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.

OSPF Packet Types

This is how it will look when we deep dive into the packet itself.

 

Below are the five types of Packets in detail & description of each field in them:

Type1. Hello packet
Type2. DBD (Database Descriptor)
Type3. LSR (Link State Request)
Type4. LSU (Link State Update)
Type5. LSAck (Link State Acknowledgment)

 

Below is the detailed Explanation on each type of packet:

OSPF Type1 Message / Hello Packet

OSPF Type2 Message / DBD Packet (Database Descriptor)

OSPF Type3 Message / LSR Packet (Link State Request)

OSPF Type4 Message / LSU Packet (Link State Update)

OSPF Type5 Message / LSAck Packet (Link State Acknowledgment)

 

Written by 

Waqas Karim is a seasoned Network Expert … Geek. He is the founder of ATech. ATech was started for learning & sharing. Over time the platform has grown to include other resources which continue to attract fellow networkers. Today it sees upward trend of a hundred thousand visitors per month, scattered all over the globe. His specialty is networking, but his interest & expertise spans from traditional IT to Network Security including Programming, Virtualization, Service Provider & so on... no matter the badge on the box. He is CCIE Certified (CCIE#56732) in addition to below badges: Telecom Engineer (BE) + CCIE-RS (CCIE#56732) + Huawei Certified (HW#706632) + MBA Microsoft Certified MCITP, MCSE#109*26, CCNP-Sec, CCNP-SP, CCNA-DC, CompTIA Security+, Nokia NRS-I, JNCIA, ITIL Certified (ITIL#*6373), CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker).

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Winthrop
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Winthrop

Good work!!!

Bey Praise
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Bey Praise

Nice one

Yoo Urwin
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Yoo Urwin

I am looking more into the OSPF Hello type of packet. Plz if you can explain it.

Torrow Fill
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Torrow Fill

Nice post but it would have been great if you could explain each type of packet a little bit …

Truman Afai
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Truman Afai

Nice & concise post

Sean Heav
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Sean Heav

I was browsing through your OSPF articles. Nice set of articles!