OSPF Virtual Links

Virtual Link is a non-Physical connectivity or link. As we know OPSF must be connected with Backbone Area0 but sometime it becomes difficult due to some reasons. So there we required Virtual Links for logical connection to Backbone. Also known as logical link which uses in least cost path connectivity between routers or ABR or backbone/Non-backbone. A virtual link does not have ABR physical Connectivity to Backbone till to configure virtual link between non-backbone area and Backbone. In between two routers, a virtual link can be configured, that have an interface to a single common Transit/Non-backbone area but it can’t Read More …

OSPF Authentication

What is Authentication: Authentication is the mechanism of recognizing the identity of a user. Associating an incoming request with a set of identifying credentials is called Authentication.    The credentials provided are compared to those in the database of the authorized user’s information register on a local operating system or somewhere remote. If the user is on white-list then he/she is allowed the access, otherwise the access is rejected simply.     Types of OSPF Authentication OSPF supports two types of authentication i.e. Plain Text authentication and Message Digest 5 (MD5) authentication. As a message/packet required authentication for both destinations.   Read More …

Yet another difference b/w IS-IS and OSPF

Neighbour is someone who lives nearby, normally in a house or apartment that is next door or, in the case of houses, across the street. Some neighbors are adjacent while some are not. People form friendships with their neighbors, and help them by sharing their information & tasks. Similarly, in Network & routing world there is a difference in neighborship & adjacency. OSPF neighbourship is straightforward while IS-IS needs a bit deeper thought to get it fully. Lets take a closer look at both. For OSPF, in order to form OSPF adjacencies, the following must match on the neighboring routers: Read More …

OSPF Packet Formats

There are different OSPF Packet Types which are used for different purposes. OSPF has five types of Packets. OSPF uses its own protocol and doesn’t use a transport protocol like TCP or UDP. It uses IP Protocol 89. Let us have a detailed look into each type of Packet now. Below is a general view of OSPF Packet. When changing from one type to another in above five categories, just the TYPE & DATA fields are changed. This is how it will look when we deep dive into the packet itself.   Below are the five types of Packets in detail Read More …

OSPF Packet Types

There are different OSPF Packet Types which are used for different purposes. We know that OSPF routers need to perform different duties in order to route traffic. e.g. establish and maintain adjacencies, send and receive requests, ensure reliable delivery of Link State advertisements (LSAs) between neighbors and to describe Link State Databases. All these duties are performed using messages/Packets. Only one type of message/packet cannot perform all these duties. So, different types of messages/Packets are needed. OSPF has five types of Packets in total which are listed in below. Each type of packet has its own duties to perform. All these Read More …