Basic OSPF

BSCI Module 3

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 Introduction

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 Introduction to OSPF

 Defined in RFC 2328

 OSPF Characteristics
rapid convergence
lower bandwidth utilization (uses LSA)
variable-length subnet masking (VLSM) support
increased scalability, (multiarea hierarchical design).

 OSPF operation, LSA packets, hello packets, data

structures, router types, terminology, metric calculation

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 OSPF operation

 Respond quickly to
network changes
 Send triggered updates
when a network change
occurs
 Send periodic updates,
known as link-state
refresh, at long intervals,
such as every 30 minutes

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 LSA characteristics

 LSAs are reliable; there is a method for acknowledging the delivery

of LSAs.
 LSAs are flooded throughout the area (or throughout the domain if
there is only one area).
 LSAs have a sequence number and a set lifetime so that each
router recognizes that it has the most up-to-date version of the
LSA.
 LSAs are periodically refreshed to confirm topology information
before the information ages out of the link-state database.
 LSAs are propagated to all neighboring devices using the reserved
class D multicast address 224.0.0.5.

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 OSPF data structures

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 OSPF hello packets

 Sent to the 224.0.0.5

multicast address
 Contains information of:
• the router ID and area ID
of the originating router
• authentication settings
• timer settings
• router priority
• designated router (DR)
and backup designated
router (BDR)

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 OSPF areas

Rigid two-layer area hierarchy:

• Area 0, or backbone
• Other areas (non backbone)
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 OSPF Areas
Review of OSPF area characteristics:

 Minimizes routing
table entries
 Localizes impact of
a topology change
within an area
 Detailed LSA
flooding stops at
the area boundary
 Requires a
hierarchical
network design

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 OSPF router types

The four different types

of OSPF routers are:
• Internal routers
• Backbone routers
• Area border routers
• Autonomous System
Boundary Routers

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 OSPF terminology

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 New Terminology

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 OSPF Areas
New terminology for areas:

 Transit Area
Also known as
Backbone Area 0
 Regular Area
Also known as
Nonbackbone areas

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 OSPF Database
 OSPF maintains three databases
 Adjacency Database (show ip ospf neighbor)
 Link-state Database (show ip ospf database)
 Forwarding Database (show ip route)

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 What is LSDB?

 LSDB is an acronym for Link-state Database.

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 OSPF metric
10
10 10
10
10

10 10 10

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 OSPF packet types
 The OSPF protocol
exchanges 5 packet types:
 Hello
 Database description (DBD)
 Link-state request (LSR)
 Link-state update (LSU)
 Link-state acknowledgement
(LSAck)

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 OSPF packet

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 Establishing bidirectional communication

Note: After a DR and BDR

are selected, any router
added to the network
establishes adjacencies with
the DR and BDR only.
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 Discovering the network routes

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 Maintaing network routes

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 LSAs and the Link-
state Database

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 LSA Sequence Numbering
 Each LSA in the LSDB maintains a sequence number.
 The sequence numbering scheme is a 4-byte number
that begins with 0x80000001 and ends with
0x7FFFFFFF.
 OSPF floods each LSA every 30 minutes to maintain
proper database synchronization. Each time the LSA is
flooded, the sequence number is incremented by one.
 Ultimately, an LSA sequence number will wrap around
to 0x80000001. When this occurs, the existing LSA is
prematurely aged to maxage (one hour) and flushed.
 When a router encounters two instances of an LSA, it
must determine which is more recent. The LSA having
the newer (higher) LS sequence number is more
recent.
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 The OSPF Link-State Database
 The show ip ospf database command displays
the current LSDB for the local router.
 The next slide discusses the purpose of the Age and
Seq# fields highlighted below.
RTC#show ip ospf database

OSPF Router with ID (192.168.1.253) (Process ID 3)

Router Link States (Area 0)

Link ID ADV Router Age Seq# Checksum Link count

192.168.1.249 192.168.1.249 1705 0x80000005 0x00D5B0 5
192.168.1.253 192.168.1.253 1578 0x80000006 0x009F91 5

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 Link-State Data Structures: LSA
Operation

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 Verifying LSA Age and Sequence
Number
 In the first output below, notice the age timer will expire
sometime after 1800 seconds or 30 minutes.
RTC#show ip ospf database

OSPF Router with ID (192.168.1.253) (Process ID 3)

Router Link States (Area 0)

Link ID ADV Router Age Seq# Checksum Link count

192.168.1.249 192.168.1.249 1705 0x80000005 0x00D5B0 5
192.168.1.253 192.168.1.253 1578 0x80000006 0x009F91 5

 A few minutes later, the router has received an LSU for both links.
Note the refreshed age timer and incremented sequence number.
RTC#show ip ospf database

OSPF Router with ID (192.168.1.253) (Process ID 3)

Router Link States (Area 0)

Link ID ADV Router Age Seq# Checksum Link count

192.168.1.249 192.168.1.249 106 0x80000006 0x00D3B1 5
192.168.1.253 192.168.1.253 58 0x80000007 0x009D92 5

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 Basic OSPF
Configuration

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 Configuring OSPF
 An excellent resource for information on the many
different OSPF configurations is the Cisco white paper,
“Configuring OSPF”, which can be downloaded from
the Cisco website:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk365/tk480/tsd_technology_s
upport_sub-protocol_home.html

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 Configuring Basic OSPF
Router(config)#
router ospf process-id [vrf vpn-name]

 Enable one or more OSPF routing processes.

Router(config-router)#
network ip-address wildcard-mask area area-id

 Define the interfaces that OSPF will run on.

Router(config-if)#
ip ospf process-id area area-id [secondaries none]

 Optional method to enable OSPF explicitly on an

interface.
Router(config-if)#
ip ospf priority <0-255>

 Change the priority of an int., 0 = never wins, 1 = default.

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 Configuring OSPF for single area

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 Configuring OSPF for Multiple Areas

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 OSPF Router ID
 The router is known to OSPF by the OSPF router ID number.
 LSDBs use the OSPF router ID to differentiate one router from
the next.
 By default, the router ID is the highest IP address on an active
interface at the moment of OSPF process startup.
If no interface is up when the OSPF process starts, you will get the following error message:
p5r2(config)#router ospf 1
2w1d: %OSPF-4-NORTRID: OSPF process 1 cannot start.

 A loopback interface can override the OSPF router ID. If a

loopback interface exists, the router ID is the highest IP address
on any active loopback interface.
 The OSPF router-id command can be used to override the
OSPF router ID.
 Using a loopback interface or a router-id command is
recommended for stability. 33
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 OSPF router-id Command
Router(config-router)#
router-id ip-address

 This command is configured under the router ospf [process-

id] command.
 Any unique arbitrary 32-bit value in an IP address format (dotted
decimal) can be used.
 If this command is used on an OSPF process that is already active,
then the new router ID takes effect after the next reload or after a
manual restarting of the OSPF process using:
Router#clear ip ospf process

Router(config)#router ospf 1
Router(config-router)#router-id 172.16.1.1

Router#clear ip ospf process

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 Summary
 OSPF is an open-standard link-state routing protocol,
offering quick convergence and the ability to scale large
networks.
 There are five OSPF packet types: hello, DBD, LSU,
LSR, and LSAck.
 Configuration of OSPF is a two-step process:
• Enter OSPF configuration with the router ospf
command.
• Use the network command to describe which
interfaces will run OSPF in which area.

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 Additional Links
 http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps18
35/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a00800
b3f2e.html
 http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk365/technologies_c
onfiguration_example09186a0080094069.shtml
 http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6121/products
_user_guide_chapter09186a00806a2f02.html

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 Q and A

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