5. Protocol Data Structures

5. Protocol Data Structures

   The OSPF protocol is described herein in terms of its operation on various protocol data structures. The following list comprises the top-level OSPF data structures. Any initialization that needs to be done is noted. OSPF areas, interfaces and neighbors also have associated data structures that are described later in this specification.

   Router ID A 32-bit number that uniquely identifies this router in the AS. One possible implementation strategy would be to use the smallest IP interface address belonging to the router. If a router's OSPF Router ID is changed, the router's OSPF software should be restarted before the new Router ID takes effect. In this case the router should flush its self-originated LSAs from the routing domain (see Section 14.1) before restarting, or they will persist for up to MaxAge minutes.

   Area structures Each one of the areas to which the router is connected has its own data structure. This data structure describes the working of the basic OSPF algorithm. Remember that each area runs a separate copy of the basic OSPF algorithm.

   Backbone (area) structure The OSPF backbone area is responsible for the dissemination of inter-area routing information.

   Virtual links configured The virtual links configured with this router as one endpoint. In order to have configured virtual links, the router itself must be an area border router. Virtual links are identified by the Router ID of the other endpoint -- which is another area border router. These two endpoint routers must be attached to a common area, called the virtual link's Transit area. Virtual links are part of the backbone, and behave as if they were unnumbered point-to-point networks between the two routers. A virtual link uses the intra-area routing of its Transit area to forward packets. Virtual links are brought up and down through the building of the shortest-path trees for the Transit area.

   List of external routes These are routes to destinations external to the Autonomous System, that have been gained either through direct experience with another routing protocol (such as BGP), or through configuration information, or through a combination of the two (e.g., dynamic external information to be advertised by OSPF with configured metric). Any router having these external routes is called an AS boundary router. These routes are advertised by the router into the OSPF routing domain via AS-external-LSAs.

   List of AS-external-LSAs Part of the link-state database. These have originated from the AS boundary routers. They comprise routes to destinations external to the Autonomous System. Note that, if the router is itself an AS boundary router, some of these AS-external-LSAs have been self-originated.

   The routing table Derived from the link-state database. Each entry in the routing table is indexed by a destination, and contains the destination's cost and a set of paths to use in forwarding packets to the destination. A path is described by its type and next hop. For more information, see Section 11.

   Figure 9 shows the collection of data structures present in a typical router. The router pictured is RT10, from the map in Figure 6. Note that Router RT10 has a virtual link configured to Router RT11, with Area 2 as the link's Transit area. This is indicated by the dashed line in Figure 9. When the virtual link becomes active, through the building of the shortest path tree for Area 2, it becomes an interface to the backbone (see the two backbone interfaces depicted in Figure 9).