Link State Routing Protocol


Link State Routing Protocol

(networking, communications)A routing protocol such asOSPF which permits routers to exchange information with oneanother about the reachability of other networks and the costor metric to reach the other networks.

The cost/metric is based on number of hops, link speeds,traffic congestion, and other factors as determined by thenetwork designer. Link state routers use Dijkstra's algorithm to calculate shortest (lowest cost) paths, andnormally update other routers with whom they are connectedonly when their own routing tables change.

Link state routing is an improvement over distance-vector routing protocols such as RIP which normally use only asingle metric (such as hop count) and which exchange all oftheir table information with all other routers on a regularschedule. Link state routing normally requires moreprocessing but less transmission overhead.