OSPF: Anatomy of an Internet Routing Protocol

Preface

Introduction

The Internet is a global communications network. With connections in more than 100 countries, tens of millions of people use the Internet for business, education, and recreation. Electronic commerce is beginning on the Internet as businesses connect to sell their products and services. Academics collaborate over the Internet by exchanging electronic mail. People can converse using Internet phones, send faxes, participate in online chats and bulletin boards, play multiuser games, and experiment with virtual environments.

Special-purpose computers called routers connect the Internet together. As data is forwarded from one place in the Internet to another, it is the routers that make the decisions as to where and how the data is ...