Pee-Wee OSPF Protocol Details
Protocol Overview:
PWOSPF is a greatly simplified link state routing protocol based on OSPFv2
(rfc 1247). Like OSPFv2, routers participating in a PWOSPF topology
periodically broadcast HELLO packets to discover and maintain a list of
neighbors. Whenever a change in a link status is detected (for example the
addition or deletion of a router to the topology) or a timeout occurs, each
router floods its view of the network throughout the topology so that each
router has a complete database of the network connectivity. Djikstra's
algorithm is used by each router independently to determine the next
hop in the forwarding table to all advertised routes.
Data Structures:
PWOSPF Router:
Like OSPF, PWOSPF operates within an "area" of routers, defined by a 32 bit
value. A router can only participate in one area at a time. Each router in
an area must have a unique 32 bit router ID. By convention, the IP address
of the 0th interface is used as the router ID. 0 and 0xffffffff are invalid
router IDs and can be used internally to mark uninitialized router ID fields.
Each router must therefore define the following values:
32 bit router ID
32 bit area ID
16 bit lsuint - interval in seconds between link state update broadcasts
List of router interfaces
PWOSPF Interface:
The interface is a key abstraction in PWOSPF for logically decomposing the
topology. Interfaces between neighboring routers are connected by links which
must have an associated subnet and mask. All links are assumed to be
bi-directional. Note you must support multiple routers connected to a
single interface, ie. via a hub or switch.
An interface within a pwospf router is defined by the following values:
32 bit ip address - IP address of associated interface
32 bit mask mask - subnet mask of associated interface
16 bit helloint - interval in seconds between HELLO broadcasts
list [
32 bit neighbor id - ID of neighboring router.
32 bit neighbor ip - IP address of neighboring router's interface this
interface is directly connected to.
]
PWOSPF Hello Protocol:
To discover and maintain the state of available links, a router participating
in a PWOSPF topology periodically listens for and broadcasts HELLO packets.
HELLO packets are broadcasted every helloint seconds with a destination
address of ALLSPFRouters that is defined as "224.0.0.5" (0xe0000005). This
implies that all participating routers must be configured to receive and
process packets sent to ALLSPFRouters. On receipt of a HELLO packet a router
may do one of three things. If the packet is invalid or corrupt the router
will drop and ignore the packet and optionally log the error. If the packet
is from a yet to be identified neighbor and no other neighbors have been
discovered off of the incoming interface, the router will add the neighbor to
the interface. If the packet is from a known neighbor, the router will mark
the time the packet was received to track the uptime of its neighbor. The
set of links of routers to neighbors provides the basic connectivity
information for the full topology.
PWOSPF routers use HELLO packets to monitor the status of a neighboring
router. If a neighboring router does not emit a HELLO packet within
NEIGHBOR_TIMEOUT seconds (three times the neighbor's HelloInt) of the last HELLO received,
the router is assumed down, removed from the interface and a link state
update flood is initiated. Note that ONLY HELLO packets are used to
determine link status. Even in the case where the router is actively routing
packets and generating link state update packets, if no HELLO packets are
generated it will be considered disconnected from the topology.
PWOSPF Link State Updates:
Global network connectivity is obtained by each router through link state
updates in which local link connectivity information is flooded throughout
the area by each router. Link state updates are sent periodically every
LSUINT seconds (default value of 30) and whenever a change in link status is
detected. If a link state change initiates a links state update, the lsuint
counter is reset to wait another LSUINT seconds before triggering another
flood.
The link state advertisements generated by each router lists the subnets of
each of the router's interfaces and all neighboring routers. Link state
updates operate via a simple sequenced, unacknowledged flooding scheme in
which received packets are flooded to all neighbors except the neighbor from
whom the packet was received. Generated packets are flooded to all
neighbors (they should be addressed directly to each neighbor - i.e., do not
send them to the special ALLSPFRouters address). LSU packets are used to build
and maintain the network topology database at each router. If the LSU packet does not
advertise a change in the state of the topology as is already reflected in the database it is
discarded and the sequence number is updated. Otherwise, the information is used to update
the database and the router's forwarding tables are recalculated using Djikstra's algorithm.
A gateway router may advertise an additional default subnet for an interface
that is connected to a separate network. In the typical case, this interface
will be the networks link to the Internet and will advertise a default subnet
of 0.0.0.0. All traffic not destined to a subnet on the PWOSPF network will
be routed to this as a gateway to the Internet.
The Topology Database
Every router in a PWOSPF area maintains a full representation of the area,
network topology. This topology database is used to calculate the next hop
for each destination in the network. A typical implementation of the
topology database will contain an adjacency list of all the routers in the
network as well as the subnets associated with each link. Djikstra's
algorithm is used on the adjacency list to determine the best, next hop for
each router. The forwarding table is then built using the advertised routes
from each router and the next hop to those routers as determined by
Djikstra.
If there are discrepancies in advertisements from two different hosts about
the same link, the link is assumed invalid and not added to the database.
This may happen in the following cases:
- Host A advertises that it is connected to subnet with mask 255.255.255.0
and neighbor B. Host B does not advertise that A is a neighbor.
- Host A advertises that it is connected to subnet with mask 255.255.255.0
and neighbor B. Host B advertises it is connected to a subnet with mask
255.255.255.240 with neighbor A.
In both of these cases the link should not be added to the advertised
database.
Each entry in the database is time-stamped with the last time an LSU for
the associated router was received. If an LSU is not received from the
host within LSU_TIMEOUT seconds (three times LSUINT) from the last, the entry
is invalidated and removed from the database.
Handling Incoming PWOSPF Packets
Each host participating in a PWOSPF topology must check the following values
on incoming pwospf packets:
o The version number field must specify protocol version 2.
o The 16-bit checksum on the PWOSPF packet's contents must be
verified. (the 64-bit authentication field must be excluded
from the checksum calculation)
o The area ID found in the PWOSPF header must match the Area ID
of the receiving router.
o The Authentication type specified must match the authentication type
of the receiving router.
PWOSPF does not support authentication, however it is our plan to progress
towards OSPFv2 compatibility. For this reason, we are using the full OSPFv2
header format which contains both an Authtication type and data field. These
fields should be set to 0 for all valid PWOSPF packets.
Handling Incoming HELLO Packets
This section explains the detailed processing of a received Hello packet.
The generic input processing of PWOSPF packets will have checked the
validity of the IP header and the PWOSPF packet header. Next, the values of
the Network Mask and HelloInt fields in the received Hello packet must be
checked against the values configured for the receiving interface. Any
mismatch causes processing to stop and the packet to be dropped. In other
words, the above fields are really describing the attached network's
configuration.
At this point, an attempt is made to match the source of the Hello Packet to
one of the receiving interface's neighbors. If the receiving interface is
a multi-access network (either broadcast or non-broadcast) the source is
identified by the IP source address found in the Hello's IP header. The
interface's current neighbor(s) are contained in the interface's data
structure. If the interface does not have a neighbor, a neighbor is created.
If the interface already has neighbor(s) but none match the IP of the
incoming packet, a new neighbor is added. Finally, if the HELLO packet matches
a current neighbor, the neighbor's "last hello packet received" timer is
updated.
Handling Incoming LSU Packets
Each received LSU packet must go through the following handling procedure.
If the LSU was originally generated by the incoming router, the packet is
dropped. If the sequence number matches that of the last packet received
from the sending host, the packet is dropped. If the packet contents are
equivalent to the contents of the packet last received from the sending host,
the host's database entry is updated and the packet is ignored. If the LSU
is from a host not currently in the database, the packets contents are used
to update the database and Djikstra's algorithm is used to recompute the
forwarding table. Finally, if the LSU data is for a host currently in the
database but the information has changed, the LSU is used to update the
database, and Djikstra's algorithm is run to recompute the forwarding table.
All received packets with new sequence numbers are flooded to all neighbors
but the incoming neighbor of the packet. The TTL header is only checked
in the forwarding stage and should not be considered when handling the packet
locally. The TTL field of all flooded packets must be decremented before
exiting the router. If the field after decrement is zero or less, the packet
must not be flooded.
PWOSPF IP Packets
PWOSPF are expected to be encapsulated IPv4 packets with IP protocol number
89 (the same as OSPFv2). OSPF HELLO packets are sent to destination IP
address ALLSPFRouters which is defined as "224.0.0.5" (0xe0000005). All LSU
packets are sent point to point using the IP address of the neighboring
interface as the destination.
PWOSPF Packet Header Format
All PWOSPF packets are encapsulated in a common header that is identical to
the OSPFv2 header. Using the OSPFv2 header will allow PWOSPF to converge on
OSPF compliance in the future and is recognized by protocol analyzers such
as ethereal which can greatly aid in debugging. The PWOSPF header is as
follows:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Version # | Type | Packet length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Router ID |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Area ID |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Checksum | Autype |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Authentication |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Authentication |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Version #
The PWOSPF/OSPF version number. This specification documents version 2 of
the protocol.
Type
The OSPF packet types are as follows. The format of each of these
packet types is described in a succeeding section.
Type Description
________________________________
1 Hello
4 Link State Update
Packet length
The length of the protocol packet in bytes. This length includes
the standard OSPF header.
Router ID
The Router ID of the packet's source. In OSPF, the source and
destination of a routing protocol packet are the two ends of an
(potential) adjacency.
Area ID
A 32 bit number identifying the area that this packet belongs to.
All OSPF packets are associated with a single area. Most travel a
single hop only.
Checksum
The standard IP checksum of the entire contents of the packet,
excluding the 64-bit authentication field. This checksum is
calculated as the 16-bit one's complement of the one's complement
sum of all the 16-bit words in the packet, excepting the
authentication field. If the packet's length is not an integral
number of 16-bit words, the packet is padded with a byte of zero
before checksumming.
AuType
Set to zero in PWOSPF
Authentication
Set to zero in PWOSPF
HELLO Packet Format
Hello packets are PWOSPF packet type 1. These packets are sent periodically
on all interfaces in order to establish and maintain neighbor relationships.
In addition, Hellos broadcast enabling dynamic discovery of neighboring
routers.
All routers connected to a common network must agree on certain parameters
(network mask and helloint). These parameters are included in Hello packets,
so that differences can inhibit the forming of neighbor relationships. A
full HELLO packet with PWOSPF header is as follows:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Version # | 1 | Packet length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Router ID |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Area ID |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Checksum | Autype |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Authentication |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Authentication |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Network Mask |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| HelloInt | padding |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Network mask
The network mask associated with this interface. For example, if
the interface is to a class B network whose third byte is used for
subnetting, the network mask is 0xffffff00.
HelloInt
The number of seconds between this router's Hello packets.
LSU Packet Format
LSU packets implement the flooding of link states and are used to build and
maintain the network topology database at each router. Each link state
update packet carries a collection of link state advertisements on hop
further from its origin. Several link state advertisements may be included
in a single packet. A link state packet with full PWOSF header looks as
follows:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Version # | 4 | Packet length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Router ID |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Area ID |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Checksum | Autype |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Authentication |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Authentication |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Sequence | TTL |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| # advertisements |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
+- +-+
| Link state advertisements |
+- +-+
| ... |
Sequence
Unique sequence number associated with each Link State Updated.
Incremented by the LSU source for each subsequence updated. Duplicate
LSU packets are dropped by the receiver.
TTL
Hop limited value decremented each time the packet is forwarded. The
TTL value is only considered during packet forwarding and not during
packet reception.
# of advertisements
Total number of link state advertisements contained in the packet
Link state advertisements
Each link state update packet should contain 1 or more link state
advertisements. The advertisements are the reachable routes directly
connected to the advertising router. Routes are in the form of the subnet,
mask and router neighor for the attached link. Link state advertisements
look specifically as follows:
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Subnet |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Mask |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Router ID |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
subnet
Subnet number of the advertised route. Note that default routes
will have a subnet value of 0.0.0.0.
Mask
Subnet mask of the advertised route
Router ID
ID of the neighboring router on the advertised link. If there is no
connected router to the link the RID should be set to 0.
Example:
In the below topology with subnet 192.168.128 using IP addresses
allocated as showing (xxx is intended to be 192.168.128).
xxx.1 xxx.2 xxx.4 xxx.5 xxx.8 xxx.9
[Internet]-[FW]---------------- A ------------------ B ------- <endhost>
Assuming FW is not participating in the PWOSPF area.
A could advertise the following routes
1. (subnet between A and the firewall)
Subnet 192.168.128.0
Mask 255.255.255.252
RID 0
2. (default route to the Internet)
Subnet 0.0.0.0
Mask 0.0.0.0
RID 0.0.0.0
3. (link shared with B
Subnet 192.168.128.4
Mask 255.255.255.254
RID 192.168.128.5 (B's router ID)
B could advertise the following routes
1. (link shared with A)
Subnet 192.168.128.4
Mask 255.255.255.254
RID 192.168.128.4 (A's router ID)
2. (Link to end host)
Subnet 192.168.128.8
Mask 255.255.255.254
RID 0.0.0.0 (no attached PWOSPF router)
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