Cisco ROUTE 1.0: The OSPF Routing Protocol

Course details

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is one of the most commonly used IP routing protocols in today's networks. It is an open standard that is used by both enterprise and service provider networks. OSPF has several functions and five packet types to enable all OSPF information flow between routers. OSPF areas may be made up of different types of network links and it is vital that you know which ones are being used in order to properly configure OSPF. It is equally important to note that OSPF pays special attention to different network types, such as point-to-point and broadcast networks, and that the OSPF default settings do not always work properly with some network topologies. This course introduces each of the major characteristics of the OSPF routing protocol, including a description of link-state routing protocols, the OSPF hierarchical structure, link-state adjacencies, and Shortest Path First (SPF) calculations. The creation of the implementation plan, the first step in configuring the OSPF routing protocol, is also described. The course will define each packet type and explain where and how these packets interact to build OSPF neighbor adjacencies and maintain the OSPF topology database. Each OSPF network type, how the adjacencies are formed for these OSPF network types, and how link-state advertisements (LSAs) are flooded on each are also covered.

• identify the features of OSPF
• recognize how OSPF maintains link-state sequence numbers
• plan for OSPF implementation
• identify the packet types used in OSPF operations
• recognize how information flows between routers to establish and maintain OSPF links
• recognize how adjacencies are formed in OSPF networks
• identify the mechanisms used to elect DRs and BDRs in OSPF networks
• configure OSPF over Frame Relay implementations
• implement OSPF over a point-to-point Frame Relay network
• implement OSPF over a point-to-multipoint Frame Relay network
• configure a point-to-multipoint topology in an OSPF over Frame Relay network