distribute lists should be applied on the redistributing routers. Filtering
information with link-state protocols such as OSPF is a tricky business. Distribute-list out works on the
ASBR to lter redistributed routes into other protocols. Distribute-list in works on any router to prevent
routes from being put in the routing table, but it does not prevent link-state packets from being
propagated, downstream routers would still have the routes. It is better to avoid OSPF ltering as much as
possible if lters can be applied on the other protocols to prevent loops.
To illustrate, suppose RTA, RTC, and RTE are running RIP. RTC and RTA are also running OSPF. Both RTC
and RTA are doing redistribution between RIP and OSPF. Let us assume that you do not want the RIP
coming from RTE to be injected into the OSPF domain so you put a passive interface for RIP on E0 of RTC.
However, you have allowed the RIP coming from RTA to be injected into OSPF. Here is the outcome:
Note:Do not use the following con guration.
RTE#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.15.130255.255.255.192

interfaceSerial0
ipaddress203.250.15.2255.255.255.192

routerrip
network203.250.15.0

RTC#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.15.67255.255.255.192

interfaceSerial1
ipaddress203.250.15.1255.255.255.192

routerospf10
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area0

routerrip
passiveinterfaceEthernet0
network203.250.15.0

RTA#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.15.68255.255.255.192

routerospf10
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area0
routerrip
network203.250.15.0

RTC#showiproute


R203.250.15.128[120/1]via203.250.15.68,00:01:08,Ethernet0
[120/1]via203.250.15.2,00:00:11,Serial1
O203.250.15.192[110/20]via203.250.15.68,00:21:41,Ethernet0
Note that RTC has two paths to reach 203.250.15.128 subnet: Serial 1 and Ethernet 0 (E0 is obviously the
wrong path). This happened because RTC gave that entry to RTA via OSPF and RTA gave it back via RIP
because RTA did not learn it via RIP. This example is a very small scale of loops that can occur because of
an incorrect con guration. In large networks this situation gets even more aggravated.
In order to x the situation in our example, you could stop RIP from being sent on RTA's Ethernet 0 via a
passive interface. This might not be suitable in case some routers on the Ethernet are RIP only routers. In
this case, you could allow RTC to send RIP on the Ethernet; this way RTA will not send it back on the wire
because of split horizon (this might not work on NBMA media if split horizon is o ). Split horizon does not
allow updates to be sent back on the same interface they were learned from (via the same protocol).
Another good method is to apply distribute-lists on RTA to deny subnets learned via OSPF from being put
back into RIP on the Ethernet. The latter is the one we will be using:
RTA#
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.15.68255.255.255.192

routerospf10
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area0

routerrip
network203.250.15.0
distributelist1outospf10
And the output of RTC's routing table would be:
RTF#showiproute


R203.250.15.128[120/1]via203.250.15.2,00:00:19,Serial1
O203.250.15.192[110/20]via203.250.15.68,00:21:41,Ethernet0
Injecting Defaults into OSPF

An autonomous system boundary router (ASBR) can be forced to generate a default route into the OSPF
domain. As discussed earlier, a router becomes an ASBR whenever routes are redistributed into an OSPF
domain. However, an ASBR does not, by default, generate a default route into the OSPF routing domain.
To have OSPF generate a default route use the following:
defaultinformationoriginate[always][metricmetricvalue]
[metrictypetypevalue][routemapmapname]
Note:The above command should be on one line.

There are two ways to generate a default. The rst is to advertise 0.0.0.0 inside the domain, but only if the
ASBR itself already has a default route. The second is to advertise 0.0.0.0 regardless whether the ASBR
has a default route. The latter can be set by adding the keyword always. You should be careful when using
the always keyword. If your router advertises a default (0.0.0.0) inside the domain and does not have a
default itself or a path to reach the destinations, routing will be broken.
The metric and metric type are the cost and type (E1 or E2) assigned to the default route. The route map
speci es the set of conditions that need to be satis ed in order for the default to be generated.
Assume that RTE is injecting a default-route 0.0.0.0 into RIP. RTC will have a gateway of last resort of
203.250.15.2. RTC will not propagate the default to RTA until we con gure RTC with a default-
information originate command.
RTC#showiproute


R203.250.15.128[120/1]via203.250.15.2,00:00:17,Serial1
O203.250.15.192[110/20]via203.250.15.68,2d23,Ethernet0
R*0.0.0.00.0.0.0[120/1]via203.250.15.2,00:00:17,Serial1
[120/1]via203.250.15.68,00:00:32,Ethernet0
RTC#

interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.15.67255.255.255.192

interfaceSerial1
ipaddress203.250.15.1255.255.255.192

routerospf10
network203.250.15.00.0.0.255area0
defaultinformationoriginatemetric10

routerrip
passiveinterfaceEthernet0
network203.250.15.0
RTA#showiproute



O203.250.15.0[110/74]via203.250.15.67,2d23,Ethernet0
OE2203.250.15.128[110/10]via203.250.15.67,2d23,Ethernet0
O*E20.0.0.00.0.0.0[110/10]via203.250.15.67,00:00:17,Ethernet0
Note that RTA has learned 0.0.0.0 as an external route with metric 10. The gateway of last resort is set to
203.250.15.67 as expected.
OSPF Design Tips

The OSPF RFC (1583) did not specify any guidelines for the number of routers in an area or number the of
neighbors per segment or what is the best way to architect a network. Di erent people have di erent
approaches to designing OSPF networks. The important thing to remember is that any protocol can fail
under pressure. The idea is not to challenge the protocol but rather to work with it in order to get the best
behavior. The following are a list of things to consider.
Number of Routers per Area

The maximum number of routers per area depends on several factors, including the following:
What kind of area do you have?
What kind of CPU power do you have in that area?
What kind of media?
Will you be running OSPF in NBMA mode?
Is your NBMA network meshed?
Do you have a lot of external LSAs in the network?
Are other areas well summarized?
For this reason, it's di cult to specify a maximum number of routers per area. Consult your local sales or
system engineer for speci c network design help.
Number of Neighbors
The number of routers connected to the same LAN is also important. Each LAN has a DR and BDR that
build adjacencies with all other routers. The fewer neighbors that exist on the LAN, the smaller the number
of adjacencies a DR or BDR have to build. That depends on how much power your router has. You could
always change the OSPF priority to select your DR. Also if possible, try to avoid having the same router be
the DR on more than one segment. If DR selection is based on the highest RID, then one router could
accidently become a DR over all segments it is connected to. This router would be doing extra e ort while
other routers are idle.
Number of Areas per ABR

ABRs will keep a copy of the database for all areas they service. If a router is connected to ve areas for
example, it will have to keep a list of ve di erent databases. The number of areas per ABR is a number
that is dependent on many factors, including type of area (normal, stub, NSSA), ABR CPU power, number
of routes per area, and number of external routes per area. For this reason, a speci c number of areas per
ABR cannot be recommended. Of course, it's better not to overload an ABR when you can always spread
the areas over other routers. The following diagram shows the di erence between one ABR holding ve
di erent databases (including area 0) and two ABRs holding three databases each. Again, these are just
guidelines, the more areas you con gure per ABR the lower performance you get. In some cases, the
lower performance can be tolerated.
Full Mesh vs. Partial Mesh

Non Broadcast Multi-Access (NBMA) clouds such as Frame Relay or X.25, are always a challenge. The
combination of low bandwidth and too many link-states is a recipe for problems. A partial mesh topology
has proven to behave much better than a full mesh. A carefully laid out point-to-point or point-to-
multipoint network works much better than multipoint networks that have to deal with DR issues.
Memory Issues
It is not easy to gure out the memory needed for a particular OSPF con guration. Memory issues usually
come up when too many external routes are injected in the OSPF domain. A backbone area with 40
routers and a default route to the outside world would have less memory issues compared with a
backbone area with 4 routers and 33,000 external routes injected into OSPF.
Memory could also be conserved by using a good OSPF design. Summarization at the area border routers
and use of stub areas could further minimize the number of routes exchanged.
The total memory used by OSPF is the sum of the memory used in the routing table ( show ip route
summary ) and the memory used in the link-state database. The following numbers are a rule of thumb
estimate. Each entry in the routing table will consume between approximately 200 and 280 bytes plus 44
bytes per extra path. Each LSA will consume a 100 byte overhead plus the size of the actual link state
advertisement, possibly another 60 to 100 bytes (for router links, this depends on the number of interfaces
on the router). This should be added to memory used by other processes and by the IOS itself. If you really
want to know the exact number, you can do a show memory with and without OSPF being turned on. The
di erence in the processor memory used would be the answer (keep a backup copy of the con gs).
Normally, a routing table with less than 500K bytes could be accommodated with 2 to 4 MB RAM; Large
networks with greater than 500K may need 8 to 16 MB, or 32 to 64 MB if full routes are injected from the
Internet.
Summary
The OSPF protocol de ned in RFC 1583, provides a high functionality open protocol that allows multiple
vendor networks to communicate using the TCP/IP protocol family. Some of the bene ts of OSPF are, fast
convergence, VLSM, authentication, hierarchical segmentation, route summarization, and aggregation
which are needed to handle large and complicated networks.
Appendix A: Link-State Database Synchronization
In the above diagram, routers on the same segment go through a series of states before forming a
successful adjacency. The neighbor and DR election are done via the Hello protocol. Whenever a router
sees itself in his neighbor's Hello packet, the state transitions to "2-Way". At that point DR and BDR
election is performed on multi-access segments. A router continues forming an adjacency with a neighbor
if either of the two routers is a DR or BDR or they are connected via a point-to-point or virtual link.
In the Exstart state,the two neighbors form a Master/Slave relationship where they agree on a initial
sequence number. The sequence number is used to detect old or duplicate Link-State Advertisements
(LSA).
In the Exchange state, Database Description Packets (DD) will get exchanged. These are abbreviated link-
state advertisements in the form of link-state headers. The header supplies enough information to identify
a link. The master node sends DD packets which are acknowledged with DD packets from the slave node.
All adjacencies in exchange state or greater are used by the ooding procedure. These adjacencies are
fully capable of transmitting and receiving all types of OSPF routing protocol packets.
In the Loading state, link-state request packets are sent to neighbors, asking for more recent
advertisements that have been discovered but not yet received. Each router builds a list of required LSAs
to bring its adjacency up to date. A Retransmission List is maintained to make sure that every LSA is
acknowledged. To specify the number of seconds between link-state advertisement retransmissions for
the adjacency you can use:
ipospfretransmitinterval
seconds
Link-state update packets are sent in response to request packets. The link-state update packets will be
ooded over all adjacencies.
In the Full state, the neighbor routers are fully adjacent. The databases for a common area are an exact
match between adjacent routers.
Each LSA has an age eld that gets periodically incremented while it is contained in the database or as it
gets ooded throughout the area. When an LSA reaches a Maxage it gets ushed from the database if
that LSA is not on any neighbors retransmission list.
Link-State Advertisements
Link-state advertisements are broken into ve types. Router Links (RL) are generated by all routers. These
links describe the state of the router interfaces inside a particular area. These links are only ooded inside
the router's area. Network Links (NL) are generated by a DR of a particular segment; these are an
indication of the routers connected to that segment. Summary Links (SL) are the inter-area links (type 3);
these links will list the networks inside other areas but still belonging to the autonomous system. Summary
links are injected by the ABR from the backbone into other areas and from other areas into the backbone.
These links are used for aggregation between areas. Other types of summary links are the asbr-summary
links. These are type 4 links that point to the ASBR. This is to make sure that all routers know the way to
exit the autonomous system. The last type is type 5, External Links (EL), these are injected by the ASBR
into the domain.
The above diagram illustrates the di erent link types. RTA generates a router link (RL) into area 1, and it
also generates a network link (NL) since it happens the be the DR on that particular segment. RTB is an
ABR, and it generates RL into area 1 and area 0. RTB also generates summary links into area 1 and area 0.
These links are the list of networks that are interchanged between the two areas. An ASBR summary link is
also injected by RTB into area 1. This is an indication of the existence of RTD, the autonomous system
boundary router (ASBR). Similarly RTC, which is another ABR, generates RL for area 0 and area 2, and a
SL (3) into area 2 (since it is not announcing any ASBR), and a SL (3,4) into area 0 announcing RTD. RTD
generates a RL for area 2 and generates an EL for external routes learned via BGP. The external routers
will be ooded all over the domain.
The following table is a summary of the link state advertisements.
L Advertisement Description
S
Ty
p
e
1 Router Link advertisements. Generated by each router for each area it belongs to. They describe
the states of the router's link to the area. These are only ooded within a particular area.
2 Network Link advertisements. Generated by Designated Routers. They describe the set of routers
attached to a particular network. Flooded in the area that contains the network.
3 Summary Link advertisements. Generated by Area Border routers. They describe inter-area
or (between areas) routes. Type 3 describes routes to networks, also used for aggregating routes.
4 Type 4 describes routes to ASBR.
5 AS external link advertisements. Originated by ASBR. They describe routes to destinations

external to the AS. Flooded all over except stub areas.
If you look at the OSPF database in detail, using show ip ospf database detail , you will see di erent
keywords such as Link-Data, Link-ID, and Link-state ID. These terms become confusing as the value of
each depends on the link state type and the link-type. We will go over this terminology and will provide a
detailed example on the OSPF database as seen from the router.
The Link-State ID basically de nes the identity of the link-state depending on the LS type. Router Links
are identi ed by the router ID (RID) of the router that originated the advertisement. Network Links are
identi ed by the relative IP address of the DR. This makes sense because Network Links are originated by
the Designated Router. Summary Links (type 3) are identi ed by the IP network numbers of the
destinations they are pointing at. ASBR Summary Links (Summary Links type 4) are identi ed by the RID
of the ASBR. Finally, External Links are identi ed by the IP network numbers of the external destinations
they are pointing at. The following table summarizes this information:
LS Link State ID (In the high level view of the database when referencing a router this is
Type called Link ID)
1 The originating Router's Router ID (RID).
2 The IP interface address of the network's Designated Router.
3 The destination network number.
4 The router ID of the described AS boundary router.
5 The external network number.
Next, we will describe the di erent links available:

Stub network links: This term has nothing to do with stub areas. A stub segment is a segment that has
one router only attached to it. An Ethernet or Token Ring segment that has one attached router is
considered a link to a stub network. A loopback interface is also considered a link to stub network with a
255.255.255.255 mask (Host route).
Point-to-point links: These could be physical or logical (subinterfaces) point-to-point serial link
connections. These links could be numbered (an IP address is con gured on the link) or unnumbered.
Transit links: These are interfaces connected to networks that have more than one router attached, hence
the name transit.
Virtual links: These are logical links that connect areas that do not have physical connections to the
backbone. Virtual links are treated as numbered point-to-point links.
The link-ID is an identi cation of the link itself. This is di erent for each link type. A transit link is identi ed
by the IP address of the DR on that link. A numbered point-to-point link is identi ed by the RID of the
neighbor router on the point-to-point link. Virtual links are identical to point-to-point links. Finally, links
to stub networks are identi ed by the IP address of the interface to the stub network. The following table
summarizes this information:
Link Type Link ID (This applies to individual

Links)
Point-to-Point Neighbor Router ID
Link to transit network Interface address of DR
Link to stub network (In case of loopback mask is Network/subnet number

255.255.255.255)
Virtual Link Neighbor Router ID
The Link Data is the IP address of the link, except for stub network where the link data is the network
mask.
Link Type Link Data
Stub network Network Mask
Other networks (applies to router links only) Router's associated IP interface address
Finally, an Advertising Router is the RID of the router that has sent the LSA.
OSPF Database Example
Given the network diagram above, the following con gurations, and the IP route tables, let us look at
di erent ways of understanding the OSPF database.
RTA#
interfaceLoopback0
ipaddress203.250.13.41255.255.255.255
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.15.68255.255.255.192
interfaceEthernet1
ipaddress203.250.15.193255.255.255.192
routerospf10
network203.250.0.00.0.255.255area0
RTA#showiproute
OE2203.250.16.128[110/10]via203.250.15.67,00:00:50,Ethernet0
C203.250.13.41isdirectlyconnected,Loopback0
OIA203.250.15.0[110/74]via203.250.15.67,00:00:50,Ethernet0
O*E20.0.0.00.0.0.0[110/10]via203.250.15.67,00:00:50,Ethernet0
RTE#
ipsubnetzero
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.16.130255.255.255.192
interfaceSerial0
ipaddress203.250.15.2255.255.255.192
routerospf10
network203.250.15.00.0.0.63area1
defaultinformationoriginatemetric10
routerrip
network203.250.16.0
RTE#showiproute
OIA203.250.13.41255.255.255.255
[110/75]via203.250.15.1,00:16:31,Serial0
OIA203.250.15.64[110/74]via203.250.15.1,00:16:31,Serial0
OIA203.250.15.192[110/84]via203.250.15.1,00:16:31,Serial0
S*0.0.0.00.0.0.0isdirectlyconnected,Ethernet0
RTC#
ipsubnetzero
interfaceEthernet0
ipaddress203.250.15.67255.255.255.192
interfaceSerial1
ipaddress203.250.15.1255.255.255.192
routerospf10
network203.250.15.640.0.0.63area0
network203.250.15.00.0.0.63area1
RTF#showiproute
OE2203.250.16.128[110/10]via203.250.15.2,04:49:05,Serial1
O203.250.13.41[110/11]via203.250.15.68,04:49:06,Ethernet0
O203.250.15.192[110/20]via203.250.15.68,04:49:06,Ethernet0
O*E20.0.0.00.0.0.0[110/10]via203.250.15.2,04:49:06,Serial1
General View of the Database
RTC#showipospfdatabase
OSPFRouterwithID(203.250.15.67)(ProcessID10)
RouterLinkStates(Area1)
LinkIDADVRouterAgeSeq#ChecksumLinkcount
203.250.15.67203.250.15.67480x800000080xB1122
203.250.16.130203.250.16.1302120x800000060x3F442
SummaryNetLinkStates(Area1)
LinkIDADVRouterAgeSeq#Checksum
203.250.13.41203.250.15.676020x800000020x90AA
203.250.15.64203.250.15.676200x800000E90x3E3C
203.250.15.192203.250.15.676380x800000E50xA54E
203.250.13.41203.250.13.411790x800000290x9ADA3
203.250.15.67203.250.15.676750x800001E20xDD231
NetLinkStates(Area0)
203.250.15.68203.250.13.413340x800000010xB6B5
203.250.15.0203.250.15.677920x800000020xAEBD
SummaryASBLinkStates(Area0)
203.250.16.130203.250.15.675790x800000010xF9AF
ASExternalLinkStates
LinkIDADVRouterAgeSeq#ChecksumTag
0.0.0.0203.250.16.13017870x800000010x98CE10
203.250.16.128203.250.16.13050x800000020x93C40
This is a general look at the whole OSPF database. The database is listed according to the areas. In this
case, we are looking at RTC's database which is an ABR. Both area 1 and area 0's databases are listed.
Area 1 is composed of router links and summary links. No network links exist because no DR exists on any
of the segments in area 1. No Summary ASBR links exist in area 1 because the only ASBR happens to be
in area 0. External links do not belong to any particular area as they are ooded all over. Note that all the
links are the cumulative links collected from all routers in an area.
We will mainly concentrate on the database in area 0. The Link-ID indicated here is actually the Link-State
ID. This is a representation of the whole router, not a particular link. This is a bit confusing, but just
remember that this high level Link-ID (should be Link-State ID) represents the whole router and not just a
link.
Router Links
203.250.13.41203.250.13.411790x800000290x9ADA3
203.250.15.67203.250.15.676750x800001E20xDD231
We will start with the router links. There are two entries listed for 203.250.13.41 and 203.250.15.67, these
are the RIDs of the two routers in area 0. The number of links in area 0 for each router is also indicated.
RTA has three links to area 0 and RTC has one link. A detailed view of RTC's router links follows:
RTC#showipospfdatabaserouter203.250.15.67
LSage:1169
Options:(NoTOScapability)
LSType:RouterLinks
LinkStateID:203.250.15.67
AdvertisingRouter:203.250.15.67
LSSeqNumber:80000008
Checksum:0xB112
Length:48
AreaBorderRouter
NumberofLinks:2
Linkconnectedto:anotherRouter(pointtopoint)
(LinkID)NeighboringRouterID:203.250.16.130
(LinkData)RouterInterfaceaddress:203.250.15.1
NumberofTOSmetrics:0
TOS0Metrics:64

Linkconnectedto:aStubNetwork
(LinkID)Network/subnetnumber:203.250.15.0
(LinkData)NetworkMask:255.255.255.192
TOS0Metrics:64
One thing to note here is that OSPF generates an extra stub link for each point-to-point interface. Do not
get confused if you see the link count larger than the number of physical interfaces.
LSage:1227
LSType:RouterLinks
Checksum:0xA041
Length:36
AreaBorderRouter
NumberofLinks:1
Linkconnectedto:aTransitNetwork
(LinkID)DesignatedRouteraddress:203.250.15.68
TOS0Metrics:10
Note that the Link ID is equal to the IP address (not the RID) of the attached DR; in this case it is
203.250.15.68. The Link Data is RTC's own IP address.
Network Links
203.250.15.68203.250.13.413340x800000010xB6B5
One network link is listed, indicated by the interface IP address (not the RID) of the DR, in this case
203.250.15.68. A detailed view of this entry follows:
RTC#showipospfdatabasenetwork
RoutingBitSetonthisLSA
LSage:1549
LSType:NetworkLinks
LinkStateID:203.250.15.68(addressofDesignatedRouter)
Checksum:0xB4B6
Length:32
NetworkMask:255.255.255.192
AttachedRouter:203.250.13.41
Note that the network link lists the RIDs of the routers attached to the transit network; in this case the RIDs
of RTA and RTC are listed.
Summary Links
203.250.15.0203.250.15.677920x800000020xAEBD
Area0hasonesummarylinkrepresentedbytheIPnetworkaddressofthe
link203.250.15.0.ThislinkwasinjectedbytheABRRTCfromarea1into
area0.Adetailedviewofthissummarylinkfollows,summarylinksfor
area1arenotlistedhere:
RTC#showipospfdatabasesummary(area1isnotlisted)
LSage:615
LSType:SummaryLinks(Network)
LinkStateID:203.250.15.0(summaryNetworkNumber)
Checksum:0xACBE
Length:28
NetworkMask:255.255.255.192TOS:0Metric:64
Summary ASBR Links
203.250.16.130203.250.15.675790x800000010xF9AF
This is an indication of who the ASBR is. In this case the ASBR is RTE represented by its RID
203.250.16.130. The advertising router for this entry into area 0 is RTC with RID 203.250.15.67. A detailed
view of the summary ASBR entry follows:
RTC#showipospfdatabaseasbrsummary
LSage:802
LSType:SummaryLinks(ASBoundaryRouter)
LinkStateID:203.250.16.130(ASBoundaryRouteraddress)
Checksum:0xF5B1
Length:28
External Links
LinkIDADVRouterAgeSeq#ChecksumTag
0.0.0.0203.250.16.13017870x800000010x98CE10
203.250.16.128203.250.16.13050x800000020x93C40
We have two external Links, the rst one is the 0.0.0.0 injected into OSPF via the default-information
originate command. The other entry is network 203.250.16.12 8 which is injected into OSPF by
redistribution. The router advertising these networks is 203.250.16.130, the RID of RTE. The following is
the detailed view of the external routes:
RTC#showipospfdatabaseexternal
LSage:208
LSType:ASExternalLink
LinkStateID:0.0.0.0(ExternalNetworkNumber)
Checksum:0x96CF
Length:36
NetworkMask:0.0.0.0
MetricType:2(Largerthananylinkstatepath)
TOS:0
Metric:10
ForwardAddress:0.0.0.0
ExternalRouteTag:10
LSage:226
Checksum:0x93C4
Length:36
TOS:0
Metric:10
ExternalRouteTag:0
Note the forward address. Whenever this address is 0.0.0.0 it indicates that the external routes are
reachable via the advertising router, in this case 203. 250.16.130. This is why the identity of the ASBR is
injected by ABRs into other areas using ASBR summary links.
This forward address is not always 0.0.0.0. In some cases, it could be the IP address of another router on
the same segment. The following diagram will illustrate this situation:
In the above situation RTB, is running BGP with RTA, and OSPF with the rest of the domain. RTA is not
running OSPF. RTB is redistributing BGP routes into OSPF. According to OSPF, RTB is an ASBR advertising
external routes. The forwarding address in this case is set to 125.211.1.1 and not to the advertising router
(0.0.0.0) RT B. This makes sense because there is no need to make the extra hop. An important thing to
remember is that routers inside the OSPF domain should be able to reach the forwarding address via
OSPF in order for the external routes to be put in the IP routing table. If the forwarding address is reached
via some other protocol or no t accessible, the external entries would be in the database but not in the IP
routing table.
Another situation would arise if both RTB and RTC are ASBRs (RTC is also running BGP with RTA). In this
situation, in order to eliminate the duplication of the e ort, one of the two routers will not advertise (will
ush) the external routes. T he router with the higher RID will win.
The Full Database
Finally, this is a listing of the whole database as an exercise. You should now b e able to go over each
entry and explain what is going on:
RTC#showipospfdatabaserouter
LSage:926
LSType:RouterLinks
Checksum:0x573F
Length:48
AreaBorderRouter
NumberofLinks:2
TOS0Metrics:64
TOS0Metrics:64
LSage:958
LSType:RouterLinks
Checksum:0xDA76
Length:48
ASBoundaryRouter
NumberofLinks:2
TOS0Metrics:64
TOS0Metrics:64
LSage:1107
LSType:RouterLinks
LSSeqNumber:8000002A
Checksum:0xC0B0
Length:60
ASBoundaryRouter
NumberofLinks:3
TOS0Metrics:1
TOS0Metrics:10
TOS0Metrics:10
LSage:1575
LSType:RouterLinks
Checksum:0x5666
Length:36
AreaBorderRouter
NumberofLinks:1
TOS0Metrics:10

RTC#showipospfdatabasenetwork
LSage:1725
LSType:NetworkLinks
LinkStateID:203.250.15.68(addressofDesignatedRouter)
Checksum:0x6CDA
Length:32

RTC#showipospfdatabasesummary
LSage:8
Checksum:0x42D1
Length:28
LSage:26
Checksum:0xB182
Length:28
LSage:47
Checksum:0x1F91
Length:28
LSage:66
Checksum:0x68E0
Length:28

RTC#showipospfasbrsummary
LSage:576
LSType:SummaryLinks(ASBoundaryRouter)
LinkStateID:203.250.16.130(ASBoundaryRouteraddress)
Checksum:0xB3D2
Length:28

RTC#showipospfdatabaseexternal
LSage:305
Checksum:0x98CE
Length:36
NetworkMask:0.0.0.0
TOS:0
Metric:10
ExternalRouteTag:10
LSage:653
Checksum:0x4FE6
Length:36
TOS:0
Metric:10
ExternalRouteTag:0
Appendix B: OSPF and IP Multicast Addressing

OSPF used IP multicast to exchange Hello packets and Link State Updates. An IP multicast address is
implemented using class D addresses. A class D address ranges from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255.
Some special IP multicast addresses are reserved for OSPF:
224.0.0.5: All OSPF routers should be able to transmit and listen to this address.
224.0.0.6: All DR and BDR routers should be able to transmit and listen to this address.
The mapping between IP multicast addresses and MAC addresses has the following rule:
For multiaccess networks that support multicast, the low order 23 bits of the IP address are used as the
low order bits of the MAC multicast address 01-005E-00-00- 00. For example:
224.0.0.5 would be mapped to 01-00-5E-00-00-05
224.0.0.6 would be mapped to 01-00-5E-00-00-06
OSPF uses broadcast on Token Ring networks.
Appendix C: Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM)

The following is a binary/decimal conversion chart:
000 000 001 001 010 010 011 0111

0 1 0 1 0 1 0
0 000 16 000 32 000 48 000 64 000 80 000 96 000 112 0000

0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 000 17 000 33 000 49 000 65 000 81 000 97 000 113 0001

1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 001 18 001 34 001 50 001 66 001 82 001 98 001 114 0010

0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 001 19 001 35 001 51 001 67 001 83 001 99 001 115 0011

1 1 1 1 1 1 1
4 010 20 010 36 010 52 010 68 010 84 010 10 010 116 0100

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 010 21 010 37 010 53 010 69 010 85 010 10 010 117 0101

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
6 011 22 011 38 011 54 011 70 011 86 011 10 011 118 0110

0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
7 011 23 011 39 011 55 011 71 011 87 011 10 011 119 0111

1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1
8 100 24 100 40 100 56 100 72 100 88 100 10 100 120 1000

0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0
9 100 25 100 41 100 57 100 73 100 89 100 10 100 121 1001

1 1 1 1 1 1 5 1
10 101 26 101 42 101 58 101 74 101 90 101 10 101 122 1010

0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0
11 101 27 101 43 101 59 101 75 101 91 101 10 101 123 1011

1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1
12 110 28 110 44 110 60 110 76 110 92 110 10 110 124 1100

0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0
13 110 29 110 45 110 61 110 77 110 93 110 10 110 125 1101
1 1 1 1 1 1 9 1
14 111 30 111 46 111 62 111 78 111 94 111 11 111 126 1110

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
15 111 31 111 47 111 63 111 79 111 95 111 11 111 127 1111

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
100 100 101 101 110 110 111 1111

0 1 0 1 0 1 0
12 000 14 000 16 000 17 000 19 000 20 000 22 000 240 0000

8 0 4 0 0 0 6 0 2 0 8 0 4 0
12 000 14 000 16 000 17 000 19 000 20 000 22 000 241 0001

9 1 5 1 1 1 7 1 3 1 9 1 5 1
13 001 14 001 16 001 17 001 19 001 21 001 22 001 242 0010

0 0 6 0 2 0 8 0 4 0 0 0 6 0
13 001 14 001 16 001 17 001 19 001 21 001 22 001 243 0011

1 1 7 1 3 1 9 1 5 1 1 1 7 1
13 010 14 010 16 010 18 010 19 010 21 010 22 010 244 0100

2 0 8 0 4 0 0 0 6 0 2 0 8 0
13 010 14 010 16 010 18 010 19 010 21 010 22 010 245 0101

3 1 9 1 5 1 1 1 7 1 3 1 9 1
13 011 15 011 16 011 18 011 19 011 21 011 23 011 246 0110

4 0 0 0 6 0 2 0 8 0 4 0 0 0
13 011 15 011 16 011 18 011 19 011 21 011 23 011 247 0111

5 1 1 1 7 1 3 1 9 1 5 1 1 1
13 100 15 100 16 100 18 100 20 100 21 100 23 100 248 1000

6 0 2 0 8 0 4 0 0 0 6 0 2 0
13 100 15 100 16 100 18 100 20 100 21 100 23 100 249 1001

7 1 3 1 9 1 5 1 1 1 7 1 3 1
13 101 15 101 17 101 18 101 20 101 21 101 23 101 250 1010

8 0 4 0 0 0 6 0 2 0 8 0 4 0
13 101 15 101 17 101 18 101 20 101 21 101 23 101 251 1011

9 1 5 1 1 1 7 1 3 1 9 1 5 1
14 110 15 110 17 110 18 110 20 110 22 110 23 110 252 1100

0 0 6 0 2 0 8 0 4 0 0 0 6 0
14 110 15 110 17 110 18 110 20 110 22 110 23 110 253 1101

1 1 7 1 3 1 9 1 5 1 1 1 7 1
14 111 15 111 17 111 19 111 20 111 22 111 23 111 254 1110

2 0 8 0 4 0 0 0 6 0 2 0 8 0
14 111 15 111 17 111 19 111 20 111 22 111 23 111 255 1111

3 1 9 1 5 1 1 1 7 1 3 1 9 1
The idea behind variable length subnet masks is to o er more exibility in dealing with dividing a major net
into multiple subnets and still being able to maintain an adequate number of hosts in each subnet. Without
VLSM one subnet mask only can be applied to a major network. This restricts the number of hosts given
the number of subnets required. If you pick the mask such that you have enough subnets, you are not able
to allocate enough hosts in each subnet. The same is true for the hosts; a mask that allows enough hosts
might not provide enough subnet space.
For example, suppose you were assigned a class C network 192.214.11.0 and you need to divide that
network into three subnets with 100 hosts in one subnet and 50 hosts for each of the remaining subnets.
Ignore the two end limits 0 and 255, and you have theoretically available to you 256 addresses
(192.214.11.0 - 192.214.11.255). This cannot be done without VLSM.
There are a handful of subnet masks that can be used; note that a mask should have a contiguous number
of ones that start from the left and the rest of the bits are all 0s.
252(11111100)Theaddressspaceisdividedinto64.
Without VLSM you have the choice to use mask 255.255.255.128 and divide the addresses into 2 subnets
with 128 hosts each or use 255.255.255.192 and divide the space into 4 subnets with 64 hosts each. This
does not meet the requirement. If you use multiple masks, you can use mask 128 and further subnet the
second chunk of addresses with mask 192. This table shows how you have divided the address space
accordingly.
Now, be careful in allocating the IP addresses to each mask. Once you assign an IP address to the router
or to a host, you have used up the whole subnet for that segment. For example, if you assign
192.214.11.10 255.255.255.128 to E2, the whole range of addresses between 192.214.11.0 and
192.214.11.127 is consumed by E2. In the same way if you assign 192.214.11.160 255.255.255.128 to
E2, the whole range of addresses between 192.214.11.128 and 192.214.11.255 is consumed by the E2
segment.
This is an illustration of how the router interprets these addresses. Remember that any time you use a
mask di erent than the natural mask, for instance if you are subnetting, the router complains if the
combination IP address and mask result in a subnet zero. Use the ip subnet-zero command on the router
in order to resolve this issue.
RTA#
ipsubnetzero
interfaceEthernet2
ipaddress192.214.11.10255.255.255.128
interfaceEthernet3
ipaddress192.214.11.160255.255.255.192
interfaceEthernet4
ipaddress192.214.11.226255.255.255.192
RTA#showiprouteconnected
C192.214.11.0255.255.255.128isdirectlyconnected,Ethernet2
Related Information
OSPF and MTU
OSPF neighbors are stuck in exstart and exchange state due to MTU mismatch
OSPF Support Page
OSPF: Frequently Asked Questions
Technical Support & Documentation - Cisco Systems
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7/4/2017 OSPFDesignGuideCisco

Updated: August 10, 2005 Document ID: 7039

OSPF versus RIP

What Do We Mean by Link-States?

Shortest Path First Algorithm

Shortest Path Tree

Areas and Border Routers

Enabling OSPF on the Router

Simple Password Authentication

Message Digest Authentication

The Backbone and Area 0

Areas Not Physically Connected to Area 0

Partitioning the Backbone

Building the Adjacency

Adjacencies on Point-to-Point Interfaces

Adjacencies on Non-Broadcast Multi-Access (NBMA) Networks

Avoiding DRs and neighbor Command on NBMA

OSPF and Route Summarization

Inter-Area Route Summarization

External Route Summarization

Redistributing Routes into OSPF

E1 vs. E2 External Routes

Redistributing OSPF into Other Protocols

Use of a Valid Metric

Injecting Defaults into OSPF

OSPF Design Tips

Number of Routers per Area

Number of Areas per ABR

Full Mesh vs. Partial Mesh

Appendix A: Link-State Database Synchronization

OSPF Database Example

Appendix B: OSPF and IP Multicast Addressing

Appendix C: Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM)

OSPF versus RIP

With OSPF, there is no limitation on the hop count.

The intelligent use of VLSM is very useful in IP address allocation.

OSPF allows for better load balancing.

What Do We Mean by Link-States?

Shortest Path First Algorithm

cost= 10000 0000/bandwith in bps

Shortest Path Tree

Areas and Border Routers

Enabling OSPF on the Router

1. Enabling an OSPF process using the router ospf <process-id> command.

Simple Password Authentication

ip ospf authentication-key key (this goes under the speci c interface)

area area-id authentication (this goes under "router ospf <process-id>")

Message Digest Authentication

ip ospf message-digest-key keyid md5 key (used under the interface)

area area-id authentication message-digest (used under "router ospf <process-id>")

The Backbone and Area 0

Patching the backbone in case discontinuity of area 0 occurs.

Areas Not Physically Connected to Area 0

Partitioning the Backbone

Building the Adjacency

Down: No information has been received from anybody on the segment.

Let's look at an example:

show ip ospf interface <interface>