Configuration Guide User guide

1230 FastIron Configuration Guide
53-1002494-01
OSPF overview
When only one router on the network claims the DR role despite neighboring routers with higher
priorities or router IDs, this router remains the DR. This is also true for BDRs.
The DR and BDR election process is performed when one of the following events occurs:
• An interface is in a waiting state and the wait time expires
• An interface is in a waiting state and a hello packet is received that addresses the BDR
• A change in the neighbor state occurs, such as:
- A neighbor state transitions from 2 or higher
- Communication to a neighbor is lost
- A neighbor declares itself to be the DR or BDR for the first time
OSPF RFC 1583 and 2178 compliance
Brocade routers are configured, by default, to be compliant with the RFC 1583 OSPF V2
specification. Brocade routers can also be configured to operate with the latest OSPF standard,
RFC 2178.
NOTE
For details on how to configure the system to operate with the RFC 2178, refer to “Modifying the
OSPF standard compliance setting” on page 1268.
Reduction of equivalent AS External LSAs
An OSPF ASBR uses AS External link advertisements (AS External LSAs) to originate advertisements
of a route to another routing domain, such as a BGP4 or RIP domain. The ASBR advertises the
route to the external domain by flooding AS External LSAs to all the other OSPF routers (except
those inside stub networks) within the local OSPF Autonomous System (AS).
In some cases, multiple ASBRs in an AS can originate equivalent LSAs. The LSAs are equivalent
when they have the same cost, the same next hop, and the same destination. Brocade devices
optimize OSPF by eliminating duplicate AS External LSAs in this case. The Layer 3 Switch with the
lower router ID flushes the duplicate External LSAs from its database and thus does not flood the
duplicate External LSAs into the OSPF AS. AS External LSA reduction therefore reduces the size of
the Layer 3 Switch link state database.
This enhancement implements the portion of RFC 2328 that describes AS External LSA reduction.
This enhancement is enabled by default, requires no configuration, and cannot be disabled.
Figure 161 shows an example of the AS External LSA reduction feature. In this example, Brocade
Layer 3 Switches D and E are OSPF ASBRs, and thus communicate route information between the
OSPF AS, which contains Routers A, B, and C, and another routing domain, which contains Router F.
The other routing domain is running another routing protocol, such as BGP4 or RIP. Routers D, E,
and F, therefore, are each running both OSPF and either BGP4 or RIP.