IS-IS is a link-state routing protocol, similar to OSPF. If you are looking for Service Provider grade, MPLS Traffic Engineering support, and extendible routing protocol for easier future migration then the only choice is IS-IS.

Commonly used in Service Providers, Datacenter (as an underlay), and some large Enterprise networks.

IS-IS Routing Protocol in Networking

IS-IS works based on TLV format. TLVs provide extensibility to the IS-IS protocol.

IS-IS TLV Codes – Specified in RFC 1195

You don’t need totally different protocol to support new extensions. In IS-IS IPv6, MTR and many other protocols just can be used with additional TLVs.

IS-IS uses a NET (Network Entity Title) address similar to OSPF Router ID.

IP support to IS-IS is added by the IETF after ISO invented it for the CLNS. If IS-IS is used together with IP, it is called Integrated IS-IS.

IS-IS doesn’t require an IP address for the neighborship.

Continue reading

There are commons and differences to the time when it comes to configuring an OSPF routing protocol on a router you manage, based on the router’s manufacturer.

We will take a look at the basic sample of configuring OSPF on Cisco IOS-XE and Juniper’s JunOS operation systems.

OSPF on Cisco IOS-XE

With ios-xe we start configuring OSPF by mentioning the numerical value of the:

OSPF Process ID

And what that does mean is just a number to isolate some hierarchical designs of the OSPF process on the router of cisco.

Does it have to be matched on both the peering ends?, the answer is NO

Does it affect some priorities in some OSPF election processes?, the answer is also NO

Is it that mandatory?, well based on that “OS” it is, but it is not a general OSPF concept?

As it is missing with the other vendors!!

That makes the first line of configuration look like this:

        OERouter1(config)#router OSPF [Process ID]

i.e. “OERouter1(config)#router ospf 10

OSPF Network Advertisement

the later step after getting into the hierarchical mode of OSPF, specifying the process ID as well, is to advertise the networks.

these networks Continue reading

What is OSPF

Language-wise it stands for Open Shortest Path First, and Family wise it belongs to the Link-State Interior Gateway Dynamic Routing Protocols.

done with the CV yet?, OSPF is an open standard internal routing protocol that is supported across all the different vendors manufacturing networking platforms.

In this article, we will review the basics and specs of this protocol, and see its own unique features.

OSPF Neighbor States

As a start, the OSPF routing protocol uses a multicast hello message that is destined to the OSPF Multicast address of 244.0.0.5 seeking any possible other OSPF routers in the area.

This message keeps repeating every 10 seconds by default, and that will be out of the interfaces that announced an OSPF configuration, which depends on how you configured it + the vendor-specific configuration template.

Upon receiving a multicast hello message from another router we already sent it a hello message earlier, and that should be within the dead timer of 40 seconds maximum (by default).

An OSPF neighbor process will start by:

• Init:

  • at the moment of confirmation that a bidirectional multicast hello has initiated

• 2-Way:

  • communication from the 2 parts has successfully occurred

• ExStart:

  • Continue reading

MPLS Multiprotocol Label Switching is one of the most popular and commonly used technologies in today’s Service Provider and Enterprise networks. In this post, we will explain the most fundamental topics about MPLS. After reading this post, you will learn a lot about MPLS, why we should use MPLS to MPLS packet formats, USA cases of MPLS to MPLS advantages and MPLS disadvantages, some recommendations about MPLS books, MPLS training, some basics MPLS questions, and many other things will be covered. Sit tight and let’s enjoy!.

What is MPLS in Networking?

Multiprotocol Label Switching – MPLS, is a networking technology that switch the network traffic using the shortest path based on “labels,” rather than IP destination addresses, to handle forwarding over a private Wide Area Network.

MPLS is a scalable and protocol-independent solution, that can carry Layer 3 IP and Non-IP and Layer 2 traffic, PPP, HDLC, Frame-Relay, Ethernet, all are possible.

MPLS provides transport and can be considered one of the tunneling mechanisms.

MPLS transport protocols as of 2022, are LDP, RSVP, Segment Routing and BGP LU.

An MPLS network is Layer 2.5, meaning it falls between Layer 2 (Data Link) and Layer 3 (Network) of the OSI Continue reading

Multicast PIM SSM – Source Specific Multicast from a design point of view will be explained in this post. The Shortest Path Tree concept, Advantages, and disadvantages of Multicast PIM SSM will be covered as well.

What is Source Specific Multicast – PIM SSM?

PIM is a Multicast Routing Protocol. There are two categories of PIM protocol. PIM Dense mode and PIM Sparse Mode.

PIM Sparse Mode has 3 different modes of deployment. PIM SSM – Source Specific Multicast, PIM ASM – Any Source Multicast, and PIM Bidir – Bidirectional Multicast.

In this post, we will only cover PIM SSM but for the other PIM Sparse mode and PIM Dense mode design and deployment posts, place check Multicast category.

PIM SSM is called Source-Specific because Multicast receivers not only specify the Multicast Group that they are interested in but also they can signal to the network which course they are interested in or they are not interested in.

PIM SSM in the Routing Table

In the routers, we have multicast routing tables. SSM Multicast routing entries in the routers are seen as S, G.

S stands for multicast Source and G is used for multicast Group.

Source information has to Continue reading

BGP Private and Public AS Range: On the internet, we have 2byte AS Numbers and 4 Byte AS Numbers. In this post, we will explain what are the BGP Private and Public AS Range for 2 byte AS and 4 byte AS numbers. Where Private BGP AS number is used and should be used and where Public AS Numbers in BGP is used and should be used. Not just where they should be used but also we will discuss where they shouldn’t be used too.

BGP Private AS Range for 2 Byte AS Numbers

A 2 byte AS number is a 16-bit number. This format provides for 65536 ASNs (0 to 65535). From these ASNs, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) reserved 1,023 of them (64512 to 65534) for private/internal usage.

BGP Private AS Range for 2-byte AS Number is between 64512 to 65535.

So we have 1023 BGP AS Numbers to use in a 2-byte ASN schema. Private AS numbers, similar to the Private IP address range (RFC 1918), should be used internally in the networks.

Not, external networks, such as the Internet. On Internet, in the Global Routing table, which is also known as Default Free Continue reading

BGP LU – BGP Labeled Unicast was defined in RFC 3107. BGP LU is used so commonly in many different network architectures and frameworks. In this post, BGP LU is explained with its use cases.

BGP LU – Labeled Unicast allows BGP to advertise an MPLS Label for the IPv4 and IPv6 Unicast prefixes.

Those who know MPLS may know but let me remind you if an IP prefix is learned via IGP routing protocols such as OSPF and IS-IS, then LDP, RSVP, and Segment Routing can assign an MPLS Label. But if the prefix is learned via BGP, only BGP can assign an MPLS Label. Assigning a label by BGP for the IPv4 or IPv6 Unicast prefix is known as BGP Labeled Unicast.

It is quite easy to understand what is BGP LU but at the beginning of the post, as I said, let’s have a look at its use cases.

BGP LU – RFC 3107 in Inter-AS MPLS VPN

It is used in Inter-AS MPLS VPN Option C, between the ASBRs (Autonomous System Boundary Routers).

In Inter-AS Option C, infrastructure prefixes of ASes are exchanged and for those prefixes, MPLS Label is assigned by BGP. Inter-AS MPLS Continue reading

Unicast Multicast Broadcast Anycast and Incast Traffic Types will be explained in this post. Traffic flow/traffic types are important information that needs to be considered in Network Design, thus understanding each one of them by every IT Engineer is critical and Important for Application requirements, Security, and Performance of the overall system.

In this blog post, Unicast, Multicast, Broadcast, and Anycast traffic types/patterns will be explained with examples and the topologies.

Unicast Traffic Flow

Unicast traffic type is a point-to-point communication type. Usually from a scalability perspective, Unicast is not the desired traffic type. But if there are only two points that communicate with each other, Unicast is an optimal choice.

Multicast Traffic Flow

Point to Multipoint or Multi-Point to Multi-Point Traffic type. If the communication is targeted to a group of recipients, then the Multicast traffic type is more suitable. Multicast source/sender, receivers, and multicast groups are the components of Multicast communication. A classical example is IPTV – IP Television.

One multicast group is assigned for each IPTV channel and only interested receivers get the stream.

Broadcast Traffic Flow

If traffic is sent to everyone, regardless of considering if there is an uninterested receiver, then it is a broadcast Continue reading

MPLS Benefits and Advantages, Network Engineers should understand MPLS. In this post, we will look at what are the benefits of deploying MPLS in the Network, and the advantages of having MPLS-enabled infrastructure.

MPLS is Multi-Protocol Label Switching as you might know already. Multi-Protocol because we can carry many different types of traffic over MPLS.

MPLS is Multi-Protocol Technology

Layer 2 and Layer 3 network traffic Ethernet, Frame Frame-Relay, ATM, TDM different types of traffic was carried over MPLS. Because it provides an abstraction layer for the protocols, it is possible to carry many different types of traffic that couldn’t be possible with other technologies easily.

MPLS is a Scalable Protocol

If we talk about MPLS benefits, probably one of the most important ones would be MPLS Scalability. There is a popular belief that MPLS was invented because the packet processing resource requirement and lookup speed are faster with MPLS, compare to IP destination-based lookup.

Because MPLS is just a switching operation on the Mid-Label Switch Routers – LSR, and MPLS Label is 20 bits long, compared to IP which is 32 bits long with IPv4 and 128 bits long with IPv6, MPLS was considered a better performance protocol, Continue reading

IGP vs BGP is one of the topics every Network Engineer want to learn in their career. In this post, without going into each IGP protocol detail, where and why IGP or BGP is used and should be used will discuss. As usual, we will look at it from a design aspect and understand the reasons for the protocol selection.

IGP vs BGP comparison from a design perspective using a comparison chart

Although I will not explain the above chart in this blog post in detail, I would like to share it for completeness. Also, please note that we compared BGP with each IGP protocol from a design point of view on the website in different blog posts already.

IGP vs. BGP – BGP is the most scalable routing protocol!

When igp vs BGP is compared, the first thing we should understand is that BGP is the most scalable routing protocol and it is used for the Global Internet.

Global Internet, as of 2022, carries almost a million IPv4 Unicast prefixes.

When we talk about IGP scaling, OSPF, IS-IS, or EIGRP, can carry couple of tens of thousand prefixes, and after that, we may start seeing meltdowns, even in well-designed Continue reading

OSPF LSA Types is the first topic you need to understand if you are trying to understand OSPF routing protocol. There are 11 different types of LSA in OSPF and we will look at each one of them, why do we have many different LSA in OSPF, we will discuss the topologies and the examples to make it more clear for everyone.

What is LSA in OSPF?

We should start asking the most fundamental question first about OSPF. What is LSA?. LSA stands for Link State Advertisement and it carries, prefix information, interface cost, if advanced technologies such as Traffic Engineering are enabled, can carry link color information, used bandwidth, available bandwidth, and so on.

When a router receives an LSA, it is stored in the Link State Database (LSDB) of OSPF. Once the LSDBs between the routers are synchronized, OSPF uses the SPF/Dijkstra algorithm to calculate the best path for each destination network.

OSPF LSAs are information about a route that is transported inside OSPF Link State Update (LSU) packets.

We can only have scalable, resilient, fast-converged OSPF design when we understand OSPF LSAs and Area types and their restrictions

Figure -11 Different LSA Types is OSPF v2

OSPF LSA Type Continue reading

New routing protocol to replace BGP is one of the most common questions every good Network Engineer in their career at least a few times encounter. In this post, we will look at some of those thoughts and we will discuss aims to replace BGP were real or not.

LISP as a new routing protocol aims to replace BGP?

Locator and Identity Separation Protocol, RFC 6830, as an experimental RFC, was one of those technologies, many Network Engineers thought of as a replacement for BGP, especially over the Internet.

This was probably one of the biggest myths we have been discussing for years when we discuss Routing protocol to replace BGP, but first thing is, LSIP is not a Routing protocol!.

It is an IP in the IP Encapsulation mechanism, or in other words, a tunneling mechanism, which is mainly used to hide the Internal prefixes from the network core to avoid the control plane state. So, LISP helps for Routing protocol scalability but LISP was never aimed to replace BGP.

In fact, I discussed exactly this point in the below video with Dino Farinacci, who is the inventor of the LISP protocol. Dino runs, www.lispers.net, Continue reading

OSPF Load Balancing is to place multiple next-hops into the Routing and Forwarding table for a given IP destination prefix. In this post, we will look at OSPF Load Balancing, OSPF Load Sharing, OSPF ECMP, OSPF UCMP, where we should use it, where we shouldn’t use it, and what can be dangerous if we have OSPF Load balancing will be explained.

OSPF Equal Cost Load Balancing – OSPF ECMP

What is OSPF Equal Cost Load Balancing let’s have a look at the below topology and let’s try to understand?

In the above topology, the 192.168.0.0/24 network is connected to Router D.

As a link-state routing protocol, OSPF routers in the network would know that the 192.168.0.0/24 subnet is connected to Router D.

And they would run SPF/Dijkstra algorithm to calculate the shortest path to this destination.

In the above topology, Interface costs are shown.

When we look at Router A to 192.168.0.0/24 subnet, we have two paths. A-B-D and A-C-D.

Both of the paths’ total cost is 10+10 = 20.

Thus, Router A can do load balancing for that destination prefix.

When OSPF has two paths, we don’t need to Continue reading

BGP AS Path Prepending or BGP prepend is a common technique for incoming path manipulating. When we want to engineer the traffic coming from another BGP AS to our BGP AS, BGP AS prepending is one of the most common mechanisms. There are cases BGP AS Prepend doesn’t work and shouldn’t be used as well, and in this post, we will look at them too by using the below topology.

In the above topology, we have two BGP Autonomous Systems. AS 200 is Customer BGP AS, and AS 100 is Provider BGP AS.

As a customer, AS 200 wants AS100 to send the traffic over the left path as a Primary path and the right path as a backup path as is depicted in the above topology.

BGP AS Path Prepend

When we want to have Primary and Backup Paths as it is depicted in the above topology. BGP AS Path Prepending technique is used to influence upstream BGP Autonomous Systems’ decision.

BGP Prepend means, adding our BGP AS to the AS-path multiple times. In the above topology, 10.0.10.0/24 network’s BGP AS 200 is advertised with 3 AS prepend. By default when the prefix is advertised to Continue reading

In this post, we will compare EIGRP and OSPF. We will look at some of the important aspects when we compare EIGRP vs OSPF. From scalability, standardization, working on different topologies and many aspects will be compared in this most detailed comparison blog post on the Internet.

We prepared the above comparison chart for EIGRP vs OSPF comparison. We will look at some of those important Comparison criteria from a design point of view.

EIGRP vs OSPF Scalability

OSPF supports two layers of Hiearchicy. OSPF Backbone areas and OSPF Non-backbone areas. EIGRP on the other side supports as many as you want. You can summarize EIGRP prefixes at every hop. This capability provides a scale advantage to EIGRP. In EIGRP, we don’t need an ABR node for summarization for example.

EIGRP vs OSPF in Full Mesh, Ring and Hub and Spoke Topologies

The full mesh may require a lot of logical connections, OSPF with Mesh-group feature can scale but it can be a scaling problem for the EIGRP networks. If we think that in real-life networks, EIGRP is usually used in Hub and Spoke topologies most of the time, expecting EIGRP to run on Full-mesh topologies is not Continue reading

In this post, we will compare BGP and OSPF. We will look at some of the important aspects when we compare BGP vs OSPF. Although OSPF is used as an IGP and BGP is used mainly as an External routing protocol, we will compare from many different design aspects. Also, BGP can be used as an Internal IGP protocol as well and we will take that into consideration as well.

We prepared the above comparison chart for BGP vs OSPF comparison. We will look at some of those important Comparison criteria from a design point of view.

BGP vs OSPF Scalability

One of the biggest reasons we choose BGP, not OSPF is Scalability. BGP is used as a Global Internet routing protocol and as of 2022, the Global routing table size for IPv4 unicast prefixes is around 900 000. So almost a million prefixes we carry over BGP on the Internet.

So, proven scalability for BGP we can say. OSPF usually can carry only a couple of thousands of prefixes, this is one of the reasons, OSPF is used as an Internal dynamic routing protocol, not over the Internet.

BGP vs OSPF in Full Mesh, Ring and Hub and Continue reading

BGP Weight Attribute is used in Cisco routers. In this post, with the below topology, we will look at why the BGP weight attribute is used, why it BGP weight shouldn’t be used, advantages and disadvantages of the BGP weight attribute.

Cisco BGP Weight Attribute

Let’s first define what is BGP Weight attribute. BGP selects the best path based on the BGP path attributes. Weight is considered a very important tie-breaker in BGP’s best-path selection.

When there are two paths to any BGP destination prefix, the BGP Weight attribute is compared before BGP Local Preference and many other BGP Path attributes.

Since this is not BGP’s best path selection post, and assuming you already know the process, please note, Weight attribute is compared before even BGP Local Preference.

But, let’s have a look at the below topology to understand it better.

In the above topology, we want to use the left path for the prefixes in AS1, thus we have a higher BGP Local preference value.

As the BGP Local preference value is exchanged internally between all IBGP neighbors, both left and right routers in AS65000, use the left exit point, which is Local Pref 100 to reach the Continue reading

BGP Interview questions and answers are shared here. In this post, we will look at some of the important BGP questions that are asked in the Interviews and some of the certification exams. You can consider this as a BGP Quiz and test your BGP knowledge.

Which of the below option is the reason to run IBGP? (Choose Two)

A. It is used for the reachability between PE devices in the MPLS network

B. It is used to carry EBGP prefixes inside an Autonomous System

C. It is used with Route Reflectors for the scalability reason in large scale networks

D. It is used to prevent failures outside your network from impacting your internal network operation

Answer: One of the correct answers to this question is to carry EBGP prefixes inside an Autonomous system. IGP is used for the reachability between PE devices in an MPLS network. Option C is valid but not the correct answer, because; the question is asking about the reasons, not the best practices.

Option D is one of the correct answers as well because, with IBGP, the internal network is protected from outside failures by separating the local failure domains.
That’s why; the answers to Continue reading

In this post, some of the frequently asked OSPF questions will be answered. Some of the answers will be from a design point of view and we will try to provide enough justification for the answer. Questions are selected randomly, not based on the order of importance.

How many routers should be placed in one OSPF area?

We don’t give any numerical number as an answer to this question. Depending on the number of routers, links, prefixes, and the topology of the network also depends on the hardware capabilities and the performance of the routers, the number change from Network to network. In some networks, you can place only a couple of hundreds, and in some networks, you can place thousands of Routers in a single OSPF Area.

What command would you use to only see the OSPF routes in the routing table?

On Cisco devices, sh ip route ospf is used to see only the OSPF routes in the routing table.

What will an OSPF router prefer to use first as a router-id?

The first preference for an OSPF router ID is an explicitly configured 32-bit address. This address is not included in the routing table and is not Continue reading

OSPF Areas are used for OSPF Scalability. In this post, we will have a look at many different topics about OSPF Area Types, their usage, limitations, different router types, and so on.

In OSPF, we have in general two different Area Types. OSPF Backbone Area and OSPF Non-Backbone Area.

There are many different OSPF Non-Backbone Area types and we will cover each one of them, their use case, limitations, and benefits in this post.

OSPF Area 0 – OSPF Backbone Area

First of all, Let’s start with Area 0.

It is known as the Backbone area in OSPF and if there are many different areas, non-backbone areas can communicate with each other through OSPF Area 0.

Let’s use the below topology for the rest of the OSPF Area Types discussion.

Figure – OSPF Area Types

In the above topology, OSPF Area 0, which is OSPF Backbone Area, physically connects different OSPF Non-Backbone Areas.

OSPF Router Types in OSPF Area 0 are known as Internal Backbone Routers. We don’t have OSPF LSA restrictions when it comes to OSPF Area 0, all the LSAs are allowed in this OSPF Area, except Type 4 and Type 7. Type 4 LSA is used for Continue reading