About OSPFv2
OSPFv2 is an IETF link-state protocol (see the Link-State Protocols section) for IPv4 networks. An OSPFv2 router sends a special message, called a hello packet, out each OSPF-enabled interface to discover other OSPFv2 neighbor routers. Once a neighbor is discovered, the two routers compare information in the Hello packet to determine if the routers have compatible configurations. The neighbor routers try to establish adjacency, which means that the routers synchronize their link-state databases to ensure that they have identical OSPFv2 routing information. Adjacent routers share link-state advertisements (LSAs) that include information about the operational state of each link, the cost of the link, and any other neighbor information. The routers then flood these received LSAs out every OSPF-enabled interface so that all OSPFv2 routers eventually have identical link-state databases. When all OSPFv2 routers have identical link-state databases, the network is converged (see the Convergence section). Each router then uses Dijkstra’s Shortest Path First (SPF) algorithm to build its route table.
You can divide OSPFv2 networks into areas. Routers send most LSAs only within one area, which reduces the CPU and memory requirements for an OSPF-enabled router.
OSPFv2 supports IPv4, while OSPFv3 supports IPv6. For more information, see Configuring OSPFv3.
Note |
OSPFv2 on Cisco NX-OS supports RFC 2328. This RFC introduced a different method to calculate route summary costs which is not compatible with the calculation used by RFC1583. RFC 2328 also introduced different selection criteria for AS-external paths. It is important_ to ensure that all routers support the same RFC. RFC. Use the rfc1583compatibility command if your network includes routers that are only compliant with RFC1583. The default supported RFC standard for OSPFv2 may be different for Cisco NX-OS and Cisco IOS. You must make adjustments to set the values identically. See the OSPF RFC Compatibility Mode Example section for more information. |
Hello Packet
OSPFv2 routers periodically send Hello packets on every OSPF-enabled interface. The hello interval determines how frequently the router sends these Hello packets and is configured per interface. OSPFv2 uses Hello packets for the following tasks:
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Neighbor discovery
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Keepalives
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Bidirectional communications
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Designated router election (see the Designated Routers section)
The Hello packet contains information about the originating OSPFv2 interface and router, including the assigned OSPFv2 cost of the link, the hello interval, and optional capabilities of the originating router. An OSPFv2 interface that receives these Hello packets determines if the settings are compatible with the receiving interface settings. Compatible interfaces are considered neighbors and are added to the neighbor table (see the Neighbors section).
Hello packets also include a list of router IDs for the routers that the originating interface has communicated with. If the receiving interface sees its own router ID in this list, bidirectional communication has been established between the two interfaces.
OSPFv2 uses Hello packets as a keepalive message to determine if a neighbor is still communicating. If a router does not receive a Hello packet by the configured dead interval (usually a multiple of the hello interval), then the neighbor is removed from the local neighbor table.
Neighbors
An OSPFv2 interface must have a compatible configuration with a remote interface before the two can be considered neighbors. The two OSPFv2 interfaces must match the following criteria:
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Hello interval
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Dead interval
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Area ID (see the Areas section)
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Authentication
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Optional capabilities
If there is a match, the following information is entered into the neighbor table:
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Neighbor ID—The router ID of the neighbor.
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Priority—Priority of the neighbor. The priority is used for designated router election (see the Designated Routers section).
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State—Indication of whether the neighbor has just been heard from, is in the process of setting up bidirectional communications, is sharing the link-state information, or has achieved full adjacency.
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Dead time—Indication of the time since the last Hello packet was received from this neighbor.
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IP Address—The IP address of the neighbor.
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Designated Router—Indication of whether the neighbor has been declared as the designated router or as the backup designated router (see the Designated Routers section).
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Local interface—The local interface that received the Hello packet for this neighbor.
Adjacency
Not all neighbors establish adjacency. Depending on the network type and designated router establishment, some neighbors become fully adjacent and share LSAs with all their neighbors, while other neighbors do not. For more information, see the Designated Routers section.
Adjacency is established using Database Description (DD) packets, Link State Request (LSR) packets, and Link State Update (LSU) packets in OSPF. The Database Description packet includes just the LSA headers from the link-state database of the neighbor (see the Link-State Database section). The local router compares these headers with its own link-state database and determines which LSAs are new or updated. The local router sends an LSR packet for each LSA that it needs new or updated information on. The neighbor responds with an LSU packet. This exchange continues until both routers have the same link-state information.
Designated Routers
Networks with multiple routers present a unique situation for OSPF. If every router floods the network with LSAs, the same link-state information is sent from multiple sources. Depending on the type of network, OSPFv2 might use a single router, the designated router (DR), to control the LSA floods and represent the network to the rest of the OSPFv2 area (see the Areas section). If the DR fails, OSPFv2 selects a backup designated router (BDR). If the DR fails, OSPFv2 uses the BDR.
Network types are as follows:
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Point-to-point—A network that exists only between two routers. All neighbors on a point-to-point network establish adjacency and there is no DR.
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Broadcast—A network with multiple routers that can communicate over a shared medium that allows broadcast traffic, such as Ethernet. OSPFv2 routers establish a DR and a BDR that controls LSA flooding on the network. OSPFv2 uses the well-known IPv4 multicast addresses 224.0.0.5 and a MAC address of 0100.5300.0005 to communicate with neighbors.
The DR and BDR are selected based on the information in the Hello packet. When an interface sends a Hello packet, it sets the priority field and the DR and BDR field if it knows who the DR and BDR are. The routers follow an election procedure based on which routers declare themselves in the DR and BDR fields and the priority field in the Hello packet. As a final tie breaker, OSPFv2 chooses the highest router IDs as the DR and BDR.
All other routers establish adjacency with the DR and the BDR and use the IPv4 multicast address 224.0.0.6 to send LSA updates to the DR and BDR. The figure below shows this adjacency relationship between all routers and the DR.
DRs are based on a router interface. A router might be the DR for one network and not for another network on a different interface.
Areas
You can limit the CPU and memory requirements that OSPFv2 puts on the routers by dividing an OSPFv2 network into areas. An area is a logical division of routers and links within an OSPFv2 domain that creates separate subdomains. LSA flooding is contained within an area, and the link-state database is limited to links within the area. You can assign an area ID to the interfaces within the defined area. The Area ID is a 32-bit value that you can enter as a number or in dotted decimal notation, such as 10.2.3.1.
Cisco NX-OS always displays the area in dotted decimal notation.
If you define more than one area in an OSPFv2 network, you must also define the backbone area, which has the reserved area ID of 0. If you have more than one area, then one or more routers become area border routers (ABRs). The figure shows how an ABR connects to both the backbone area and at least one other defined area.
The ABR has a separate link-state database for each area to which it connects. The ABR sends Network Summary (type 3) LSAs (see the Route Summarization section) from one connected area to the backbone area. The backbone area sends summarized information about one area to another area. In the OSPFv2 Areas Figure, Area 0 sends summarized information about Area 5 to Area 3.
OSPFv2 defines one other router type: the autonomous system boundary router (ASBR). This router connects an OSPFv2 area to another autonomous system. An autonomous system is a network controlled by a single technical administration entity. OSPFv2 can redistribute its routing information into another autonomous system or receive redistributed routes from another autonomous system. For more information, see the Advanced Features section.
Link-State Advertisements
OSPFv2 uses link-state advertisements (LSAs) to build its routing table.
Link-State Advertisement Types
OSPFv2 uses link-state advertisements (LSAs) to build its routing table.
The table shows the LSA types supported by Cisco NX-OS.
Type |
Name |
Description |
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1 |
Router LSA |
LSA sent by every router. This LSA includes the state and the cost of all links and a list of all OSPFv2 neighbors on the link. Router LSAs trigger an SPF recalculation. Router LSAs are flooded to local OSPFv2 area. |
2 |
Network LSA |
LSA sent by the DR. This LSA lists all routers in the multi-access network. Network LSAs trigger an SPF recalculation. See the Designated Routers section. |
3 |
Network Summary LSA |
LSA sent by the area border router to an external area for each destination in the local area. This LSA includes the link cost from the area border router to the local destination. See the Areas section. |
4 |
ASBR Summary LSA |
LSA sent by the area border router to an external area. This LSA advertises the link cost to the ASBR only. See the Areas section. |
5 |
AS External LSA |
LSA generated by the ASBR. This LSA includes the link cost to an external autonomous system destination. AS External LSAs are flooded throughout the autonomous system. See the Areas section. |
7 |
NSSA External LSA |
LSA generated by the ASBR within a not-so-stubby area (NSSA). This LSA includes the link cost to an external autonomous system destination. NSSA External LSAs are flooded only within the local NSSA. See the Areas section. |
9–11 |
Opaque LSAs |
LSA used to extend OSPF. See the Opaque LSAs section. |
Link Cost
Each OSPFv2 interface is assigned a link cost. The cost is an arbitrary number. By default, Cisco NX-OS assigns a cost that is the configured reference bandwidth divided by the interface bandwidth. By default, the reference bandwidth is 40 Gb/s. The link cost is carried in the LSA updates for each link.
Flooding and LSA Group Pacing
When an OSPFv2 router receives an LSA, it forwards that LSA out every OSPF-enabled interface, flooding the OSPFv2 area with this information. This LSA flooding guarantees that all routers in the network have identical routing information. LSA flooding depends on the OSPFv2 area configuration (see the Areas section). The LSAs are flooded based on the link-state refresh time (every 30 minutes by default). Each LSA has its own link-state refresh time.
You can control the flooding rate of LSA updates in your network by using the LSA group pacing feature. LSA group pacing can reduce high CPU or buffer usage. This feature groups LSAs with similar link-state refresh times to allow OSPFv2 to pack multiple LSAs into an OSPFv2 Update message.
By default, LSAs with link-state refresh times within 10 seconds of each other are grouped together. You should lower this value for large link-state databases or raise it for smaller databases to optimize the OSPFv2 load on your network.
Link-State Database
Each router maintains a link-state database for the OSPFv2 network. This database contains all the collected LSAs, and includes information on all the routes through the network. OSPFv2 uses this information to calculate the bast path to each destination and populates the routing table with these best paths.
LSAs are removed from the link-state database if no LSA update has been received within a set interval, called the MaxAge. Routers flood a repeat of the LSA every 30 minutes to prevent accurate link-state information from being aged out. Cisco NX-OS supports the LSA grouping feature to prevent all LSAs from refreshing at the same time. For more information, see the Flooding and LSA Group Pacing section.
Opaque LSAs
Opaque LSAs allow you to extend OSPF functionality. Opaque LSAs consist of a standard LSA header followed by application-specific information. This information might be used by OSPFv2 or by other applications. OSPFv2 uses Opaque LSAs to support OSPFv2 Graceful Restart capability (see the High Availability and Graceful Restart section). Three Opaque LSA types are defined as follows:
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LSA type 9—Flooded to the local network.
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LSA type 10—Flooded to the local area.
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LSA type 11—Flooded to the local autonomous system.