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Showing posts from October 11, 2010

OSPF Routing Fundamentals

OSPF stands for Open Shortest Path First. Definition: OSPF is a routing protocol used to determine the best route for delivering the packets within an IP networks. It was published by the IETF to serve as an Interior Gateway Protocol replacing RIP. The OSPF specification is published as Request For Comments (RFC) 1247. Note that OSPF is a link-state routing protocol, whereas RIP and IGRP are distance-vector routing protocols. Routers running the distance-vector algorithm send all or a portion of their routing tables in routing-update messages to their neighbors. OSPF sends link-state advertisements (LSAs) to all other routers within the same area. Information on attached interfaces, metrics used, and other variables is included in OSPF LSAs. OSPF routers  use the SPF (Shortest Path First) algorithm to calculate the shortest path to each node. SPF algorithm is also known as Dijkstra algorithm. Advantages of OSPF OSPF is an open standard, not related to any partic