OSPF - Operation

1
 How it all works
• Internet model

eBGP eBGP

iBGP iBGP iBGP

IGP IGP IGP

AS X AS Y AS Z
Barry Greene & Philip Smith “Cisco ISP Essentials”

2
 Recap
• In ISP networks, IGPs
– Allow routers within an AS to learn about each other
– Carry next-hop reachability info
• Carries infrastructure info (loopbacks & ptp)
• NOT customer routes!
– scalability and fast convergence
• Hence, minimise the number of prefixes carried in IGP!

• BGP
– Carries customer prefixes
– Exchanges network info with other networks
• Carries internet route across the AS

3
 OSPF - Intro
• Link-state protocol
– SPF algorithm
– Protocol number (89) – runs on top of IP

IP Header OSPF Header OSPF Message

– Only sends triggered updates

– Supports hierarchical routing (multi-area) – scalability

• OSPFv2 (RFC2328), OSPFv3 (RFC5340), OSPFv3 AF

(RFC5838)

4
 Link State Operation

R2
R2 R1
R1 LSAs LSDB (Topology)
LSAs

Dijkstra’s SPF
R3 R4

Routing Table

Best Paths

SPF Tree

5
 Link State Operation
• Each link-state router learns about its links and
connected networks
– builds a link state packet – LSP (LSAs for each link)

• Sends out Hellos for neighbor discovery

– To establish adjacency

• Floods LSP to all its neighbors

– Stores all LSPs learned from its neighbors in a LSDB, and floods
to other neighbors
– Eventually all routers receive all LSPs
• same view of the network!

• Computes the best path to each destination

– using the SPF algorithm (SPF tree)

6
 Shortest Path First (SPF) Tree

• Every router in an OSPF network maintains an

identical topology database

• Router places itself at the root of SPF tree when

calculating the best path
 Best path selection
• Lowest cumulative cost = best path
FE FE
10 10
10 1
FE GE

• Load balances over equal cost paths

FE GE
10 1
10 1
FE GE

8
 OSPF Metric
• Uses link/path cost as metric

• Generally, inversely proportional to the link BW

– Higher the BW lower the cost
• configurable
𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒃𝒘
Cost = 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒃𝒘
(𝒃𝒑𝒔)

– The reference BW is generally 100Mbps (FE)

• interfaces bigger than a FE would have a cost of 1

– For more granularity/accuracy of cost calculation

• change reference BW for bigger links (all OSPF routers)
IOS:
router ospf/v3 <process-id> Junos:
set protocols ospf/3 reference-bandwidth <Gbps>
auto-cost reference-bandwidth <Mbps>

9
 Router ID
• Uniquely identifies a link-state router
– 4-byte Router ID

• Either:
IOS:
router-id <4-byte>
– Explicitly configured => Junos:
set routing-options router-id <4-byte>

– Else, the highest/lowest IPv4 address of any active loopback

interface

– If no loopbacks, the highest/lowest IPv4 address of any

active physical interface

– ** Loopbacks preferred!
• Why??

10
 OSPF Packets
OSPF Header OSPF Message

Version Type Length

Router-ID
Area-ID
Checksum AuType Type Description
Authentication 1 Hello
2 Database Description
Authentication
3 Link State Request
4 Link State Update
Link State
5 Acknowledgement

11
 OSPF Packets
• Hello packet

– Initially exchanged for neighbor discovery, and

– Later periodically to maintain adjacency

• Hello/Dead interval

– Hello packets contain:

• Router ID (sender’s)
• Area ID *
• Hello and Dead interval *
• Neighbors (list/router-id of neighbors - valid Hellos received)
• Network mask *
• DR/BDR identity (IP)
• Authentication (if enabled) *

12
 OSPF Packets
• DBD packet

– To sync LSDBs

– Summary of local LSDB

• List of LSAs (headers) with sequence number

– DBD exchange uses a poll-response paradigm

• Master sends DBD (polls); Slave acks with its own DBD (responds)

– The router with higher Router ID - Master

13
 OSPF Packets
• LSR packet
– During the sync process, if the local router finds its LSDB is
out of date (older LSAs than those received in the DBD –
seq#)

– Sends a LSR for the missing/newer LSAs

• Each LSA requested is identified by LS type, link state ID, and the router
that advertised the LSA

14
 OSPF Packets
• LSU packet
– Link state info is propagated through LSAs

– LSAs are advertised in LSU packet to neighbors

• Flooded reliably (ack) throughout the nw

• Initially (after adjacency is built), all LSAs in local LSDB

• Later, LSUs are only sent during a topology change
• Also in response to LSRs

– LSUs contain
• # of LSAs
• List of LSAs (single or multiple)

15
 OSPF Packets
• LSAck packet
– OSPF routers need to acknowledge receipt of each LSA
• LSAck

– Dataless packet

16
 Neighbor States
+----+
|Down|
+----+
Hello received (no local Router-ID)
+----+
|Init|
+----+
2-way received (local Router-ID seen)
+-----+
|2-way| DR/BDR selected from the “neighbor” list
+-----+

+-------+
Master-Slave decision + DBD Seq# |ExStart|
(higher router ID) +-------+
+--------+
|Exchange| Exchange DBD (local LSDB)
+--------+
N Y - more recent LSAs req?
+----+ +--------+
Adjacency estb
|Full| |Loading | LSRs sent to neighbor
(inc Router LSAs &
+--------+
Network LSAs) +----+

17
 Scaling - Hierarchy
• With single area OSPF, as network grows:
– Larger LSDB and routing table
– Frequent LSA flooding and SPF compute

• Hence, two-level hierarchy

– LSA flooding contained within areas
– Only summary routes exchanged between areas
• Through the backbone
10.10.10.0/26
2001:db8::/64
Area 0

ABR ABR
ABR

10.10.10.64/26
10.10.10.192/26
2001:db8:0:1::/64
10.10.10.128/26 2001:db8:0:3::/64
Area 1 2001:db8:0:2::/64 Area 3
Area 2
 Virtual links
• OSPF requires regular areas to be connected to the
backbone (Area-0)
– Inter-area routes propagated through the backbone

• Virtual links allow regular areas to connect

(logically) to the backbone
– Physically not feasible

Area 0 ABR Virtual link ABR Area 3

Area 1
 OSPF Network Types
• Point-to-point
– Can ONLY have one neighbor
connected on the link
– LSUs sent to ”all OSPF routers”
multicast
• 224.0.0.5/FF02::5

• Broadcast (multi-access)
– Could have more than one
neighbor connected on the link
• Ethernet links

20
 Broadcast NW issues
• Number of adjacencies
– # of Adj = n(n-1)/2;

• Extensive LSA flooding

– Initially, the whole LSDB
• LSAck too
– Periodic hellos for adjacencies
– Triggered updates LSA
LSA LSA
LSA
LSA
• During topology changes, each router will
send LSUs to neighbors - contains the
same info LSA LSA
LSA LSA
• LSAck too

21
 DR/BDR
• Hence, OSPF elects a Designated and Backup
Designated router for broadcast networks
– Adjacencies only formed with DR and BDR

– LSAs sent only to DR (BDR listens)

• 224.0.0.6/FF02::6

– DR floods to others
• 224.0.0.5/FF02::5
DR BDR

22
 DR/BDR Election
• Uses the Hello protocol (Rtr Priority)
– highest OSPF interface priority – DR
• Next highest priority – BDR

– Configurable: IOS:
(config-if)#ip/ipv6 ospf priority <0-255>

Junos:
set protocols ospf/3 area <area-id> interface <id> priority <0-255>

– Else, highest router ID – DR

• Next highest - BDR

– Recommended:
• configure higher priority for routers meant to be DR and BDR!

23
 LSA Types
• LSA Header
LS age Options LS Type Type Description
Link State ID 1 Router LSA
Advertising Router 2 Network LSA
LS Sequence# 3 Summary LSA (ABR)

Checksum Length 4 Summary LSA (ASBR)

5 AS-external LSA
– Age: time since LSA was generated
– Link state ID: identifies what the LSA is
Type Link-state ID
carrying
Originating router’s router
– Advertising Router: Router ID of the router 1 ID
originating the LSA 2 Interface IP of DR
– Seq#: indicates newness of the LSA 3 Network address
– Checksum: of the LSA content except age 4 ASBR’s router ID
– Length: of LSA (includes 20 byte header) The external network
5 address

24
 LSA Types
• Type-1 (Router LSA)
– router’s connected (active) links/interfaces and metrics
– flooded within the area (does not cross ABR)
– Identified by router ID of originating router

• Type-2 (Network LSA)

– broadcast/multi-access networks
• generated by DR
– describes routers connected to the broadcast segment
• Adjacent to the DR, including itself
– flooded within the area
– Identified by DR’s interface IP

25
 LSA Types
• Type-3 (Summary LSA - ABR)
– Inter-area routes
• Allows condensation at the are borders

– Originated by the ABR

• ABRs store LSAs from each area in a separate LSDB
• Generates a Type 3 for each subnet in the area

– Floods to the backbone

• Propagated to other areas

– Identified by the subnets carried in the LSA

26
 LSA Types

Area0
Type 1
Backbone

Area10

Area20

27
 LSA Types
• Type-4 (Summary LSA - ASBR)
– To identify the ASBR
• Route/path to the ASBR, to forward traffic destined for nws outside the
domain

– Originated by the ABR

• When a ABR receives Type-1 LSA with the E-bit set, generates a Type-4
LSA

– Floods to the backbone

• Propagated to other areas

– Identified by router ID of the ASBR

28
 LSA Types
• Type-5 (AS-external LSA)
– To advertise external routes into OSPF
• Destinations outside the domain
– Originated by the ASBR
• Generates a Type-5 for each external route
– Floods to the area it belongs
• Propagated unaltered to other areas via backbone by ABR of the area
– Identified by the external subnet carried in the LSA

• Note: DO NOT redistribute external routes into

OSPF!
– Floods unaltered throughout the network – convergence??

29
 LSA Types

Non-OSPF

Area0
Type5
Backbone
Type4

Area10

Area20

30
 LSA Types
• Opaque LSAs
– To advertise optional router capabilities
• Protocol extensibility
• RFC5250

– Ex: Router Information Opaque LSA (RFC7770)

• SR capabilities

– Flooding scope depends on the type

• 9- link
• 10 – area
• 11 - domain

31
 Best path compute
• Intra-area routes
– Lowest cost to the each nw within the area

• Inter-area routes
– Type3 (summary LSA-ABR) includes cost to each network
– Best path = lowest (cost to ABR + cost in Type3 LSA)

• External routes (E-bit defines the metric type – E2>E1)

– If not set (0), Type-1 ext metric (E1): cumulative as the route
gets propagated through the domain (more than one ASBR)
• Seed metric + cost to ASBR

– If set (1), Type-2 ext metric (E2): same throughout the domain
(only one ASBR)
• Seed metric

32
 OSPFv3 – RFC5340
• To carry IPv6 in OSPF
– Router ID, Area ID and link state ID still 32-bit

– OSPFv3 uses link-local address for adjacency

• All OSPFv3 packets are sourced using link-local

– LSUs are sent to the IPv6 multicast

• FF02::5 (all OSPF routers) and FF02::6 (DR/BDR)

33
 OSPFv3 – New LSAs
• Type-8 (Link LSA)
– Advertise local router’s link-local to other routers on the link,
and list of v6 prefixes associated with link
– Not flooded beyond the link (link-scope)
– Link state ID is the interface ID on the link

• Type-9 (Intra-Area-Prefix LSA)

– Either advertises v6 prefixes associated
• With a router (directly connected interfaces) – references Router/Type-1
LSA, OR
• With a broadcast segment (Network/Type-2 LSA)
– Flooded within the area (area-scope)

34
 OSPFv3 – Renamed LSAs
• Type-3 (Inter-Area-Prefix LSA)
– Equivalent to Type-3 summary LSA in OSPFv2
• Describes routes to v6 prefixes within an area

– Originated by ABR
• Generates a Type-3 for each IPv6 prefix

– Flood to the backbone for propagation to other areas

• Type-4 Summary (Inter-Area-Router LSA)

– Equivalent to Type-4 summary (ASBR) in OSPFv2
• Route(s) to ASBR
– Originated by ABR

35
 Passive interface
• When OSPF is configured/enabled on an interface
(or for a subnet)
– router will try to discover neighbors on that interface/within
the subnet
– We can disable sending OSPF packets on those interfaces
where we know there will be no neighbors
• While still advertising the network in OSPF

IOS:
IOS:
ipv6 router ospf <process-id>
ipv6 router ospf <process-id>
router ospf <process-id>
router ospf <process-id>
passive-interface default
passive-interface <interface-id>
no passive-interface <interface-id>

Junos:
set protocols ospf/3 area <area-id> interface <int-id> passive

36
37