Comparing IS-IS and OSPF

ISP Workshops

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Last updated 8th September 2016 1

p Use of these materials is encouraged as long as the source is fully

p Bug fixes and improvements are welcomed

Philip Smith 2
Comparing IS-IS and OSPF
p Both are Link State Routing Protocols using the Dijkstra
SPF Algorithm

p So what’s the difference then?

p And why do ISP engineers end up arguing so much about

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OSPF
p Open Shortest Path First
p Open:
n Meaning an Open Standard
n Developed by IETF (OSPF Working Group) for IP – RFC1247
n Current standard is OSPFv2 (RFC2328)
p Shortest Path First:
n Edsger Dijkstra’s algorithm for producing shortest path tree
through a graph
p Dijkstra, E. W. (1959). “A note on two problems in connexion with
graphs”. Numerische Mathematik 1: 269–271

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IS-IS
p Intermediate System to Intermediate System
p ISO 10589 specifies OSI IS-IS routing protocol for CLNS
traffic
n A Link State protocol with a 2 level hierarchical architecture
n Type/Length/Value (TLV) options to enhance the protocol
p RFC 1195 added IP support
n Integrated IS-IS
n I/IS-IS runs on top of the Data Link Layer

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IS-IS & OSPF:
Similarities
p Both are Interior Gateway Protocols (IGP)
n They distribute routing information between routers belonging
to a single Autonomous System (AS)
p With support for:
n Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)
n Variable Subnet Length Masking (VLSM)
n Authentication
n Multi-path
n IP unnumbered links

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IS-IS and OSPF Terminology
OSPF IS-IS
p Host p End System (ES)
p Router p Intermediate System (IS)
p Link p Circuit
p Packet p Protocol Data Unit (PDU)
p Designated router (DR) p Designated IS (DIS)
p Backup DR (BDR) p N/A (no BDIS is used)
p Link-State Advertisement (LSA) p Link-State PDU (LSP)
p Hello packet p IIH PDU
p Database Description (DBD) p Complete sequence number PDU (CSNP)

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IS-IS and OSPF Terminology (Cont.)
OSPF IS-IS
p Area p Sub domain
p Non-backbone area p Level-1 (station)
p Backbone area p Level-2 (area)
p Area Border Router (ABR) p L1L2 (station & area)
p Autonomous System Boundary p Any IS
Router (ASBR)

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Transport
p OSPF uses IP Protocol 89 as transport

Data Link Header IP Header OSPF Header OSPF Data

p IS-IS is directly encapsulated in Layer 2

Data Link Header IS-IS Header IS-IS Data

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For Service Providers
p Which IGP should an ISP choose?
n Both OSPF and IS-IS use Dijkstra SPF algorithm
n Exhibit same convergence properties
n IS-IS less widely implemented on router platforms
n IS-IS runs on data link layer, OSPF runs on IP layer
p Why do we keep discussing the merits of each IGP?

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For Service Providers
p Biggest ISPs tend to use IS-IS – why?
n In early 1990s, Cisco implementation of IS-IS was much more
stable and reliable than OSPF implementation – ISPs naturally
preferred IS-IS
n Main IS-IS implementations more tuneable than equivalent
OSPF implementations – because biggest ISPs using IS-IS put
more pressure on Cisco to implement “knobs”

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For Service Providers
p Moving forward a decade
n Early Cisco OSPF implementation substantially rewritten
p Now competitive with IS-IS in features and performance
n Router vendors wishing a slice of the core market need an IS-IS
implementation as solid and as flexible as that from Cisco
p Those with IS-IS & OSPF support tend to ensure they exhibit performance
and feature parity

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How to choose an IGP?
p OSPF
n Rigid area design – all networks must have area 0 core, with
sub-areas distributed around
n Suits ISPs with central high speed core network linking regional
PoPs

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How to choose an IGP?
p IS-IS
n Relaxed two level design – L2 routers must be linked through
the backbone
n Suits ISPs with “stringy” networks, diverse infrastructure, etc,
not fitting central core model of OSPF
n More flexible than OSPF, but easier to make mistakes too

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Considerations
p “Security”
n IS-IS runs on link layer
n Not possible to “attack” the IGP using IP as with OSPF
p Not dependent on IP addressing
n IS-IS’s NSAP addressing scheme avoids dependencies on IP as
with OSPF
p “Reliability”
n IS-IS has long been used by the majority of the world’s biggest
ISPs
n Belief that equipment vendors pay more attention to IS-IS
reliability, scalability, and features 15
More considerations
p Migration to IPv6
n Adding IPv6 means OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 in network
p Two protocols, two sets of identical configuration
n IS-IS simply requires the addition of the IPv6 address-family
p Most networks operate single topology for IPv4 and IPv6
n Is this why there is now RFC5838 describing support of multiple
address families in OSPFv3?
p Vendor support?

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Comparing IS-IS and OSPF
ISP Workshops

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