What Is the Difference Between Eigrp and Ospf

What is the difference between EIGRP and OSPF?

· OSPF is able to load balance in equal cost paths, and EIGRP can load balance between unequal cost paths, which is a specialty of EIGRP.

· EIGRP shows characteristics of both link state and distance vector protocol, but OSPF is merely a link state protocol.

· OSPF calculates the metric using cost, but EIGRP uses bandwidth, load, delay and reliability to calculate the metric. Metric is used to select the best route to reach a subnet, and lower metric is also considered to be better.

· As a link state protocol, OSPF converges quicker than EIGRP, also OSPF can be used in larger networks.

· Neighbor relationship is simpler in EIGRP than OSPF topology

OSPF and EIGRP Concepts and Configuration

Things to Remember about Link State Routing

* Link state protocols advertise a large amount of topological information about the network (tells what every metric is for every link in the network)

* Routers must calculate the metric (using Shortest path First Algorithm)

* Routers perform CPU intensive computations on the data.

* Discover neighbors before exchanging information.

* Summary of Distance Vector and Link State

Feature | Link State | Distance Vector |

Convergence Time | Fast | Slow (loop avoidance features) |

Loop avoidance | Built into protocol | Extra features such as route poisoning, split horizon |

Memory/CPU | Can be large; good design can minimize | Low |

Requires design effort for large networks | Yes | No |

Public/Proprietary? | OSPF = public | RIP = public

IGRP = Cisco proprietary |

Balanced Hybrid Routing Protocol/EIGRP Concepts

EIGRP has some features that act like distance vector protocols, and some that act like link-state protocols.

Feature Comparison with IGRP:

Similarities | Differences |

Both Cisco proprietary | EIGRP converges faster |

Same logic for equal-cost paths | EIGRP sends routing info once to neighbor, then again only when update occurs.

IGRP...