Networking · Routing & Switching
OSPF
A link state interior gateway protocol that floods topology information within areas and computes shortest paths using Dijkstra's algorithm.
IntermediateUpdated 2026-09-01
Overview
OSPF routers build an identical link state database per area, then independently calculate a shortest path tree. Areas limit flooding scope; all areas attach to area 0, the backbone.
It converges quickly and is vendor neutral, which makes it the common choice for campus and data centre interior routing where BGP is unnecessary.