Networks Security Interview Question:

What is OSPF protocol

Submitted by: Administrator

(a) OSPF has two primary characteristics. The first is that the protocol is open, which means that its specification is in the public domain. The OSPF specification is published as Request For Comments (RFC) 1247.

The second principal characteristic is that OSPF is based on the SPF algorithm, which sometimes is referred to as the Dijkstra algorithm, named for the person credited with its creation.

(b)OSPF is a link-state routing protocol that calls for the sending of link-state advertisements (LSAs) to all other routers within the same hierarchical area. Information on attached interfaces, metrics used, and other variables is included in OSPF LSAs. As OSPF routers accumulate link-state information, they use the SPF algorithm to calculate the shortest path to each node.

Ospf: Open Shortest Path First.
It Uses SPF(Dijkstra) algorithm and selects the Loopfree path. It is a purely classless Routing protocol(ie sends mask along with the ip address)
It supports SLSM, VLSM, Discontinuous Networks. and the hope count is Unlimited. It is Having Complex Configuration Including Area, Process id, Wild card mask. The metric used is bandwidth(10raise to8/Bandwidth). Administrative Distance is 110
Submitted by: Administrator