Routers and routing - Monday, July 28, 2008 12:49 - 0 Comments

What is OSPF

what is OSPF a brief overview

OSPF, short for Open Shortest Path First, is an interior gateway protocol.  This means that it
implements control within a LAN or WLAN over data distribution.  You may recall that RGP, or
Border gateway Patrol, provides routing as it leaves a network, and travels between routers.  OSPF
provides the same postal-type procedures inside a network.  It is much more versatile than RIP, in
that OSPF allows unlimited hops between sending and receiving locations, among other facets.

OSPF is what is referred to as a link-state protocol, meaning that each router broadcasts all open link
information to all other routers, with no more than three AS available to each router.  Remember, an
AS is an Autonomous System, and can be thought of as an independent network WITHIN a larger
network.  By each router keeping other routers informed of its current connection status, direct maps
may be determined for a data packet, allowing to to progress with the shortest number of currently
available hops over the network.

The newer OSPF v3 has added support for several concerns, including support for IPv6 packet
forwarding, multicast(single origin broadcasting) support and 16 additional optional capabilities, for a
total of 24. OSPF maintains three connection databases, Adjacency (monitors immediate neighbors),
Topology (monitors entire network map), and Route (maintains “best route” data).  These features
combine to make OSPF a secure and feature rich set protocol for data exchange on an interior
network.

Article written by MyComputerAid.com