Hi Tom,

From: OSPF <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> on behalf of 
Tom Sanders <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Date: Friday, April 15, 2016 at 8:43 PM
To: OSPF WG List <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Subject: [OSPF] Backbone Area

Hi,

OSPF requires all areas to be connected via the backbone.

Only if the area is connected to any other area.

I wanted to understand why we have this requirement since IS-IS doesnt mandate 
such a thing.

With this respect, I don’t believe IS-IS offers any more flexibility - there 
are only level-1 routers, level-2 routers, and level-1-2 routers in IS-IS.


I understand that all the border routers summarize and inject the summary 
routes inside the backbone. The backbone then does "distance vector routing" 
and injects those summaries to other areas.

How does having a backbone eliminate loops is something that i dont understand. 
Can somebody explain that to me?

An Area Border Router (ABR) will only relay summary advertisements received on 
the backbone area to other areas. ABRs will not relay summary advertisements 
between non-backbone areas. There are strict route preference rules to 
eliminate loops. For example, intra-area routes are always preferred over 
inter-area or external routes irrespective of the cost. The most complex 
preference rules area for external routes reachable through multiple areas. 
Refer to section 16.4 in RFC 2328 for all the gory details. Let me know if you 
have specific questions.

Hope this helps,
Acee




--
Toms.
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