What Do We Mean by Link-States?

What Do We Mean by Link-States?

OSPF is a link-state protocol. We could think of a link as being an interface on the router. The state of the link is a description of that interface and of its relationship to its neighboring routers. A description of the interface would include, for example, the IP address of the interface, the mask, the type of network it is connected to, the routers connected to that network and so on. The collection of all these link-states would form a link-state database.

OSPF LSA in Details

Somedays before (last year), I have published a post about the OSPF LSAs types and definitions. Today I am going to share some more details about the SLAs as which router will generate the which LSAs:

1. 

SLA Name: Router LSA 

Link-State ID: Originating router ID of the router

Generated By: Router LSAs are generated by every router. 

2. 

SLA Name: Network LSA 

Link-State ID: Interface IP address of the DR

Generated By: Network LSAs are generated by the DR on a multi-access segment. They are the representation of the multi-access segment and all the routers attached to the segment. Segments that do not have a DR, such as point-to-point, will not have a network LSA.

3.

SLA Name: Network summary LSA

Link-State ID: Destination network number

Generated By: Network summary LSAs are generated by ABRs. 

4.

SLA Name: ASBR summary LSA

Link-State ID: Router ID of AS boundary router

Generated By: ASBR summary LSAs are also generated by the ABR. This LSA describes the location of an ASBR, not a network. 

5. 

SLA Name: AS external LSA

Link-State ID: External network number

Generated By: Autonomous System (AS) External LSAs are originated by the ASBRs and describe a network outside of the AS.

7. 

SLA Name: NSSA external LSA
Link-State ID: External network number
Generated By: Not-So-Stubby Area (NSSA) external LSAs are originated by the ASBR within the NSSA. These types of LSAs are flooded only throughout the NSSA.

I hope it will very helpful for you!